57 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.
56 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 show how people imagined life on the Moon before Neil Armstrong took his one small step.
by Paul Orban
First published in 1930 and still going today under the name Analog, Astounding has had many different names of the past 94 years but one thing that has always remained consistent has been the strong covers. Below, for your October pleasure, is just a tiny sampling of the astounding covers of Astounding!
by William Timmins
by Hans W. Wessolowski
by Hans W. Wessolowski
by Howard V. Brown
by Hans W. Wessolowski
by Hans W. Wessolowski
by Howard V. Brown
by Hans W. Wessolowski
by Frank Kelly Freas
by Paul Orban
Amazing Detective Tales started out as a pulp magazine called Scientific Detective Monthly. The first issue of Scientific Detective Monthly was published in January of 1930 but the low sales convinced the publisher that audiences were turned off by the word “Scientific.” In June, Scientific Detective Tales was rebooted as Amazing Detective Tales, with covers that combined horror and crime. Unfortunately, the title change did not lead to greater sales and Amazing Detective Tales was cancelled after five issues. The covers, which were done by some of the best artists working in the pulps, remain highly sought by collectors.
Here are the five covers of Amazing Detective Tales:
by John Ruger
by John Ruger
by Earle Bergey
by John Ruger
by Howard V. Brown
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
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
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
by Howard V. Brown
That would shock me too! This cover is from 1930.
By Howard V. Brown
Educated at the Chicago Art Institute, illustrator Howard V. Brown is considered, along with Leo Morey, Frank R. Paul, and H.W. Wesson, to be one of the big four science fiction illustrators of the 1930s. Over the course of his long and prolific career, Brown did covers for such magazines as Scientific American, Astounding Stories, and Thrilling Wonders. His work continues to inspire science fiction illustrators to this day.
Through the Shattered Lens 