This post on the artists of All-Story magazine is similar to one I did long ago, a post on the top authors of Adventure magazine. I used popularity as a metric, reasoning that if the readers liked an author, the editors would have them make repeat appearances.
All-Story Magazine
In January 1905, Frank Munsey, creator of the all-fiction pulp magazine format (the Argosy, converted into this form in October 1896), released a second pulp title, All-Story. It would run till 1920 when it was itself absorbed into the Argosy, but not before it had published some of the most memorable and influential fiction in the pulp genre. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and Johnston McCulley’s Zorro made their debuts in this magazine; and it was the premier venue for “off-beat” (fantasy, science fiction and weird stories) fiction in its day.
While the fantasy, science fiction and weird content of the magazine (and its authors) has received critical attention, not much attention has been paid to the artists who created the images that lured readers into purchasing the magazine. Part of this neglect is due to the difficulty in determining the artists that did the covers; Munsey didn’t credit them and many covers were unsigned. Compounding matters, locating a complete run of the magazine is near impossible.
I had to resort to locating pictures on various online auction sites, scanning them carefully to see if signatures were visible, and deciphering them where they were obscured or partial. I completed the effort a couple of months ago and sent 240 cover artist identifications to Phil Stephensen-Payne, who maintains the wonderful FictionMags Index. Now, the cover artists of about three-quarters of the magazine’s run (444 issues) are identified and noted in the Index.
About time for that article, then. Part 1 focuses on nine artists who did more than half the covers for the magazine. Part 2 will note interesting covers and some unexpected discoveries. Part 3, if and when I get around to it, will be a history of the changes in the cover themes for the magazine.
Part 1: Adventure, Pretty Women and the Unusual
Nine artists did 256 covers for All-Story; probably more but many covers are unsigned/unavailable in sufficient resolution images to identify signatures. These artists are
Modest Stein (74)
Stein’s covers were done from 1914 to 1920. Stein illustrated a wider range of genres than most other artists – westerns, crime, adventure, historical, fantastic and romance. Many of his covers feature the same models with bulging eyes and gaping mouths.
Modest Stein may be the only artist to have a cover painting used twice for All-Story. The first time it appeared was on the April 4, 1914 issue. The cover was for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ At the Earth’s Core, which was starting serialization in that issue.
The next time this cover appeared it had undergone some surgery. The background had been removed, and a necklace appeared on the person’s neck. This cover also illustrated an ERB story: Pellucidar, the first sequel to At the Earth’s Core, featuring the same hero, David Innes.
Why did this happen? I don’t know, though it never happened again in the magazine’s life. My theory is that the painting for the Pellucidar cover didn’t turn up on time, or was misplaced, and the previous painting was repurposed. Clearly this could have happened only with the assistance of the Munsey staff. Did Burroughs have anything to say about this? I don’t know, but someone reading this blog probably does. If so, leave a note.
Stein also did the cover for Max Brand’s Untamed, the novel which made Brand famous.
P. J. Monahan (58)
Monahan’s covers ran around the same time as Stein’s but were visually very distinct. In an newspaper article I reprinted earlier, Monahan muses about the different types of artists models in 1920s New York. His women are instantly recognizable; their hair color changes but their features are the same, conforming to what he calls the “exotic” type, suiting the adventure and fantastic covers he was painting.
A peculiarity of Monahan’s covers is the protagonists are often leaning forward, gazing at something outside the cover, designed to evoke the reader’s curiosity: What could they be looking at? Monahan did the covers for the majority of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ serials in All-Story, eight of them, of which four were for Tarzan serials.
Fred W. Small (28)
Fred W. Small may be the most unrecognized and underrated of the All-Story artists. His work is striking, impressionistic in style with a color palette that hasn’t always been well preserved over the years as the magazines aged. Small worked at the same time as Monahan, mostly doing fantastic, historical and adventure covers.
He did one Tarzan cover for The Beasts of Tarzan, but his best work was in the fantastic genre.
Hamilton King (28)
King’s earliest cover for All-Story was in 1906, on the second issue of the magazine to feature a painted cover. Another cover in 1909, and then none till 1913, when he started regularly painting portraits of pretty women for the covers, at the same time as C. D. Williams and Frank Desch, who also specialized in this cover theme.
C. D. Williams (24)
Almost all his covers were portraits of placid, pretty women, excluding a handful in which he depicted more than one person. Most of the women on his covers showed little emotion, not even a smile. He worked at the same time as King and Desch. Surprisingly, given that he exclusively painted pretty girls, he did paint one cover for an ERB serial: The Girl from Farris.
Clinton Pettee (18)
Clinton Pettee’s most famous pulp cover, is, of course, the cover for the October 1912 issue of All-Story. It’s the cover for Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes. Pettee’s involvement with All-Story was brief, lasting only four years from 1910 to 1913, but he did some very striking covers in the adventure and fantasy genres. His very first cover, though, is almost a Christmas greeting card scene.
His style resembles those of contemporary posters, with bright colors and no outlines on any figures, using contrasting colors for visual object separation.
Frank H. Desch (11)
All his covers were portraits of pretty women. Unlike C. D. Williams’, his women were more expressive; they often smiled and glanced mischievously at the reader.
Valentine Sandberg (9)
Valentine Sandberg is best known today for his work on illustrations in Coles Phillips style, but he was capable of a much wider range of work, as you can see from his All-Story covers. Most of them are poster style depictions of city scenes in different seasons.
Sandberg was talented in many different areas; he patented a bottle with an unbreakable seal (for dispensing costly spirits and liqueurs), patented a new type of pop up greeting card, and designed figurines and other tchotchkes for retail sale.
Charles Willard Fairchild (7)
Fairchild, who has been profiled earlier on this blog, illustrated one ERB story for the cover: Barney Custer of Beatrice, a Ruritanian adventure. Fairchild’s covers varied in theme, covering adventure, history and fantasy and were set in many locations across the world.
Which artists do you like among these? Any other notable covers you’re reminded of? Leave a note in the comments.
Great post! Thanks!