pulp

An important early cover painting by Jerome Rozen for the June 7, 1927 long running twice monthly adventure pulp title “Popular Stories.” This painting combines Westward Ho, covered wagon western Americana imagery with civil war drama, in a vaguely historical scene with intensely powerful imagery. The depiction, in the strong color blocks for which the pulps were famed, features a confederate soldier menacing an elderly African America slave and sympathetic young damsel who are attempting to flee unspoken horrors through the desolate prairie.

A Covered Wagon Confrontation

Artist: Jerome Rozen

A haunting and technically masterful painting on board by science fiction and pulp illustrator Hannes Bok, the first artist to win the prestigious Hugo Award. In 1954, Bok contributed this image for the back cover plate of Destiny – No.10, the early sci-fi fanzine published to coincide with the 12th World’s Science Fiction Convention in San Francisco. In that usage, the Tolkien-esque martian illustrates the the Richard E. Geis poem “Kill Me Earthmen.” This is titled on verso “Sentry” and is dated 1944 lower left.

The Sentry

Artist: Hannes Bok

This very rare illustration is possibly the only surviving pin-up girl, non-menace themed spicy pulp cover painting ever offered for sale by H.J. Ward. This was created for the spicy pulp title “Tattle Tales” and was published as either the March 1937 or June 1937 edition. Hugh J. Ward was a prolific pulp cover artist who has enjoyed much recent acclaim. At a recent 2010 auction, one of Ward’s damsel in distress cover paintings (August 1936 Spicy Mystery Stories) fetched $143,400.

The Tattle Tale

Artist: H. J. Ward

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.

New Detective Aerial Crime Scene

Artist: Norman Saunders

This is an early and large oil on canvas by Norman Saunders created as cover art for Dell publications, but never used. An electrifying, spicy pulp era entanglement with all the essential pulp elements of peril, danger, terror with erotic excitement. A damsel in distress is held in bondage as assorted toughs and thugs have it out amongst themselves guns-a-blaze in this art deco scene. Set against the backdrop of a machine-age steamroom, filled with modernist and industrial gadgets, this both speaks to the peril of gangsterism in the Great Depression 30s and the dark side of progress.

Shootout Along The Steampipes

Artist: Norman Saunders

A gritty Western pulp cover painting by Walter Baumhofer- “The King of Pulps”-created for the May 1933 issue of Dime Western magazine. The image is a humorous wink at the spicy pulp world featuring a tied-up bondage-posed beauty looking askance at the stereotypical cowboy card game scene she finds herself trapped in. 1933 marked the peak in popularity of the short-lived spicy pulp genre, which gleaned much of its success from eye-catching, drama-filled, damsel-in distress covers similar to this.

Blind Man’s Bluff

Artist: Walter Baumhofer

A rare surviving cover painting by JW Scott, created for a yet unidentified Western pulp publication. A gritty old west scene of a group of cowboys reloading and preparing to fire above a rugged desert pass. The artist created this utilizing an impasto technique that brings a tension and urgent intensity to the Americana Western genre classic. Illustration Magazine recently devoted a large portion of issue #14 on the life and works of John Walter Scott, who worked during the 1930s creating numerous and stylistically diverse pulp covers, the verso canvas notes this was a cover for a “Sept 8 Western,” possibly referring to the “Complete Western Book” or “Wild Western Novels” both of which commissioned covers by Scott.

The Calico Kid

Artist: J. W. Scott

A bizarre and other-wordly rare surviving pulp cover painting by Harold W. McCauley for the October 1949 edition of “Amazing Stories”. A lurid and menacing, yet strangely beautiful illustration for the story “Tiger Women of Shadow Valley” by Berkeley Livingston. Story caption reads “There Was Death In Her Embrace”. This inspired work perfectly captures the luminous commercial technique and painterly elements of a successful Haddon Sundblom “Sundblom Shop” graduate and disciple in collision with pin-up girl, erotic science fiction pulp culture.

Tiger Woman of Shadow Valley

Artist: Harold McCauley

A searingly seductively blonde takes the stand in this hard boiled, pulp fiction inspired 1949 pin-up painting by Al Buell. Working for the Louis F. Dow calendar company under the pseudonym Al Leslie (Leslie was the artist’s middle name), Buell created this leggy, impish bad girl, a scandalous vixen reminiscent of the defiant film noir heroines who graced the screen in this post-war period.

Case Dis-missed

Artist: Al Buell

A sensational, action packed, original oil painting by Allen Anderson. Commissioned as a cover for the pulp title Spicy Detective this work illustrates “The Corpse is Yours” by Robert A. Garron in the May 1941 issue. The artist created a number of these spicy covers for Culture Publications in the 1930s and 1940s. Anderson had some fun with this painting, presenting his signature on the canvas of the oil painting pictured within the scene, he also employs a very thick impasto technique on the paint colors that appears on the artist’s palette at the bottom of the field to appear as fresh paint used on the canvas being created within.

The Corpse Is Yours

Artist: Allen Anderson

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