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
Category: Illustrators
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
Negatives, Dragon’s Blood and Acid. How line drawings were reproduced
I’ve always been interested in all aspects of pulp production including how they reproduced line drawings in the pulps. The same process worked for stylistically very different artists like Hannes Bok, Virgil Finlay, Edd Cartier, Nick Eggenhoffer, Arthur Rodman Bowker, Dorothy Flack and John R. Flanagan. Read on and find out how they did it.… Continue reading Negatives, Dragon’s Blood and Acid. How line drawings were reproduced
Best Wishes for a Happy Holiday Season to you and yours
This blog will be on a break till next year. Best wishes and see you then.
Secrets of the Mask, part 1- In the beginning
A recent rummage through some boxes turned up two copies of Black Mask, and I started reading them. One was from the thirties, another from the forties. I thought it might be interesting to review a few issues to see the difference in editors as the magazine changed. As I did that, I found some… Continue reading Secrets of the Mask, part 1- In the beginning
Ups and Downs of the Illustrating life
Charlie Dye, famous illustrator and cowboy artist, on how he got into illustration and what he found it to be. “My career in Art has been typical of so many others, that only in detail does it differ. I first studied in Chicago and started in advertising art there in the Windy City. Then I… Continue reading Ups and Downs of the Illustrating life
Allen Anderson – The Gunfighting gal
Allen Anderson painted over a hundred and fifty pulp covers for Ace Magazines and Fiction House. This is one of his best, from Bob Lesser’s collection. The printed cover was almost as good as the painting.
Good Griff! British paperbacks of the 1950s
As i was browsing through EBay, I came across this cover. Couldn’t let it pass without investigation, could I? A couple of days later, I emerged from that rabbit hole with a few images gathered here for your enjoyment. Images might take some time to load as they’re reasonably large. Patience will be rewarded. I… Continue reading Good Griff! British paperbacks of the 1950s
The case of the unknown artists, or Who did the early covers for Blue Book?
A couple of weeks ago, as I was going through the May 1907 issue of Blue Book, I realized that the cover was signed but unidentified. Indeed, the FictionMags Index did not have artists attributed for the first few years of the magazine’s existence. From 1912 onwards, the magazine credited the cover artist in the… Continue reading The case of the unknown artists, or Who did the early covers for Blue Book?
Wild West Weekly October 14 1933
Wouldn’t this cover by Walter M. Baumhofer have been perfect for the Robert E. Howard collection Skull-face and others?