TG crime title

When looking at mod covers at this site, I found myself really liking the "crime" stories, like femur's "Judgment Day" and "Triple Cross". I also found it easier to come up with crime stories than romance stories for mod covers.

Instead of mucking up AF with a lot of crime stories, though, I decided to group them under an independent title. "Body Crime" is kind of a vanilla name, but maybe if you squinch your brain a little you can pretend it has a Philip K. Dick vibe. Eight of the nearly 40 covers I've made:

First issue! c. 1938	Coulda been AF	Very unsexy	1950s scaremongering
Old West style	Classic noir	Neo noir; 1980s redesign	Retro-horror

I think Body Crime is a great idea! Is it an open universe?

These are all good covers, with a nice eye for period design. I especially like Double Trouble. I'm surprised though, that the CCA approved Some Assembly Required. ;)

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "open universe." If you mean "Can anyone play in it?" I say "Absolutely and please!" If you mean "Are there rules?" like there are rules on AF and the medallion, well ... um ... scratches ear ...

I did wind up making some guidelines for myself, on the principle that ideas bounce harder when there's a surface to bounce off of. But I also purposefully wrote them with a hole so big that in practice there ARE no rules. So, technically, there are rules; but in practice, anything goes.

Does that sound like a total contradiction? Well, I suppose if anyone were interested in what those guidelines are, I could supply them ...

Some Assembly Required: Well, judging by the issue number, that came out sometime in the late 80s. But perhaps the phrase "asleep at the wheel" (and maybe even "ravished in its sleep") would apply to the CCA in connection to that particular issue ... :p

Oh, as long as you're mentioning "Double Trouble": I hope no one minds if I try dislocating my shoulder by patting my own back on the touch-up job on that image. Lotta work, but FUN to do:

Double Trouble original

These are fantastic! Very original! I especially love the idea of crooks stealing bodies like they would any other kind of "swag", and also the idea of teenage body-swapping as a regular date event. What "base" would that be? (As in "getting to second base", etc.) Maybe it's like running the bases backwards! (and in high heels)

Keep up the great work!

Amanda

great idea and well done covers. Please post the others. My favorites were "Could have AF" & Neo Noir" & first issue

Okay, I'll post a few a day, so people will have a reason to come back. :)

A few notes:

"Sex Change": If someone can suggest a different name for a sex-changing chemical than "Gen-X," I'm all ears.

"Dressed to Kill": Interesting that in "Body Crime" the corpses bleed raspberry jelly ...

"Bride and Bridesmaid": And you thought the last wedding you attended degenerated into a catfight ...

20 Seconds to Sex Change

Dressed to Kill

Bride and Bridesmaid

Three more great covers! The quality of all these just blows me away. I am a fan! I like "Bride and Bridesmaid" and also the idea of a sex change bomb. The blonde is gorgeous. (One possible chemical name is simply "X-Gen". Another is "XX -> XY", or whichever way round it should be.)

One problem with "20 Seconds" is that the victim is already a woman, yet the bomb hasn't gone off yet. Or is she about to be turned into a man? (If so, yuck! What a step down!) It's a great cover, but a bit confusing...

Amanda

Bride And Bridesmaid is excellent! Is that a dagger the bride is tucking in her garter?

Thanks Seuzz for posting more of you excellent work

on drug name - how about the Venus Virus .
20 second sex change, LOL!

Dresed to kill, Great use of pic & story. I llove it thaat 'She' calls 'him
Scott' instinctively. Excellent Touch!

Bride & Bridesmaid, great story! & LOL! - so many things can go wrong. An agent swapping bodies with a woman for security reasons kind of reminds me of my Story Missing Congeniality on Fictionmania

XX -> XY

Excellent suggestion! Thanks! I had assumed it would be clear the bomb would change her into a man -- hence the panic on the lovely girl's face, since, as you point out it, would be a step down. "XX -> XY" would help clarify that, though. Thanks for noting the potential confusion, and for giving me a way to help fix it.

"Bride and Bridesmaid": I think that's a dagger, but I'm really not sure. So it's a relief to see someone else also interpret it that way. The original "Brenda Starr" cover doesn't make any sense to me; in it, the redhead in the foreground is saying "I thought champagne was for weddings ... not poison." I have no idea what she's supposed to mean by that. You're supposed to have champagne, not poison, at weddings? Champagne should be poured at weddings, but you're not supposed to mix it with poison? I guess both are true, but talk about a clunky way of expressing yourself. Also, where in the picture is this poison of which she speaks?

Three more covers:

"Guys in Dolls": Impossibly baroque plot? Check. Crazy-ass faux-Irish mobster dialect? Check. Incredibly dishy, red-headed TG female? Check and mate!

"Vinnie Vitti Vici": I love Charles Biro's artwork. There's always something deeply wrong in his pictures. In this one, for instance, he has "Vinnie" slapping the girl so hard her makeup flies off. Then Biro quietly gives the guy a glass to hold, so you can figure out the image's logic after you've gotten good and aroused by its sadism.

I thought about making the girl's name "Vicky" so that the title could be "Vinnie Vitti Vicky," but I worried that was too many V-names that themselves look too much alike. "Val" is bad enough, but at least it's nice and short.

"The Face That Launched 1000 Capers": "Gance" was originally "Simpson," but that seemed a joke too far.

Guys in Dolls

Vinnie Vitti Vici

The Face That Launched 1000 Capers

"Bride and Bridesmaid": I think that's a dagger, but I'm really not sure. So it's a relief to see someone else also interpret it that way. The original "Brenda Starr" cover doesn't make any sense to me; in it, the redhead in the foreground is saying "I thought champagne was for weddings ... not poison." I have no idea what she's supposed to mean by that. You're supposed to have champagne, not poison, at weddings? Champagne should be poured at weddings, but you're not supposed to mix it with poison? I guess both are true, but talk about a clunky way of expressing yourself. Also, where in the picture is this poison of which she speaks?

I suppose then that it is supposed to be a long, slim vial* of poison in the bride's hand, rather than the handle of a dagger, but that would work just as well for the cross-dressed assassin. Frankly I think a floor-length gown would make it difficult to reach anything hidden in a garter without *ahem* attracting attention.

* Acme Vials; Wile E. Coyote's glass supplier of choice.

Thanks the last 3.
Guys in dolls, LOL
Vici, funny & weird
Face - good story& use of pic

eric

Another great set, Seuzz. My fav is "1000 Capers".

I toldja I had a lot of these. ;)

"Quick Change Artist": I am haunted by the feeling that I have seen this exact same cover given this exact same subversive treatment somewhere else. Is that because the joke is so obvious? Or because I have seen it elsewhere, forgotten it, and then unwittingly stolen it?

"Gay Gangster": Yes, I know that technically that should be "Ivana Denisovna" (or something like that), but pedantry is the enemy of humor. As for the main cover?well, let's just observe that it doubles down on the genre subversion.

"A Leg Up for Limpy": Ghastly misplaced word balloons; no matter how you arrange the dialogue, someone will probably read them in the wrong order. Biro's work here is redeemed only by the Buscemi face he's given to "Limpy."

The Quick-Change Artist

Gay Gangster

A Leg Up for Limpy

Thanks, all 3 are clever & LOL!