Rafael DeSoto covers on my new illustrator spotlight blog

Started a new blog on illustrators sometime ago but haven't found time to do more posts :-). Hopefully this post makes up for the gap between posts.

https://illustratorspotlight.blogspot.com/2020/01/rafael-desoto-art-teacher-illustrator.html

J.C. Leyendecker exhibition of illustrations

Wondering what to do as vacation time approaches? Go to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, of course, and find out what these two are looking at.

A new exhibition at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Leyendecker and the Golden Age of American Illustration, includes 42 original paintings and 101 Saturday Evening Post covers from the National Museum of American Illustration in Newport, Rhode Island,  and the  American Illustrators Gallery in New York, NY., as well as other materials related to Leyendecker’s work in advertising throughout his five-decade career. Click here for tickets

A couple of photos from the exhibit:

If you go there, send me some photos :-). For those who can't go there in person, you know what they say: Those who can, travel. Those who can't, read a book. 

PS: If you're thinking of picking up a Leyendecker cover, be prepared to part with a serious amount of cash. A recent sale of a cover illustration for the Popular Magazine by Leyendecker fetched nearly a quarter of a million dollars.

Crazy Cows and Horrified Horses - The western art of George Harrison Wert

I like pulp covers, but i have to confess that most of the people portrayed on the covers had a total lack of expression comparable to the Great Stoneface, Buster Keaton himself. They could be dealing with a rogue elephant, a runaway stagecoach or a snarling man eating beast, and they would serenely confront them, as if the artist were trying to show Buddha vs. Beast.

Artist Robert G. Harris - article in Arizona Highways

From 1934-37, Robert G. Harris painted more than 70 covers for pulp magazines. Almost two-thirds of those were for Street and Smith's Wild West Weekly, and a few more western covers for the Thrilling magazine group. David Saunders' Pulp Artists site has a nice biographical article on him here.

This article by Amy Abrams about his work in Arizona Highways magazine has some great photos of the artist at work, and him and his wife posing for covers. A couple of his cover paintings featured in the article below:

Thrilling Ranch Stories, July 1935 cover by R.G. Harris

Cover for Complete Stories, April 1936 by R.G. Harris
His wife was the model who posed for the woman on the cover

If anyone knows where the third photo in the article was used for a cover or interior, leave a note in the comments and let us know.

John Philip Falter - biographical article about the artist

John Philip Falter was a fine artist who did a few covers for the pulps, all western themed. He is better known for having done more than 100 covers for the Saturday Evening Post between 1943 and 1971.

His pulp covers (images taken from the FictionMags Index):

Western Story Magazine, November 7, 1931 cover by J.P. Falter

Western Story Magazine, December 5, 1931 cover by J.P. Falter

Action Stories, March 1932 cover by J.P. Falter

Action Novels, April 1932 cover by J.P. Falter

Action Novels, Aug/Sep 1932 cover by J.P. Falter

Street and Smith's Wild West Weekly, Aug 20. 1932 cover by J.P. Falter

An excellent biographical article on him can be found in the History Nebraska society's journal, titled "THE ILLUSTRATOR'S PENCIL: John Falter from Nebraska to the Saturday Evening Post" by Deb Arenz: https://history.nebraska.gov/sites/history.nebraska.gov/files/doc/publications/NH2012JFalter.pdf. The article (and perhaps the artist himself) get the date of his first cover wrong, I found two earlier Western Story covers from 1931 which, coincidentally, i had submitted to the FictionMags Index about a year ago.

But it has some great photos of the artist at work, including the models he used for his pulp covers. There's also an entire museum dedicated to him in Fall City, Nebraska. If you can't visit it, the next best thing is the video here:

Enjoy.

Adventure cover artist - Roy J. Pomeroy

You may remember an earlier article i had done on Notable Artists of Adventure magazine. Among those artists was a Roy Pomeroy, who won the first ever Oscar for Special Effects. I came across some photos of him as well as a very detailed biography of him on a genealogical blog. Thought you might like to read it.

Adventure, January 30, 1922 cover by Roy J. Pomeroy

Embed from Getty Images

Roy J. Pomeroy (picture courtesy Getty Images)

His biography in 2 parts was posted on a blog with genealogical information about Pomeroys in America:

Roy Jobbins Pomeroy, Oscar Winner and Early Hollywood Special Effects Technician: The Life of an Artist

Roy Pomeroy, The life of an Artist Part II: From England to Ohio and New York

It's a comprehensive and interesting profile of a multi-talented man who found a niche at the beginning of the film industry and covers his life from his birth in Colonial India to his death in Los Angeles in 1947.

M. Leone Bracker - illustrator,poster designer

M(ichael) Leone Bracker was the artist who painted the cover illustration for the first issue of Adventure magazine, for the serial novel “Yellow Men and Gold” by the author Gouverneur Morris. He was a prominent magazine and advertising illustrator who was well known for his war poster designs.

Ilustrator M. Leone Bracker c. 1912

Rare interview with a pulp illustrator - Creig Flessel

I was recently looking through some issues of Unknown magazine and came across some illustrations by the artist Creig Flessel. I came across an interview with him, and I didn't see it linked in any of the usual places. Here it is:

http://www.tcj.com/the-creig-flessel-interview/

Very interesting account of his entire career, including working for Street and Smith and then going on to comics.




Unknown 1940 April - Illustration for He Shuttles (author Theodore Sturgeon) by Creig Flessel

Some beautiful covers from the Elks magazine by Edgar F. Wittmack

[Continuing the run of beautiful cover art from The Elks magazine. This time the artist is Edgar F. Wittmack]



Cover Illustration for The Elks magazine, April 1926, by Edgar F. Wittmack



Cover Illustration for The Elks magazine, September 1927, by Edgar F. Wittmack



Cover Illustration for The Elks magazine, December 1928, by Edgar F. Wittmack



Cover Illustration for The Elks magazine, June 1930, by Edgar F. Wittmack



Cover Illustration for The Elks magazine, February 1931, by Edgar F. Wittmack



Cover Illustration for The Elks magazine, September 1933, by Edgar F. Wittmack

Pulp Artist's site: Gloria Stoll Karn

She has done covers for Black Mask, Dime Mystery, Detective Tales, and New Detective. Also Rangeland Romances, All-Story Love, New Love, Love Book, Love Short Stories, Love Novels, Romance, and Thrilling Love magazines.

In addition, she did interior illustrations for Argosy magazine.

Her website at http://gloriastollkarn.com/ has some of her cover artwork and contact information.

Surely a worthy candidate for guest of honor at a pulp convention.

Some illustrators of Blue Book magazine

[Originally appeared in Blue Book, April 1938]

 

Who’s Who in Blue Book

Among the Illustrators

 

 

	Austin Briggs   He was born in a private car on a railway siding in Minnesota; for his father was an electrical engineer engaged in revising a telegraph system, and his wife traveled with him. . . . Later the family settled in Detroit, and there, Mr. Briggs won a scholarship in an art school that started him on his career as an illustrator. He moved to New York in 1928 and since that time his work has appeared in Collier’s, Pictorial Review and other magazines as well as in Blue Book. He is married and the father of two children—and is a table-tennis expert (heaven help you if he hears you call it ping-pong!) At the left is his own idea of what he looks like.
George Avison   He lives at Norwalk, Conn., which was his birthplace. He got his training at the New York School of Art under William M. Chase and Edward Penfield, and was also a pupil of Frederick John. Besides his work as an illustrator he has designed several houses in the early American style, on which he is an authority, and has painted many landscapes. In the field of mural decoration an outstanding example of his work is a panel thirty-four feet long in the New Canaan Town Hall. At present he is assisting in the design of murals for the New York World’s Fair.		
	Frederic Anderson   “I was born in 1894 in Cambridge, Mass.,” Mr. Anderson reports. “My parents were born in Finland. My father followed the sea. As a boy, I wanted to do the same, and my first drawings were of ships. I moved to Philadelphia, where I had my art training, and was graduated from the Industrial Arts School, and worked for some of the magazines. Enlisted in an illustrators’ unit—dissected, and drew operations for a year, making a medical history of the war! The armistice was signed, and I’d not got over. Painted some portraits of generals, and came on home, back to work for the magazines. Bought a farm in Chester Co., Penn., but am now located in New York, taking art as a vocation.”
Peter Kuhlhoff   Everyone calls him Pete, though that is not the name his parents gave him—he’s that kind of fellow. He was born in Emporia, Kansas, out where they raise tall corn and measure their men by the yard—he stands six feet, seven. He was graduated from the University of Missouri as an electrical engineer; and “before he went wrong” (his own phrase) he was a specialist in installing telephone systems. Since he came to New York his drawings and lithographs have won increasing recognition. He is an expert pistol-shot and a candid-camera addict.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pulp in the mainstream - article on Margaret Brundage in The Atlantic magazine

I just came across an article in the Feb 1, 2013 issue of The Atlantic magazine on Margaret Brundage, with cover illustrations from Weird Tales. Thought you might like it as well.

See http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/01/the-revenge-of-margaret-brundage-the-queen-of-the-pulps/272715/ for the full article and information about a forthcoming book on her.