Collector Press's Pulp cover collections
   The Incredible Pulps
   Pulp Culture - The Art Of Fiction Magazines
                                             (2006 / 1998 - Collectors Press)

The Incredible Pulps (2006) First, make sure you note this book's smaller size, 6.5-by-5.5 inches. Subtitled A GALLERY OF FICTION MAGAZINE ART, this book has 176 pages, 129 of which are reserved to each present a single pulp magazine cover reproduced so as to fill up the page - so not terribly small, but most people would want them larger, at least the size of the original magazines themselves. Then there are another 25 pages that present another three covers each. There are eight pages of text giving an overview of the birth and ultimate demise of the pulp phenomenon. The collection is broken down into four groups: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Adventure & Western (with the distinction between the middle two not really clear at all) and each of those sections have title pages and an accompanying art-piece that's a blown-up detail of an included cover. The images are each of the entire magazine covers themselves, with the title logo and promotional text. All the covers are captioned with the magazine title, publication date (not always correct) and either the painter's name or the designation 'Artist Unknown'. In that first Sci-Fi section, the designation seems to be seen way too often - unnecessarily so, as all but two were easily determinable a decade ago when this was published. For example, five or more were clearly known as Frank R. Paul covers, gracing magazines that he was known as the main artist for. Anyway, with not a whole lot of collections featuring just the art so prominently, that leaves a book like this, even with its flaws, still a lot of fun to page thru. The artists who got a full-page reproduction of their work are: Henry Alan, Allen Anderson (2)***, Lyman Anderson, Walter M. Baumhofer (7), Rudolph Belarski (5), Earle Bergey (4), Jack Binder, Howard V. Brown, Edd Cartier, Emery Clarke, C.B. Colby, John A. Coughlin (2), Fred Craft (2), Gerard Delano (3), Stan Drake, Richard R. Epperly, Virgil Finlay (3), Frank Kelly Freas**, Robert Fuqua, Robert G. Harris, Laurence Herndon, Don Hewitt, Lejaren Hiller, John Newton Howitt (5), Robert Gibson Jones, Stephen Lawrence (4), Alexander Leydenfrost, Richard Lillis, Tom Lovell (3)**, Erich Lundgren, Milton Luros (2), Leo Morey (3), H.C. Murphy, Frank R. Paul (12), V.E. Pyles, Sidney Risenberg, Hubert Rogers (2), George Rozen (3), Jerome Rozen, John Ruger (2), Rod Ruth, Norman Saunders, J.W. Scott (2), May Sherman, Malvin Singer, J. Allen St. John, Modest Stein, Dalton Stevens, Lawrence Sterne Stevens (4), Peter Stevens, Allen Store, James Stuart, Lawrence D. Toney, H.J. Ward (2)***, R.C. Wardel, Jack Warren, Emmett Watson (2), Wesso (2), Rudolph W. Zirm (3), and UNKNOWN (15).

** - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Freas, Lovell, and Cartier cannot additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

*** - Note that in regards to the 'well-presented' pieces here by Anderson, and Ward, some, but not all, can additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

Pulp Culture - The Art Of Fiction Magazines (1998) (by Frank M. Robinson & Lawrence Davidson) This collection does not score as well as the one above. Out of its 206 pages, we count 170 of them as dominated by the art, and out of those, 52 each have a 'featured' reproduction. Not to its credit, more than a handful of those are small-ish images accompanied by a bit of text and a whole lot of negative space. Anyway, the other 118 art-pages are gatherings of multiple pulp covers (and some of those sport large reproductions, albeit cluttered . . .). The text pages are for the book's introduction and explications about the pulp sub-genres throughout the chapters called: In The Beginning, Tales Of Timbuktu (Adventures In Exotic Lands), Gals-Gats-And Gumshoes (You've Gotta have A Gimmick), Writers Of The Purple Sage (Westward Ho!), The Shadow Knows (Super Heroes And Super Villians), Nightmares On Main Street (The Mad-Slasher Pulps), Come Up And See Me Sometime (Love-Sin-And Sex), Winning One For The Gipper (Teenage Dreams Of Glory), From Bayonets To BiPlanes (Dawn Patrols), The Rocketeers Have Shaggy Ears (Science Fiction Addiction), Gorilla Of The Gas Bags (From Adventure Stories To Zepplin Tales), Author!-Author! (The Editors Tell It Like It Was), and Pulpliography (Dealers In Pulp Magazines And Related Material). I'm looking at one of the editions produced around the turn of the century, but note that there is a suggestion that the 2007 edition (the one with the pirate on the cover) may be superior - one of the authors, Robinson, opined "They got it right" and indicated that the scans were all re-done and even better (as well as then having an index that had been neglected earlier). No original paintings are presented, but rather the covers in their full typographic glory. The cover images are each captioned with the magazine title & date, and identifies the artist whenever possible (also there's usually a short factoid or a comment-from-the-peanut-gallery). The artists of the 'well-presented' covers are: Henry Alan, Lyman Anderson, Walter Baumhofer (2), Frederick Blakeslee (2), Hannes Bok (2), C.B. Colby, Nick Eggenhofer, Virgil Finlay, Harry Fisk, Marshall Frantz, Graves Gladney, Robert A. Graef, George Gross (3), Laurence Herndon, J.C. Leyendecker, Frank McAleer, Leo Morey, H.C. Murphy, Frank R. Paul, Clinton Pettee, V.E. Pyles, Sidney Riesenberg, George Rozen, Norman Saunders (2)***, Jes Schlaikjer, H.W. Scott, Malvin Singer, J. Allen St. John (2)*, Modest Stein (2), Peter Stevens, Herbert Morton Stoops, Frank Tinsley, H.J. Ward (2)***, N.C. Wyeth, Rudolph Zirm, and UNKNOWN (7).

* - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by St. John can additionally be found so in his own collection on The List.

*** - Note that in regards to the the 'well-presented' pieces here by Saunders, and Ward, some, but not all, can additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

other pulp cover collections

Savage Art