THREE INVESTIGATORS
HITCHCOCK COVER
PAPERBACKS
Titles #1-6 and #9-30
Like the Marchesi paperbacks, all but two of the Hitchcock Cover books belong to the First Random House Paperback Edition. Titles #1 and #2 were previously published under Random House's Windward Books and so the Marchesi and Hitchcock Cover paperbacks constitute their Second Edition. One can find First Printings (number line reading 1234567890) of each of the Hitchcock Covers EXCEPT for the twelve titles previously issued in 1978 with the Marchesi cover art. The other important thing to note is that titles #7 and #8 were, unfortunately, never published as Hitchcock Covers.
It wasn't until the early 1980's that new cover art was designed for these twelve titles by Adragna and by this time they had each seen up to nine printings in the Marchesi format. Remember, a change in cover art does not mean that a new edition has been created. For example, #10 Moaning Cave, had eight print runs between 1978 and 1983 with the Marchesi cover art. Adragna's art began appearing on Moaning Cave as early as Fall 1983 with the 9th Printing. The only accurate way for me to determine when the change in cover art took place for these twelve titles was to acquire many different printings of the same title.
Moaning Cave, as just described, is one example. Another is Terror Castle which saw nine printings in the Marchesi Cover with the Adragna art appearing on the 10th printing in 1982. We determine the year that the cover art changed from Marchesi to Adragna by the number of titles listed in the book. The 10th printing of Terror Castle lists 34 titles inside therefore we know that this printing was manufactured as early as Fall 1982 but before Fall 1983.
It is interesting to note that all twelve of the Marchesi Covers kept the original black and white Harry Kane internal illustrations from the hardback edition. Likewise, these same twelve titles with the Hitchcock Covers by Adragna still contain the internal illustrations. All other Hitchcock Covers DO NOT contain internal illustrations. This was a practice started in 1979 by Random House to reduce the overall cost of producing this series. Goodbye, Mr. Hitchcock and your fee. Goodbye, 7 pages of illustrations. Now we're a lean, mean, profit-making machine . . . at least in theory!
The paperback Hitchcock Covers were available between the years 1979 - 1984/5. The following is a list containing all of the Hitchcock Covers and the year and approximate order in which each title was first printed in this format. You can view scans of each of the Hitchcock Covers by visiting the Original Series page on this site.
Late Fall 1979 to Late Summer 1980
#29 Sinister Scarecrow
#30 Shark Reef
#4 Green Ghost
#19 Phantom Lake
#20 Monster Mountain
Late Fall 1980 to Late Summer 1981
#2 Stuttering Parrot
#5 Vanishing Treasure
#6 Skeleton Island
#21 Haunted Mirror
#22 Dead Man's Riddle
#24 Death Trap Mine
Late Fall 1981 to Late Summer 1982
The following nine books contain the Bookmark/Mystery Quiz page. This page was definitely available in all First Printings of these titles and in some Second and Third Printings. The bookmark can only be found in these titles printed in this year. Click on Bookmark/Mystery Quiz to find out more.
#13 Crooked Cat
#14 Coughing Dragon
#16 Nervous Lion
#17 Singing Serpent
#23 Invisible Dog
#25 Dancing Devil
#26 Headless Horse
#27 Magic Circle
#28 Deadly Double
Late Fall 1982 to Late Summer 1983
#1 Terror Castle
#3 Whispering Mummy
#9 Screaming Clock
#12 Laughing Shadow
#15 Flaming Footprints
Late Fall 1983 to Late Summer 1984
#10 Moaning Cave
At this time, I am unable to accurately determine the exact year in which the following titles saw their change from the Marchesi art to the Adragna art with the Hitchcock Cover. I will update my information as I find it. I can say the change for these titles occurred sometime between 1980 and 1983:
#11 Talking Skull
#18 Shrinking House
In 1979, a new artist, Robert Adragna, was brought in to create new cover art for each new Three Investigators title being written. In addition, as printings of the Marchesi paperbacks sold through, he created new updated cover art for each of those previous titles. Like the Marchesi Cover paperbacks, Hitchcock's silhouette remained on the spine of the book. With the new Adragna art, Random House added the Hitchcock silhouette to the upper right corner of the front covers. Thus, we have a new paperback format commonly referred to as the Hitchcock Cover paperbacks. These books measure approximately 5-1/4" x 7-1/2". All paperback Three Investigators books printed in 1978 and 1979 do not have the number of the title printed on the spine of the book.
