On hold for a month or so

First of all, thanks for reading my blog. I am especially thankful to those who took time to comment on my work, either by leaving a post on this blog, sending me an email, or sharing my articles on social media.

You have really kept me motivated, and I am very grateful to be part of such a community of readers and (th)inkers.

I am working through some life stuff - nothing bad, just don't have the time to research and blog.  Should be back in a month or so.

Meanwhile, if you would like to write an guest article for this blog, you could reach me on email:

pulpflakes _AT_ gmail DOT com.

Replace _AT_ with @ and DOT with . to get the email address.

Readers may also want to pay attention to the recent comments on the articles on Gordon Young and H.D. Couzens.

Mystery artist revealed: Laurence Sterne Stevens

The illustration I posted last week was by Laurence Sterne Stevens. It was from Adventure magazine, January 1944 and was an illustration for the poem Vulture Blood by Helen von Kolnitz Hyer, who went on to become the poet-laureate for South Carolina. It's really a story in poem form. You can read it here.

 He was a professional illustrator who never became as famous as Virgil Finlay, but his style was quite similar, and his interior illustrations for Famous Fantastic Mysteries and Adventure magazine were among his best work.

 Some more illustrations from Stevens

http://beautiful-grotesque.blogspot.com/2012/03/art-of-lawrence-sterne-stevens.html

http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2014/01/16/big-fish/

http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2012/09/25/tentacles-1-the-boats-of-the-glen-carrig/

http://learning2share.blogspot.com/2007/11/happening-upon-few-pulp-sci-fi.html

Hope you enjoyed them.

Guess the artist: illustration for Adventure magazine

I know Blue Book magazine is the pulp that is supposed to have the best illustrations of all of the pulp magazines, and from the few 1940s issues I've read, I've no doubt that on average the illustration quality was much better than other pulps.

But I've also read Adventure in the 1940s and think that was an amazing decade as far as illustration quality. I know these weren't the peak days of the magazine, but the stories are still very readable, and most of the illustrations were quite good, and some are stunning.

I have here an illustration for a poem. Can you guess who the artist was for this amazing illustration? Leave your answers in the comments. I'll post the answer next week along with the poem itself.



Illustration of Mayan priest in Adventure magazine