Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
Publishers of depression-era pulp magazines, post war men’s adventure and girlie magazines, and lurid paperback titles all used risqué, action-packed illustrations to make their offerings jump off the newsstands in the highly competitive market for readers attention. Cover art pushed the boundaries of what was allowable in a heavily-censored era, coming up with increasingly deviant and outlandish portrayals of sex, violence, and perilous escapes from danger. Today, these works—which provide an intriguing peek into the shadow side of 20th century American culture—are studied by historians and coveted by collectors.
This is an original men’s magazine interior illustration of unknown usage, dating to the 1950s to 60s. The scene shows a dramatic alley fight, with one man falling to the ground, flashlight tumbling, after the other got the jump on him. A grisaille gouache on illustration board, this painting is very nicely framed and matted […]
Artist: American Artist
Shortly after the Armistice of 1918 brought an end to World War I, an outbreak of violence within San Francisco’s Chinatown attracted national attention, and raised awareness of the off-and-on gangland violence known as the Tong wars. As San Francisco became known as home to the largest Chinese population anywhere outside of Asia, fascination about […]
Artist: Pedro Llanuza
On offer is a large format interior magazine oil on canvas illustration that shows a refined couple in a not-so-refined moment, as a fashionable woman winds up to throw a high-end vase at the head of a man who appears to be her beau. Does he deserve it? We assume so, but since we have […]
Artist: Albert Jannset
A fresh to the market oil painting on canvas by an American artist that was created as cover art for the January, 1949 issue of 10 Story Western. A lurid Wild West pulp title that premiered in 1936 published by Popular Publications. A rugged nattily attired cowboy on the run, lights a match at the […]
Artist: American Artist
A fresh to the market oil painting on canvas by noted artist & illustrator Sam Cherry, this artwork was created for use as the cover of the January, 1947 issue of New Western Magazine. A lurid Wild West pulp spectacle of a rugged cowboy holding a hapless hostage in a chokehold with his handcuffs as […]
Artist: Sam Cherry
Large, dramatically lit, and alluring, this gouache on illustration board painting by Howard Purcell was created as cover art in 1953 for the digest novel Wild Body by Manning Clay, which told “the intimate story of a modern Salome–who tried to shed the seventh veil.” The scene shows Valerie, a pretty albeit tired burlesque dancer between shows, […]
Artist: Howard Purcell
This lurid and bold gouache illustration painting by Fred Rodewald was created as cover art for the January, 1949 edition of Ecstasy Novel Magazine, which printed in full the novella length story “Paula Has A Price!” by pulp author Peggy Gaddis (writing under the pseudonym Perry Lindsay). Included with the painting is a published high grade edition of […]
Artist: Fred Rodewald
Gene Szafran created this psychedelic painting for the cover of Hermaphrodeity – An Autobiography Of A Poet, by Alan Friedman.
Artist: Gene Szafran
This complex, detailed, and eerie surreal painting by Dean Ellis was created as cover art for Red Tide by D.D. Chapman & Delores Lehman Tarzan (Ace Science Fiction Special #2). The painting shows a mutated reptilian scientist who is one of the last humans surviving in a dystopian underwater near-future. Post-apocalyptic scenarios where humans struggled to adapt to […]
Artist: Dean Ellis
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.
Artist: John Hilkert
