The Art Of The Pulps - An Illustrated History (edited by Douglas Ellis, Ed Hulse & Robert Weinberg). I found the handling of this book a bit of a chore. Maybe it's mostly its square-ish shape, but this 11-by-10-inch tome just always felt too hefty to wield comfortably (though, mathematically, it's only 20% too big in regards to our manageability 'window'). Additionally, the text-pages are white letters on deep black pages - still very readable, but those pristine black pages unerringly indicate where you've held them, so you spend so much focus trying to prevent that. It has to be said that the reproductions of all the pulp covers seem incredibly clear and vibrant. Out of the book's 240 pages, 35 feature a single large image and another 147 gather together two or three smaller ones. Of the 56 text pages, 19 share information about the artists (as opposed to the themes, stories, publishers & writers). The chapters are laid out with the titles: Birth Of The Pulps, In Search Of Adventure, Cops-Crooks-&-Private-Dicks, Riding The Range, Above The Clouds & In the Trenches, Armchair Athletics, Love On The Newsstands, The Horror!-The Horror!, Adventures In Other Worlds, When We Needed A Hero, Adding More Than A Pinch Of Spice, Wizards with a Brush, Wizards With A Pen, and a afterword & a great index. Every image is accompanied by an anecdotal caption, detailing the publication & issue, along with an incredible effort to identify almost every artist. Those anecdotes seem to actually hold the bulk of the digestible factoids about what you are looking at. Anyway, the 'well-presented' painters found here are: Allen Anderson*, Walter Baumhofer (2), Earle Bergey (4), Frederick Blakeslee, Enoch Bolles, John A. Coughlin (2), George Gross, Robert G. Harris, Don Hewitt, Arnold Kohn, Tom Lovell**, Delos Palmer, Frank R. Paul (2), Sidney Riesenberg, Hubert Rogers, George Rozen, Norman Saunders (2)**, Paul Stahr, Lawrence Sterne Stevens, Joseph Szokoli, Stephen Waite, H.J. Ward (3)***, Stanley Wood, Charles Wren, and UNKNOWN (2). * - Note that the 'well-presented' piece here by Anderson can additionally be found so in his own collection on The List. ** - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Lovell, and Saunders, cannot additionally be found so in their own collections on The List. *** - In regards to the 'well-presented' pieces here by Ward, some, but not all can be found so in his own collection on The List. other pulp cover collections Collectors Press Pulp Cover collections. Pulp Art - Original Cover Paintings for the Great American Pulp Magazines The Classic Era Of American Pulp Magazines Fantastic Science Fiction Art 1926-1954 Cheap Thrills - An Informal History Of The Pulp Magazine [BELOW THE LINE] The Pulps: Fifty Years Of American Pop Culture [BELOW THE LINE] The Adventure House Guide To The Pulps [BELOW THE LINE] The Dime Detectives [BELOW THE LINE] other IDW releases Roy G. Krenkel: Father Of Heroic Fantasy - A Centennial Celebration The Art Of Jim Starlin - A Life In Words And Pictures Dave Stevens: Covers & Stories The Art Of Pulp Fiction - An Illustrated History Of Vintage Paperbacks Alien Invasions! The History Of Aliens In Pop Culture Michael Wm. Kaluta Sketchbook Series vol.1 & 2 SEND US A COMMENT (goes via e-mail - all info kept anonymous, but comment itself may be shared . . .) |