Artist Profile: A.R. Tilburne (1887 — 1965)


The Indiana-born illustrator A.R. Tilburne got a later start than some of his pulp contemporaries.  He was already in his forties and settled down with a family before he sold his first illustrations in 1935.  Before that, he had been an amateur actor, an honorably discharged member of the U.S. Navy, a real estate agent, and a building manager.  But even though he started late, he quickly made his mark with the covers that he did for magazines like Weird Tales and Short Stories.  In 1947, he did his best known pulp work when he painted the cover for H.P. Lovecraft’s The Lurking Fear.  He devoted his later years to painting western scenes.  He died at the age of 77 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Here is a small sampling of A.R. Tilburne’s work:

Artist Profile: Jack Thurston (1919– )


The best thing that happened to me last week was that I discovered the work of a  veteran illustrator named Jack Thurston.  Along with paperback covers, magazine covers, and even a few MAD Magazine features, Thurston was responsible for painting several well-known film posters.  Just check out a small sampling of his work below and you’ll see why Thurston’s illustrations are still prized by collectors: