The Horror Covers of Argosy


July, 1923. Cover by Stockton Mulford

Argosy was one of the earliest and longest-lived of the American pulp magazines.  Initially, it was published from 1882 to 1978.  It was subsequently revived from 1989 to 1994 and then a second time in 2005 and 2006.  Over the years, there were many different variations on the publication’s name but no matter what exactly Argosy was called, each issue featured stories by prominent pulp writers.  Argosy published all genres, from adventure to mystery to science fiction to westerns to horror.  The covers were done by some of the prominent of the pulp artists.  Here are just a few horror-themed covers from Argosy:

June, 1924. Cover by Stockton Mulford

February, 1931. Cover by Paul Stahr.

March, 1931. Cover by Paul Stahr.

June, 1931. Cover by Paul Stahr.

June, 1933. Cover by Paul Stahr.

October, 1933. Cover by C.C. Beall

1934, January. Cover by Paul Stahr.

December, 1934. Cover by C.C. Beall

December, 1936. Cover by Rudolph Belarski

July, 1938. Cover by Rudolph Belarski

Artist Profile: Stockton Mulford (1886 — 1960)


Born in Pennsylvania but raised in California and Oregon, Stockton Mulford lost his right eye in a childhood accident but he never lost his ambition to become an artist.  With a glass eye and a painter’s easel that was given to him by his father, Mulford worked part-time as a bank clerk while taking art classes during the weekend.  In 1907, deciding that it was all or nothing, Mulford moved to New York City and devoted himself full time to art.

After studying at the Art Students League,  Mulford found quick success as an illustrator and become one of the busier artists of the pulp era.  After he retired from illustrating in 1946, he moved to Connecticut and, at the age of 60, he became an expert cabinet maker and found a second career restoring furniture for local museums.  He eventually passed away in 1960, at the age of seventy-four.

Below is just a small sampling of Stockton Mulford’s work:

Art Profile: The Covers of Fantastic Adventures


Fantastic Adventures was an extremely successful and influential pulp magazine that was published from 1939 to 1953.  They published a combination of fantasy, horror, and adventure, all distinguished by a more light-hearted approach than some of the other pulp magazines of the era.

Even better, Fantastic Adventures was one of the few pulp magazines to give proper credit to its cover artists:

by Harold W. McCauley

by Ed Valigursky

by Raymond Naylor

by Robert Gibson Jones

by Stockton Mulford

by Harold W. McCauley

by Robert Gibson Jones

by Rod Ruth

by Walter Parke

by Arnold Kohn