WEIRD TALES VOL 8 #6 Magazine Cover

 

The daddy of the fantasy magazines, Rural Publishing's Weird Tales was at the vanguard of science fiction and horror pulp for much of the twenties and thirties before it was overtaken during World War II. Before then however the contents were written by some incredible talent, including Robert Bloch, Nictzin Dyalhis, Clark Ashton Smith, Seabury Quinn and H P Lovecraft. The original magazine folded in 1954, though a zombie version is still running.

WALLPAPER BLOUSE art

A classic from Al Moore, originally produced for the Saturday Evening Post. Wonder which one of them had to go home and change? 

WENCH #1 magazine cover

The poor girl looks like her hair collapsed and the fly-by-night publishers didn't have the hairspray or colour film to have another try. That they straight up named the thing Wench scores huge points too.

Detective Fiction Weekly September 21, 1940 magazine cover

Once an absurd event it took the Emmett Watson to render it, now a weekly event in American politics.

Fantastic Adventures Vol. 1 #3 Life on Mercury art

Frank R Paul's wonderfully imaginative speculative art of creatures from various celestial bodies enlivened many an early edition of Fantastic Adventures. This piece of a Mercurian graced the rear cover of the September 1939 edition.

The Angels #6 magazine cover

Charlie's Angels was massive before Farrah Fawcett's departure, though the name of Ideal Publishing's magazine suggests they maybe didn't bother paying for a licence. What's really curious though is the juxtaposition of promises of "naughty" Farrah centrefold action with beauty tips, suggesting the magazine was pushing for two very different target markets.

Ginger Stories #8 magazine cover

The flapper movement of the late 1920s inspired a flush of magazines that mixed racy (for the time) stories with humour, fashion and the like. Ginger Stories was one such title and not only came from a time when "ginger" meant "spicy" but also when "pungent" had positive connotations. 

Mechanix Illustrated June 1959 magazine cover

Artist Frank Tinsley's vision of the future really was a lot more interesting than anything boring old reality managed.