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… Continue reading The Art of All-Story: Notable Covers
Category: Pulp Magazines
The Wonderful Artists of All-Story: Part 1
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
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
Hidden Sex: The Origin of B. M. Bower
This article by and about B. M. Bower, author of Chip of the Flying U and many other novels and stories, appeared in the December 10, 1928 issue of Western Cattle Markets and News. My Own Tally SheetBy B. M. Bower Note—B. M. Bower, author of “Chip of the Flying U,” which was written in… Continue reading Hidden Sex: The Origin of B. M. Bower
Types of beautiful women: Artist Patrick J. Monahan
An article on illustrator Patrick J. Monahan that I found interesting mainly for the photo of him working in his studios, and the accompanying photos, one of which reminds me of the woman frequently seen in Monahan’s pulp covers. Plus a reminder that the views expressed in this article are Monahan’s and do not carry… Continue reading Types of beautiful women: Artist Patrick J. Monahan
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
Off-beat Tales: Review of Western Trails, May 1938
Why read a second-tier title like Western Trails? Most of my western reading in the pulps has been from Street & Smith’s Western Story. I’ve also sampled Doubleday’s West, Popular Publications’ Dime Western, Star Western and a few issues of Clayton’s Cowboy Stories and Ace-High. Flirted with a few Ranch Romances. But the western was… Continue reading Off-beat Tales: Review of Western Trails, May 1938