Pulp Cover Art: A Brief History

Pulp fiction has a bad rep. No, we’re not talking about the inflated price of a milkshake (for all you Tarantino lovers); we’re talking about the genre’s reputation in the art world.

Pulp fiction is defined as popular or sensational writing of “poorer quality.”

The subject matter is often lurid and shocking; however, within the realm of the story is portrayed as normal. The term originated from the cheap wood pulp paper these fantastic, escapist magazines were printed on in the early 1900’s.

Although the pages containing the story were of flimsy quality, the covers used to draw in viewers were colorful, brazen and beautifully rendered. The cheap manufacturing costs allowed publishers to sell an issue for 10 cents, enabling poor and working-class young people to purchase and follow along with these stories of exotic places, crazed villains, beautiful (half-clothed) women and daring rescues.

The prime audience makes perfect sense, as it is one of the least subtle art genres; uncomplicated and unpretentious, with the imagination and maturity of a preteen boy.

Cackling demonic figures, gangsters/soldiers/cowboys, twining leviathans, innocent blonde damsels-in-distress, beings from the future and muscular mustachioed heroes adorn the covers; their bright colors and simple lines akin to hand-drawn comics and pin-ups. The popular tags on this site alone tell you all you need to know about what pulp was all about: helpless women, crime, romance, tough guys, jungle animals, spies, horror, alien attacks, Nazis, torture, Natives and swords – just to name a few.

Some issues delved into the world of sexuality, many of which make apparent the assumptions and world views of that time period – including overt racism, sexism and homophobia. There is a large archive of lesbian cover art to accompany the stories and, while some lesbian and bisexual women at the time may have been glad to see same-sex characters openly explored, the characters were often depicted as man-haters, mentally ill, depraved or dangerous.

Lilly Hiott-Millis at Buzzfeed put together a list of such covers. While interesting to see how societal margins were handled in early 20th century media, it is shocking how blatant and over-the-top some imagery is – and how it seems completely normative for the time. Even more shocking? Some of these suppositions and prejudices still exist today.

What’s interesting is that nobody was safe from pulp covers: these covers depicted negative or fetishistic stereotypes of First Worlders and a variety of ethnic backgrounds.

Pulp itself was a global phenomenon: many countries in Africa – a continent where story telling is an intrinsic part of society – had popular brands of pulp magazines throughout the 1960’s and 80’s. These photo comics, or “look books,” set themselves apart from other genre covers by featuring highly-stylized photographs. These magazines fought back against negative portrayals of race and gave black men their own heroes – dashing gents and adventurous savants – to look to. One such character was Lance Spearman, a James-Bond-esque super spy/detective. He pursued the bad guys, kicked ass and sped through the streets in his Corvette – while still having time to don a cool suit and attract all the babes.

World War II brought with it paper rationing and the decline of the American pulp fiction age. With very real-life crises looming, the public lost interest in the fictional horrors of “the pulps,” and soon the medium of entertainment evolved into film, television, comics and paperbacks. The pulp fiction era, however, was a springboard for many other forms of entertainment of the following decades, such as the hardboiled detective and science fiction genres.

Margaret Brundage was an American illustrator best known for her pulp artwork for the magazine Weird Tales. She attended the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts – Walt Disney was a classmate – but failed to graduate.

During The Prohibition, she worked at a speakeasy called the Dill Pickle Club. She apparently had a taste for the bad boys and, while working at the club, she met a womanizer and former hobo. The two married, had one son, and divorced after 12 years; he was a frequently absent alcoholic and Margaret bore the sole responsibility of supporting the family, which by then included her ailing mother.

From 1933 to 1938 Brundage was the most frequently featured cover artist on Weird Tales, with her work often depicting eroticized females in distress in various stages of undress. She was unique in the fact that she used pastel on illustration board to make her drawings.

Under the pseudonym of simply M. Brundage, she was commonly assumed to be a man. There were often complaints over the sexual nature of her work, and the editor at one point revealed she was female in an attempt to mollify those who took offense. This backfired, as most of the public thought it more indecent for a woman to be in the pulp field. When WT moved editorial offices, a new decency standard was imposed and Brundage’s calling card of nude or semi-nude women was out; there was a further issue of shipping her delicate work to the new offices in another city. She continued to draw until her death at age 75, but spent many of her later years in poverty, unable to secure steady work.

We are inspired by Brundage; she was clearly a woman who marched to the beat of her own drum, even in the more oppressive atmosphere of her times. She seems like someone we’d like to meet up with for a drink, to be spellbound by her stories and experiences. Rest in peace, Margaret. Or, you may prefer not to – a lot of adjectives could be used to describe your wildly interesting life, but “peaceful” isn’t one of them.

Frank Frazetta had an early start as an artist, enrolling in the Brooklyn Academy of Fine Arts at the age of eight. At 16, his first story was published by Tally-Ho Comics, and eventually he was offered a job at Disney, which he turned down. He had other talents as well: he was a good enough baseball player to get offered an official try-out with the New York Giants.

Frazetta ghosted popular strips such as Li’l Abner, Buck Rogers, and Flash Gordon while also creating his own daily comic, Johnny Comet; he then added painting for magazine covers, movie posters, and pulp fiction covers to his repertoire. His interpretation of Conan redefined the genre of sword and sorcery imagery, and helped turned Robert E Howards’ pulp series into a hugely popular franchise; eventually resulting in the casting of Arnold Schwarzenegger in later film versions. His original oil painting used for the cover of Conan the Conqueror sold at auction for $1 million to Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett. Frazetta also worked frequently with the popular writer Edgar Rice Burroughs, who was known for creating the jungle hero Tarzan and the Mars adventurer John Carter.

Francis Ford Coppola invited him to come on set in the Philippines and draw storyboards for Apocalypse Now, which Frazetta declined. A short while afterward, he collaborated with Ralph Bakshi on the 1983 animated film Fire and Ice, which his friend, well-known director Robert Rodriguez, will soon pay homage to with a live-action remake– much like his Sin City tribute to graphic artist Frank Miller. Frazetta also created album art for several bands, including Nazareth. In 1995 he suffered from a stroke that forced him to relearn how to draw with his left hand; dementia began to affect him before his passing in 2010.

Much of Frazetta’s work is very fantasy/sci-fi inspired, which makes it even more incredible that he painted fully from his imagination. He had a life full of opportunity due to his skill, and had such a driven, creative mind; it doesn’t hurt that he looked like he could be a pulp hero in one of his own illustrations, as evidenced by this self portrait. Frank Frazetta left behind an impressive, fantastic legacy which spans many genres, subject matters, interests and mediums. Creators and artists behind The Legend of Zelda and He-Man, amongst many others, cite him as an influence on their lives and work. May he forever live on in the hearts  and minds of aspiring adventurers, explorers, and thrill-seekers of the imagination the world over.

If you’re interested in reading about more pulp illustrators, you can find a broad catalogue here.

Pulp magazines prove once again that art is one of the most important tools of civilization – even if it doesn’t contain deep, philosophical meaning but is rather a simple entertainment of the masses, an escape from reality, or “chewing gum for the eyes.”

Art gives us a glimpse into times before us and enables us to leave snippets of our own society for those who come after. Societal attitudes displayed in certain art forms in the past may seem outdated, politically incorrect, or offensive to us now,  but this is also an important take away – that mankind may be growing, slowly but surely.

 

All images from Flickr Creative Commons