Frank R. Paul - The Dean Of Science Fiction Illustration
(2012 - IDW))

(by Jerry Weist) Weist started formulating this publication a couple of years after contributing to the first book dedicated to this artist and gentlemanly securing that author's good wishes to do so. Then, while subsequently succumbing to cancer, he secured the promise of two good friends to get it across the finish-line after his death. That proves no mean task, but they were able to accomplish it and now this book proves to be superior to its predecessor, FROM THE PEN OF PAUL/FRANK R. PAUL-FATHER OF SCIENCE FICTION ART. Out of this book's 160 pages, 82 of them sport large art reproductions and another 58 each have multiple images pulled together. A large portion of the latter is a visual bibliography of his publication covers (nine to a page). As part of all of that, the book is able to present a rare healthy display of Paul's drawings & illustrations. The remaining pages seem to do a good job of organizing the biographical materials of the man's life. Within the recounting of his part of Hugo Gernsback's driven passion of bringing both science and fiction to the masses, they present Howard V. Brown's cover of the pivotal August 1923 Science And Invention magazine, with its focused conglomeration of fantastical stories. Now then, there is some strangeness around this volume - it sometimes appears for sale under the title "Frank R. Paul Art Book" even though that's always accompanied by a different cover image (that visibly spells out our correct title…). I suspect it is confusion over what must have been a pre-printing promotional image that was different from what was actually realized and yet lazily became a stock image for book-sellers. I have not yet seen an Ebay posting for this book, using actual images, that appear as having anything other than the cover that I have. This confusion seems to have kept viable copies from being find-able on Amazon, so, my link is an Ebay seach.