This original painting by John Hilkert, which appeared as the cover of the Canadian edition of 10-Story Detective Magazine in January 1943, provides an intriguing window into little known moment in pulp art history. During World War II, protectionist trade laws were passed in Canada to encourage citizens to buy more Canadian goods rather than those made in the USA. Pulp publishers who wanted to sell their magazines to a Canadian audience got around this law by hiring Canadian artists to create close interpretations of the American covers previously commissioned by the main office. In this case, Hilkert used as his guide the July 1942 American issue of 10-Story Detective. Though at first glance the two images are so similar that they seem to be the same illustration, the two magazines actually had unique illustrations as their cover. This tense and dramatic rendering of a shootout in the tire factory is cleverly signed by the artist in the large tire that seems to have gotten the better of the central bad guy. Painting is handsomely silk matted and framed under glass in a period what would appear to be Newcomb-Macklin gold frame.
The Bob and Diane Yaspan Collection
