PULP ART - Original Cover Paintings for the Great American Pulp Magazines

Lesser, Robert (editor) (Roger T. Reed; Fred Cook; Shirley Steeger; Forrest J. Ackerman; Steve Kennedy; Sam Moskowitz; Walt Reed; Jim Steranko; John de Soto; Danton Burroughs; Darrell C. Richardson; Alison M. Scott; James van Hise; Zina Saunders)

ISBN 10: 0517200589 / ISBN 13: 9780517200582

Published by Gramercy Books, New York, 1997

About this Item

(viii) 182 pp. Black boards lettered in red on the spine; headband; illustrated in colour. Lightly rubbed on the corners of the dustjacket; no interior markings. The Contents are: Introduction: Populist Culture and Pop Art: Essays: The Pulps: Their Weaknesses Were Their Strengths by Roger T. Reed; The Cover Artists and Their Publishers by Fred Cook; Yes, I Was There by Shirley Steeger. Science Fiction, Science Fact and Fantasy: Painted Answers: Essays: When Pulp Art Was in Flower by Forrest J. Ackerman; Collecting Pulp Paintings: Dramatic Imagery and Color by Steve Kennedy; The Science Fiction Pulps by Sam Moskowitz. The New Knights: Essays: The Pulps and Their Illustrators: A Brief Survey by Walt Reed; The Lure of the Pulps: An Artist's Perspective by Jim Steranko; Remembering Rafael de Soto by John de Soto. The Noblest Savage: Essays: Important Pulp Paintings in the Burroughs Collection by Danton Burroughs; A Conversation with J. Allen St. John, Dean of Fantasy Illustrators by Darrell C. Richardson; The Paper They're Printed on by Alison M. Scott. Ladies in Terror: Essays: Painting the Story by John Locke; The Art That Dared to be Wild by James van Hise; Remembering Norman Saunders by Zina Saunders. To Dare the Devil: Aviation, War and Western Art: Essays: The Cover Art of the Air War Pulps by George Hocutt; Editing the Western Pulps by Bruce Cassidy; and Where Have All the Paintings Gone? by Charles G. Martignette; followed by appendices and an index. Size: 4to.

Seller Inventory # 222028

Bibliographic Details

• Title: PULP ART - Original Cover Paintings for the Great American Pulp Magazines
• Publisher: Gramercy Books, New York
• Publication Date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0517200589
• ISBN 13: 9780517200582
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Printing - First Thus.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Book Type: Book
• Seller catalogs:
  • Art

About this title

Synopsis

The first book to feature the original paintings created for American pulp magazine covers, this unique reference offers an authoritative text, historical surveys, vintage letters, 125 full-page images, and much more.

Review

Several famous fantasy and science fiction authors had their beginning in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s, including Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Fritz Leiber, Isaac Asimov, and Ray Bradbury (not to mention Dashiell Hammett and Tennessee Williams). There were also crime fighters so popular they had their own magazines, such as the still-popular Doc Savage and the Shadow. But besides the writers and the series heroes, there was yet another element for which the lurid pulp magazines (called "pulp" in reference to the cheap grade of paper they were printed on by the millions) are fondly remembered to this day: the cover art. Robert Lesser offers a fascinating history from the perspective of the commercial artists who produced this often less-than-respectable work, thereby bringing the acclaim that these now mostly forgotten artists richly deserve. The author also includes 18 essays about various aspects of the long extinct industry, from such legendary SF scholars as Forrest J. Ackerman and Sam Moskowitz. Needless to say, the book is also stuffed with some amazing artwork. Pulp Art is a perfect introduction to a once nearly lost aspect of pop culture, which just now is being properly appreciated. --Stanley Wiater