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… Continue reading The Wonderful Artists of All-Story: Part 1
Category: Art
Dime Detective’s first issue: Success in reverse gear
Dime Detective, launched to compete with Black Mask, was the most popular of Popular Publication’s detective pulps. It featured stories by Raymond Chandler, Erle Stanley Gardener, Max Brand, John D. MacDonald and Cornell Woolrich. This editorial, in the first issue, is a mix of rah-rah cheerleading for the magazine’s contents and an anecdote about putting… Continue reading Dime Detective’s first issue: Success in reverse gear
Art and Direction: The life of Charles Willard Fairchild
Charles Willard Fairchild was born on 18 November 1886 in Marinette, Wisconsin. His parents were Charles Marsh Fairchild and Sarah Jane “Jennie” Cook of Toledo, Ohio. Charles Marsh Fairchild was a versatile businessman, running a drug store, a newspaper and a steel company, in that order. Charles Willard grew up in Wisconsin and Toledo, Ohio.… Continue reading Art and Direction: The life of Charles Willard Fairchild
Model Employee wanted: Six dollars a day for standing still
Another article about an illustrator’s model; this time it’s actor Neil Hamilton, probably best remembered for his role as Commissioner Gordon in the 1960s TV series Batman starring Adam West. The Days When I “Posed” Recollections of Leyendecker, Brown, Underwood and other Famous Artists – And $6 a Day. By Neil Hamilton THERE was one… Continue reading Model Employee wanted: Six dollars a day for standing still
Exhibition of the work of Modest Stein in 1956
Prolific pulp cover artist Modest Stein (mentioned in my earlier post on prolific pulp artists) painted professionally well into his 80s. This article, a rare profile of him, mentions his pulp work as well. OF CONSIDERABLE interest to art lovers, or for that matter to anyone who likes to marvel at human accomplishment is the… Continue reading Exhibition of the work of Modest Stein in 1956
Cartoonist and Illustrator Quin Hall
This article is a combination of a slightly edited version of an article that appeared in the Miami Herald shortly after the death of Quin Hall in 1968 and an earlier profile in Editor and Publisher, May 31, 1941. Both the above articles cover his newspaper career but omit entirely his work in the 1910s… Continue reading Cartoonist and Illustrator Quin Hall
Henry Bassett Comstock – Author, Editor, Illustrator
Henry Bassett Comstock (1908 – 2003), the son of illustrator Enos Benjamin Comstock and Christine Frances Bassett, was an illustrator, journalist and editor of Munsey’s Railroad Magazine in the 1940s. This profile of him originally appeared in The Journal News, White Plains, New York, August 6, 1972. Locomotive tootles way into one man’s heartBY VIRGINIA… Continue reading Henry Bassett Comstock – Author, Editor, Illustrator
John Alan Maxwell, Illustrator of Romance
A few days ago, I was reading the first issue of Sea Stories and happened to glance through some of the covers of that magazine. The December 1925 issue, unattributed in the FictionMags Index, caught my eye. Ah! A signature on the bottom left of that cover. I squinted at it and tried to see… Continue reading John Alan Maxwell, Illustrator of Romance
Paint by numbers: The most hard-working pulp artists
Who were the most prolific pulp artists? By which i mean, the artists who painted the highest number of pulp covers under tough conditions. Norman Saunders’ oeuvre consists of 865 covers, meticulously documented here by his son. Has anyone come close, or even surpassed this? Using the Fictionmags Index, I tried to do a count… Continue reading Paint by numbers: The most hard-working pulp artists
Art of the Sale: The taxing business of illustration
In 1937, the City of New York tried to bring art into the ambit of the sales tax that had been passed three years earlier. Only to find out artists can be talented in more than one domain. From the La Grande Observer, Oregon, May 05, 1937 Artists Up In Arms Because Of The Sales… Continue reading Art of the Sale: The taxing business of illustration