This is a follow up to my earlier post on the artists of All-Story. The earlier post covered the most significant artists, this one takes a look at some notable covers.
The cover for the first issue of All-Story was uninspiring. Dull. Yet it managed to sell out most of its print run of 150,000 copies. How do we know? Thanks to the cover for the third issue, which boast about the print run increasing by 25,000 copies each for the second and the third issue.
In between came the first painted cover, on the second issue. No signature.
This is a newsstand poster for the All-Story magazine. Valentine Sandberg did the cover.
Nautical artist Worden Wood did this cover of a galleon in full sail. Wood was the grandson of the commander of the USS Monitor, Rear Admiral John Lorimer Worden, in its battle with the Merrimac (the CSS Virginia) during the American Civil War. Wood’s son, Hunter Wood, was also a notable artist. More on Worden Wood here: https://camoupedia.blogspot.com/2011/10/camouflage-artist-worden-g-wood.html
Beverley Towles, artist and art director of New York City did this lovely Art Deco style battleship. Towles did only one other cover for All-Story, also a boating cover.
The first SF cover by Harry Grant Dart.
The original survives, and is so much better than the printed cover.
Information, cover scan and painting photo courtesy omni-collector Doug Ellis.
A very unusual cover of a bunny looking at the moon. Unsigned. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the issue, and I can’t think of another pulp cover featuring a rabbit, but maybe my readers can. Leave a comment if you remember another one.
Another nautical artist, Gordon Grant, did this cover for the issue featuring the first Edgar Rice Burroughs Rice story in the John Carter/Barsoom series: Under The Moons of Mars. Grant’s Saturday Evening Post covers are excellent. A pity this was his only All-Story cover.
This cover would not have been out of place on Munsey’s detective pulp, Flynn’s. That’s because it’s by Lejaren Hiller, who was doing a lot of Flynn’s covers at that time.
A tiger inside a room by William Berdan King. Makes me want to read the story that has that scene. If someone has read that issue, I’d love to hear what the situation was.
A story about a couple shrunk to smaller than bug size by a mad scientist; also a romance. Scientific Romance was All-Story’s claim to fame and that’s what this cover by C. W. Fairchild (profiled in part 1) typifies. This was published four years before before Ray Cummings’ similar themed story, The Girl in the Golden Atom and it’s many sequels.
This cover by prolific All-Story artist Fred W. Small makes me want to read the entire serial by Robert Simpson, an author I like. This one is a historical set in witchcraft trial era Salem. Sounds interesting.
The Semi-Dual series about an occult detective was a mainstay series for All-Story. The series survived nearly two decades, and this is one of many covers featuring Semi-Dual. Unsigned.
This western cover is unusual for featuring a woman, but you can expect unusual westerns from G. W. Ogden, about whose oeuvre I should do a post sometime. Modest Stein did this excellent painting.
Possibly the first multi-media promotion. Metro had bought an unpublished, untitled story by Max Brand. The original working title for the film was God’s Outlaw, later changed to The Adopted Son. The film was released on October 29, 1917; the issue featuring it would have been on the newsstands a week or so earlier. This coordinated release surely wasn’t accidental. Pulp and film historian Ed Hulse might have more to say about this.
Another photo cover, featuring the author Irvin Cobb this time. Irvin Cobb was a real big name, one who appeared with monotonous regularity in the Saturday Evening Post with his feature articles and his stories.
An unusual cover for the title story, The Queen of Clubs by Elisabeth Sutton. A mystery story, and a mystery cover (no signature) to go with it.
The first appearance of a brass braed babe on a pulp cover. Predates Bergey’s work by at least a decade.
A P. J. Monahan cover for the first Zorro story, The Curse of Capistrano. Monahan, who did covers for Tarzan and Zorro, is profiled in part 1.
These are covers by an artist who signed his covers with a strange device.
David Saunders (and I) suspect that they may be by the artist Fred W. Small, one of whose covers in a similar style you can see here.
The variety of covers goes to show how much All-Story had to offer beyond the scientific romance, though of course that’s what makes it so collectable. Westerns, mysteries, adventure, historicals and more lie locked in those pages.
That’s it for part 2. There may be a part 3 someday.