An evocative pin-up girl pulp cover watercolor painting by Malcolm Smith for the May, 1953 issue of Fate Magazine – True Stories Of The Strange And The Unknown. This was created to illustrate the interior story “Do You Hear Colors?” On the printed cover there were black musical notes applied, (likely on a separate transparency overlay sheet), to make the illustration more in keeping with the story content. By all accounts just a lovely and transcendent fresh to the market rare surviving pulp cover painting from the collection of Bob Weinberg. Simply framed and matted under U.V. glass and ready to hang.

Malcolm Smith — (American, c. 1912-1966)
At age fourteen, Malcolm Smith bought his first pulp issue of Amazing Stories after being a fan of Science and Invention magazine in the 1920s. He was hooked, he later attended the American Academy of Art in Chicago and worked as a display artist but realized there was more money to be made in the field of illustration.

Smith offered his first paintings to Amazing Stories magazine in 1940 and to his delight they were accepted. After establishing himself in the field, he eventually became the art director and occasional cover artist for the pulp magazine titles Other Worlds and Fate.

For his illustrations Smith often worked with live models including his own wife and children. He developed a technique to color-dye photo prints, which gave his pieces a unique combination of real and imaginary elements.