BRAIN PLUCKER

Archive for the ‘Lost Art’ Category

Our Lost Art Feature this week is just going to be a menagerie of different artist and styles. Many of them were uncredited in the magazine they appeared in, but the none the less they are worth seeing. And remember, these are thumbnails. Click on them to appreciate them in their glory.

Science Fiction Quarterly - Alien Restoration art by Kiemle

If, June 1963 - Another Earth art by Model

If, July 1963 - Down to the Worlds of Men art by Nodel

Imagination, October 1953 - Hold Onto Your Body

Imagination, October 1954 - Earth's Gone to the Dogs

Imagination, October 1954 - Laughter of Toffee

Infinity, June 1957 - The Band Played On art by Schoenherr

A subscription ad from the June 1958 issue of Infinity

Planet Stories, March 1953 - Ricardo's Virus art by Vestal

Planet Stories, June 1952 - Spacemen Are Born

After the Atom - Famous Fantastic Mysteries April 1950

One of my favorite artists of the pulps and digests is Hans Bok. While I share some mostly unknown interior art, I thought it would be nice to give his biography.

Born in Kansas City, Missouri, on July 2, 1914, to Irving Ingalls Woodard and Julia J Parks, Hannes Bok (pseudonym for Wayne Francis Woodard) was a science fiction and fantasy artist and an illustrator. He also wrote poetry, fiction and articles on astrology. He adopted his pen name Hannes Bok in the honour of the famous composer Johannes Bach.

The Ghost Punch - Weird Tales, November 1944

After graduating from high school, Bok moved to Seattle to stay with his mother in 1932 and involved himself in science fiction fandom including publication and illustrations of fanzines. In 1936, he met Emil Petaja, who went on to become his life long friend, and did illustrations for his chapbook, Brief Candle. He later moved to Los Angeles with Petaja in 1937 and met Ray Bradbury who was instrumental in getting Bok his first art job. Bok did the cover art for all four issues of Bradbury’s fanzine Futuria Fantasia and impressed him so much with his work that Bradbury took him to the First Science Fiction Convention in New York in 1939 to show him to the publishers there.

The Dark Dimension - Marvel Science Fiction, November 1951

In 1939 Bok moved to New York and began working for the legendary pulp fiction magazine Weird Tales, debuting in the December 1939 issue. It is around this time that he met Maxfield Parrish who became his mentor and whose influence can be seen in Bok’s work.
Till 1954, Bok had painted for more than 50 issues of Weird Tales magazine. He also executed 6 color covers for Weird Tales between 1940-42. Despite his success as a professional artist, Bok continued to contribute to fanzines.

Cross of Mercrux - Fantastic Novel Mysteries, November 1950

Bok was awarded the first Hugo Award for Best cover/ Professional Artist in 1953.

Bok is not only famous for his artistic work but also his poetry and fiction. His famous novels include The Sorcerer’s Ship and the Blue Flamingo which was later re-titled Beyond the Golden Stairs. Weird Tales also published 5 of his stories and 2 of his poems between 1942 and 1951. He also wrote several unpublished novels.
His illustrations appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Marvel Science Fiction, Imagination, Uncanny Tales and several other books of science fiction and fantasy.

Cross of Mercrux - Fantastic Novel Mysteries, November 1950

Bok died on April 11, 1964 of a heart attack at the age of forty nine.

Cross of Mercrux - Fantastic Novel Mysteries, November 1950

As the Lost Art series is basically about interior illustrations that have not been reprinted and mostly forgotten about, we bring you some selections from the June 1958 issue of American Magazine.  American Magazine was a general interest magazine, much like Life Magazine, but with a bigger dose of fiction, by some of the best writers of the day in every genre. They featured such authors bestselling authors like Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, and also featuring up and comers like John D. MacDonald. All done with some of the best illustrators of the period.

A good portion of the magazine was non-fiction items of news. With quality photos, it was full of  popular culture, movies, music, technology, sports, travelogues, advice, vintage advertisements, the arts, comics, and probable more stuff than I can think of.

The magazine can tend have a too wholesome sweetness to it (see cover). But I’m drawn to the fiction illustrators. They featured art and illustrations by some of the top professionals in the field. And the illustrations, like the fiction, covered nearly every genre. If there was one thing that was somewhat subversive to the general sheen of the American glee, it was the mystery and crime fiction and illustrations.

And don’t forget to click on the thumbnails.

Not my taste in covers, but the inside is golden.

This is Love -- art by Morgan Kane

jenny and the big bad wolf--art by Arthur Sarnoff

The Most Important Man -- art by Peter Stevens. A bullet to the face plate, yuch!

Beloved Survivor -- art by Tom Lovell

Nero Wolfe and the Vanishing Clue -- sort of a title page -- art by Alex Ross (no not that Alex Ross)

Nero Wolfe and the Vanishing Clue -- art by Alex Ross

Okay the funniest thing about this is the writer's name. I can see the editor shaking his head saying "Really, we're goin' with that? Dick Hyman?"

Retro-fact -- road maps used to be given away for free at gas stations. This guy could be going "A Beautiful Mind" on us.

This week we’re going to depart from the black and white interior art and look at a few Canadian versions of Super Science Stories and some its variant titles. These covers are bit less common than the usual American editions, and that may be because there is was no American counterpart for these issues. They contained mostly reprints from various magazines. Some of the covers were reused from other magazines, but mostly they were new to these Canadian magazines. The Wikipedia entry for Super Science Stories explains quite well the whole publishing history of this pulp.

Super Science and Fantasy Stories - October 1945

Super Science and Fantasy Stories - August 1945

Super Science Stories -- October 1944

Super Science and Fantasy Stories -- April 1945

From December 1944--Cover reprinted from a Famous Mysteries Stories

The Weirdest Cover of them All from Super Science June 1945

Amazing Stories - September 1927

Frank R. Paul could be called the father or grandfather of Science Fiction art. He is the first artist of the science fiction magazine genre. He painted the cover and did the interior of the first issue of the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories in 1926, and stayed busy into the 50s. His cover art, which I only show one example, are wonderfully colorful to the point of garishness. But this is pulp art and garishness in not such a bad thing. His knack was creating technological machines. His weakness, in my opinion, was humans. They are all very generic and conventional. So I tried to favor the interior art that was more technologically inclined.

The Isotope Men - Wonder Stories 8-33

The Cosmic Horror - Wonder Stories 8-33

Castaways On Deimos- Wonder Stories 8-33

The Man Who Awoke- 6-33

Gullivar 3000 A.D. - Wonder Stories 5-33

The Wreck of the Asteroid - Wonder Stories 2-33

Weird Tales-December 1937 cover by Finlay

Last week we looked at an all Lawrence issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries. Today I decided to do a similiar all Virgil Finlay issue.

Weird Tales – December 1937

I just read the title story and I can say the cover accurately illustrates the cover. This chick couldn’t get naked enough in this story. But Weird Tales stories are only sexually implicit  vs. being sexually explicit. Check out the wonderful interior, all by Finlay. And, yes, click on the thumbnails to appreciate the artistry.

The Sea Witch

Flames of Vengence

A Wine of Wizardry

Fane of the Black Pharaoh - story by Robert Bloch

The Black Stone Statue - very surreal

The Child of Atlantis

The Voyage of the Neutralia

A new stack of Famous Fantastic Mysteries and Fantastic Novels Magazine via eBay

Picked up a bunch of low-grade Famous Fantastic Mysteries and Fantastic Novels Magazines on eBay. The covers are pretty rough but the interior art is still beautiful after a little Photoshop processing to turn those tans and grays back to black and white.

Famous Fantastic Mysteries, June 1946

Let’s look at the art of a single issue. The issue features a novel called The Undying Monster by Jessie Douglas Kerruish with one short story called The Novel of the Black Seal by Arthur Machen.

Lawrence Sterne Stevens

The art is by Lawrence Sterne Stevens who just went by the single moniker of Lawrence. His paintings are great, but I think his interior art is even better.

From June 1946--Cover art also by Lawrence--creepy

The Undying Monster-- Title Page

The Undying Monster

The Undying Monster-Almost my favorite

The Undying Monster-click this thumbnail--Amazing!--yes, my fav from this ish.

The Undying Monster

The Novel of the Black Seal - not really a novel, just a short story

The Door Beyond, art by Humiston (Weird Tales, May 1949)

What’s Wrong With My Brain?

Take a walk on the psychically wild side with these lost weird wonders of the past.

 

Deep Freeze, art by McCauley (Imagination, January 1953)

Voyage to Eternity, art by Calle (Imagination, July 1953)

All the Answers, Artist unknown (Science Fiction Quarterly, August 1952)

Voyage to Eternity, art Calle (Imagination, July 1953)

Between Worlds, art by Finlay (Fantastic Novels Magazine, July 1949)

The Metal Chamber, art by Finlay (Weird Tales, March 1939)

The Flying Legion, art by Lawrence (Fantastic Novels Magazine)

The Opal Necklace, art by Summers (Fantastic, June 1952)

“Just Call Me Lawrence”

Lawrence Sterne Stevens, son of a preacher of the same name, signed his work just “Lawrence”. The art directors and publishers who commisioned his work must of felt they were getting their money’s worth. For craftsmanship and technique he can’t be beat. But let’s not ignore the artistry. I think we can call him a master artist. He certainly used a lot of ink. His color painting were fantastically great too! Here are some interior black and white work I’ve recently scanned and cleaned up for your perusal.

And click on the thumbnails to really appreciate the works.

Gift of Zar from Other Worlds, June 1955

The Flying Legion from Fantastic Novels Magazine, January 1950

The Flying Legion from Fantastic Novels Magazine, January 1950

The Flying Legion from Fantastic Novels Magazine, January 1950

The Torch from Fantastic Novels Magazine, April 1951

The Second Deluge from Fantastic Novels Magazine, July 1948

The Middle Bedroom from Fantastic Novels Magazine, March 1948

Finis from Fantastic Novels Magazine, July 1948

Classing the Joint Up

Love that Woo-Woo! by H.W. McCauley (Imagination, Sept. 1953)

The pulp covers were rather discrete about nudity on their covers. After all they did not want a news stand vendor hiding their magazines under the counter. But occasionally they would allow some nudity to get into the interior art. This Monday’s Lost Art will focus on some of that inner beauty. From the sublime to the cheesecake. Don’t forget to click on the images.

Temptress of Eden, Art by Emsh (Future SF, April 1959)

Jonah and the Venus Whale--Artist unknown (Other Worlds, June 1955)

Temptress of Planet Delight by Frank Kelly Freas (Planet Stories, May 1953)

The Ship of Ishtar by Finlay (Fantastic Novels Magazine, March 1948)

Terror Out of Space, Art by Terry (Imagination, July 1954)

The Stilled Patter by Stallman (Infinity, June 1956)