Artwork of the Day: Thrilling Wonder Stories (by Earle Bergey)

Posted on December 13, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

by Earle Bergey

The Thrilling Covers of Thrilling Wonder Stories

Posted on October 28, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

Thrilling Wonder Stories was a pulp magazine that was published from 1936 to 1955. It was one of several pulp magazines that had the word “thrilling” in its title. The stories were mostly science fiction and I guess they were meant to be more thrilling than all of the other science fiction that was being published at the same time. The stories were apparently thrilling enough for the magazine to run for 19 years.

Below are a few of the covers of Thrilling Wonder Stories, done by some of the best artists of the pulp era.

by Earle Bergey

by Gabriel Mayorga

by Hans Wessolowski

by Harold V. Brown

by Rudolph Belarski

by Walter Popp

Artwork of the Day: Strange Stories (by Earle Bergey)

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

by Earle Bergey

The Covers of Real Detective

Posted on September 2, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

The origins of Real Detective are obscure, as is the case with many of the oldest pulp magazines. It’s believed that it started in 1922 as a magazine called Detective Tales and it was an all-fiction magazine. However, when the publisher ran into financial trouble two years later, Detective Tales was sold to a new publisher who started to mix true crime with the short fiction. The name of the magazine was changed to Real Detective Tales and Mystery Stories, which was certainly a mouthful.

Then, 1931, the name of the magazine was changed again, this time to just Real Detective. The magazine’s format was now exclusively true crime and salacious scandal. The new format proved popular enough that Real Detective ran until 1985. Below are a few covers from the early days of Real Detective. (Around 1954, Real Detective went from hiring illustrators to draw their covers to hiring photographers to take pictures of distressed-looking models.) Where known, the artist has been credited.

by Alex Redmond

by Charles Wood

by Earle Bergey

Unknown Artist

Artwork of the Day: The Stocking Parade (by Earle Bergey)

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

by Earle Bergey

The Covers of Fight Stories

Posted on July 29, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

Can you guess what Fight Stories was about?

Fight Stories made its debut in 1928 and it was the first all-fiction magazine to be devoted to an entire sport. Every issue was full of boxing stories from some of the most well-regarded of the pulp authors. Robert E. Howard, who is best-remembered for creating Conan the Barbarian, was one of the writers who was regularly featured in Fight Stories.

Published at the height of boxing’s popularity, Fight Stories was an unqualified success and ended up running, off-and-on, until 1952. In all, there were a 106 issues of Fight Stories. Below are just a few of the covers of Fight Stories. Not surprisingly, they all follow the same basic theme:

Author Unknown

by Earle Bergey

by George Gross

The Many Adventures of Captain Future

Posted on January 29, 2020 by Dazzling Erin

Artist Unknown

Who was Captain Future? He was Curtis Newton, who was born on the moon and who, after the murder of his parents by intergalactic spies, was raised and trained by a scientist and two robots. Captain Future kept the solar system safe from crime and other extraterrestrial threats. His adventures took place in the distant future year of … 1990. (At the time his stories were published, that was the future!) Captain Future headlined his own magazine from 1940 to 1951, with additional stories appearing in publications like Startling Stories and Amazing Stories.

Below are a few covers from Captain Future’s adventures. The majority of these were done by Earle Bergey, though Rudolph Belarski and Jerome Rozen did some work on the series as well.