Celebrate Moon Day With The Pulps


by Enoch Bolles

54 years ago today, the first manned spaceflight to the Moon touched down on the lunar surface.  Let’s celebrate this wonderful anniversary with a little help from the pulps!  Not only were these covers illustrated by some of the finest artists working in the business but they also provide a clue as to how people imagined life on the Moon before Neil Armstrong first stepped out of the capsule.

by Albert Drake

by Edmund Emshwiller

by Frank Frazetta

by Howard V. Brown

by Joe Orlando

by Lawrence Sterne Stevens

by Robert Graef

by Roger Kastel

by Walter Popp

by John Melo

 

The Spectacular Covers of Startling Stories


by Earle Bergey

Startling Stories was a sci-fi pulp magazine that ran from 1939 through 1955.  It went through many different editors and formats during that time but one thing that was always consistent was the quality of the magazine’s covers.  Though most of the covers were done by Earle Bergey, a few other notable pulp artists also made contributions to the magazine.  Below is a small sampling of the spectacular covers of Starting Stories!

by Alex Schomburg

by Earle Bergey

by Earle Bergey

by Earle Bergey

by Earle Bergey

by Earle Bergey

by Earle Bergey

by Earle Bergey

by Earle Bergey

by Edmund Emshwiller

by Edmund Emshwiller

by Howard V. Brown

by Howard V. Brown

by Howard V. Brown

by Rudolph Belarski

by Rudolph Belarski

by Rudolph Belarski

by Walter Popp

Celebrate Dinosaur Day With The Pulps!


by Alex Schomburg

Happy Dinosaur Day!  Today is the day when we  celebrate the former rulers of our planet!  Dinosaurs were alwasy a popular subject with the pulps.  Pulp magazines were full of stories about modern-day dinosaurs and speculation about why the real ones when extinct.  Putting a dinosaur on the cover of a magazine or a paperback was a good way to catch the attention of readers all over.  Today, let’s celebrate Dinosaur Day with the help of the pulps!

Artist Unknown

Artist Unknown

by Edmund Emshwiller

by Frank R. Paul

by George Gross

by Howard V. Brown

by J. Allen St. John

by J. Allen St. John

by Lawrence Sterne Stevens

by Thomas Beecham

Happy Dinosaur Day!

by Jerome Podwil

The Fantastic Covers of Fantastic


by Ed Valigursky

Fantastic was a magazine that featured stories of fantasy, horror, and science fiction.  It ran from 1952 to 1980, outlasting the majority of its competition and spinning off several other “Fantastic” magazines.  Eventually, after sells started to slow down in the 70s, Fantastic merged with Amazing Stories.  Today, issues of Fantastic are highly sought after by collectors, both for their stories and their covers.

Here are a few of the fantastic covers of Fantastic!

by Ed Valigursky

by Ed Valigursky

by Edmund Emshwiller

by George Schelling

by George Schelling

by Leo Summers

by Leo Summers

by Lloyd Buckingham

by Lloyd Buckingham

by Robert Frankenberg

The Covers of Fantastic Universe


by Edmund Emshwiller

It’s a new year and I don’t know about you but I feel like looking to the future.  From 1953 to 1960, Fantastic Universe did just that.  It was one of the many sci-fi magazines to be published in the 50s.  While it was never as financially successful as some of the other magazines of the age, it has since been acclaimed for the quality of its writing and for its covers!

Here, to get 2022 off to a good start, are a few of the covers of Fantastic Universe:

by Virgil Finlay

by Alex Schomburg

by Alex Schomburg

by Ed Moritz

by Frank Kelly Freas

by Leo Margulies

by Virgil Finlay

by Virgil Finlay

by Virgil Finlay

by Virgil Finlay

by Virgil Finlay

The Covers of If


1957, by Edmund Emshwiller

If was science fiction magazine that was published from 1952 to 1974, by Quinn Publications.  Though If was never more than a modest success as far as sales went, it still published work from authors like Harlan Ellison, Robert A. Heinlin, and Larry Niven.  It also featured some of the best covers in the business.  Here are a few of the covers of If magazine:

1952, by Henry Jones

1952, by Martin Key

1952, by Ralph Joiner

1952, by Ralph Joiner

1954, by Ken Fagg

1955, by Frank Kelly Freas

1959, by Frank Kelly Freas

1959, by John Pederson

1959, by John Perderson

1962, by Virgil Finlay

1965, by Richard McKenna

Beware The Tentacles Of October!


by John Newton Howitt

Are you scared of tentacles?

Whether they’re reaching down from the sky or coming out of the water, the idea of being grabbed and, even worse, squeezed by several slimy tentacles is a scary one!  Perhaps that’s why it was such a popular image during the pulp age.  Below is just a sampling of some of the era’s tentacle horror, courtesy of some of the best artists to work in the pulps!

by Earle Bergey

by Alexander Leydenfrost

by Edmund Emshwiller

by Hugh Joseph Ward

by L.B. Cole

by Lou Fine

by Rafael DeSoto

by Robert Bonfils

by Ron Embleton

by Rudolph Belarski