Original Art from the Grand Age of American Illustration
A feisty redhead is caught in a private moment in this voyeuristic and menacing published pulp painting that was used as the cover of Ecstasy Books #15 “Wanton By Night.” The image is filled with classic pulp iconography, from the scantily-clad femme fatale hurryingly drawing down her shade in the close confines of urban apartment […]
Artist: George Gross
An action packed damsel in distress fire rescue pulp cover painting by Sam Cherry for the February 1943 issue of Thrilling Ranch Stories – Romantic Stories of The West. A fearless square jawed handsome cowboy emerges from a burning building with a damsel in his arms, his pistol a blazin’, as our felled damsel struggles to regain […]
Artist: Sam Cherry
A genre defining girl in peril, menace themed pulp cover painting by the prolific and gifted American illustrator Peter Driben, this appeared as the cover for the December 1941 issue of Expose Detective True Crime Cases. Illustrating the interior story The Scarlet Sinner’s Final Exit, this lurid, large and rare surviving pulp cover painting has it all. Beautifully framed and in a fine state of conservation.
Artist: Peter Driben
With a human sacrifice as the central conflict, a high octane tribal fight scene, and lurid bondage damsel in distress subject matter, this Bruce Minney artwork–which appeared as the cover for the June 1970 edition of New Man Magazine–captures all of the subversive allure of the Men’s magazine genre. Loosely illustrating the interior story, “Smash the Latins’ Jungle Combine […]
Artist: Bruce Minney
A dramatic and suspenseful cover paperback painting by the prolific American Illustrator Harry Barton, where train tracks take on an ominous aura, and a deadly outcome appears likely. The cover of an early Ace Double Novel paperback titled Fear No More, written by Leslie Edgley. Illustration is nicely framed and matted behind glass and a […]
Artist: Harry Barton
This unusual example of a science fiction themed menace pulp illustration by the talented artist Lawrence Sterne Stevens was created as cover art for the July 1948 issue of Fantastic Novels. Renowned for his grotesque imaginative horror art, and often compared to contemporary Virgil Finlay, Stevens was named after his father–a deeply religious preacher–and signed […]
Artist: Lawrence Sterne Stevens
Triple X Rancho is perhaps the most unabashedly lurid spicy pulp scene created by Allen Anderson during his prolific career as a freelance illustrator. This image, which features a terrified yet sexually provocative pin up cowgirl being branded against her will was created as the cover of the February 1943 edition of Spicy Western Stories, Volume #8 Issue #6. This rare surviving oil painting is in a very fine state of conservation and one of but a few examples of the artist’s published pulp covers to emerge.
Artist: Allen Anderson
A lurid spicy pulp cover oil painting by Allen Anderson
created as the cover of the February 1943 edition of Speed Western Stories, Volume #1 Issue #2 (Trojan Publishing, Chicago). A rare surviving example of Western themed spicy pulp cover art, this was unearthed along with two additional original cover paintings by Allen Anderson that had for many years been displayed at the Cimarron Dude Ranch in Peekskill, New York.
Artist: Allen Anderson
Allen Anderson created this damsel in distress, Western spicy pulp oil on canvas painting as the cover of the April 1943 edition of Speed Western Stories, Volume #1 Issue #4 (Trojan Publishing, Chicago). This vivid and rare surviving example of lurid spicy pulp cover art was unearthed by Grapefruit Moon Gallery along with two additional original cover paintings by Allen Anderson that had for many years been displayed at the Cimarron Dude Ranch in Peekskill, New York.
Artist: Allen Anderson
A spectacular surviving pulp cover painting by Norman Saunders for the Popular Publications August 1952 issue of New Detective Magazine, Volume #18 Issue #1. Saunders masterfully employs an extreme perspective and palette to give the scene an intense sense of danger, tension and drama. During the 1950s heyday of pulp magazines, literally hundreds of titles would be competing for customers any given month and publishers used Saunders dramatic, erotic, and intense covers to give their magazines the edge they needed to attract potential buyers at the newsstand.
Artist: Norman Saunders
