PULP COVER FRIDAY PRESENTS SCIENCE FICTION (WHAT ELSE?)
It took awhile, but 1939 saw the debut of a science fiction magazine called SCIENCE FICTION. You’d think they would have thought of that title a little earlier.
Apparently it lasted only until 1941, for a total of 12 issues, but appearances are deceiving. The publisher had another zine imaginatively called FUTURE and for a number of years they combined, split, changed titles, recombined, in a bewildering array of changes that you’d need a PhD to understand (or even care about). Though it did disappear occasionaly, sometimes for a number of years, it had a long run in the 1950s as a digest magazine. They added “The Original” to the title, so it became THE ORIGINAL SCIENCE FICTION STORIES (STORIES had also been added at some point in its tortured history).
I’m more familiar with its 1950′s incarnation (though, upon seeing these covers I immediately ran out and bid on two issues from the 1939-1941 run), which was edited by Robert “Doc” Lowndes, who seems to have been a kindly and likeable guy who did a remarkable job with a budget that wasn’t exactly generous.
The early covers are pretty interesting, and I’ve reproduced most of the 1939-1941 run below. Some are outright weird. So weird, in fact, that I will shower a free something (book, movie, comic, or whatever, after consultation with the winner) on the best explanation for what the heck is going on in one (or both) covers indicated below. I hope to acquire the magazines and report back on what really happened in the stories depicted. For now, its got me beat.
Special Plea For Help: I’m running a little short on ideas for this feature, so please feel free to chime in with an idea, plea, or demand. What other genres would you like to see covered? Westerns? Romance? More detective? I’ve already wrung the zeppelin ‘zines dry, so no luck there. Let me know. Thanks.
Prize Cover: Include explanation, if any, for the lingerie
Prize Cover: I am wordless.
Lingerie explanation. Dressing robot malfunctions and cops need to chase it down and kill it. (Shades of Tom Selleck’s ‘Runaway’)
I can’t help you with the other one. Maybe if I saw a bigger picture on what the hell in at the end of the tube I could hazard a guess.
As for future projects, there tons of great pulp covers out there. Why not try titles like “Short Story” or “Top Notch” which have such a wild variety from month to month.
I can’t help you with the other one. Maybe if I saw a bigger picture on what the hell in at the end of the tube I could hazard a guess.
Grammar Nazis attack!
“Maybe if I saw a bigger picture OF what the hell IS at the end of the tube I could hazard a guess.” Lousy keyboard!
Believe it or not, it’s a tiny crab-like alien.
Good explanation!
Good suggestions, also. I’ll look into those titles. Variety is nice. But, really, who gets tired of crazy aloiens and robots running off with scantily-clad women. Or men, as the case may be.
I never get tired of crazy aliens and robots running off with scantily-clad women. And I love any pulp with Spicy in the title,
There definitely is a theme in those covers, isn’t there? 8-).
Makes you wonder if the artist (looks mainly like the same guy — Frank R. Paul — isn’t working through some, shall we say, issues? Separation anxiety?
Second cover!
Pith helmet girl is being fed into an alien food processor. She gets ground into mulch and crab-boy at the end of the tube gets his fresh soylent green. Yum Yum.
What strange covers…Bunsen Burner Girl is my favorite, tho some of the others are up there (out there?).
What strange covers…Bunsen Burner Girl is my favorite, tho some of the others are up there (out there?). The woman inlingerie held by robot and shot at by Nazis in sidecars is certainly noteworthy but so is the title of the short novel….Planet of the Knob Heads. Who wouldn’t want to read that Stanton Coblentz classic?
The red chicken carrying off the chick begs for a caption: *This* one doesn’t taste like chicken!
Came across this mishmash of Doc Savage & Spider and Godzilla and…
http://www.miscmayhemprods.com/doc/#189
Those are some seriously great covers. I recommend everyone take a look.
Could Doc have finally found a totally appropriate girlfried in Buffy?
I’m sure there’s some fanfic somewhere that explores this possibility.
Also, knob heads. The mind reels.
I have read me some Stanton Coblentz. Not eager to repeat the experience, but I would take one for the team and read “Planet of the Knob Heads,” if I ever get a copy. I did win one issue on eBay and am eagerly awaiting it’s arrival.
Joe’s explanation for the Knob Heads is pretty good, I must admit. But are those red blurs on the road in the background meant to represent additional robot(s)? And could there actually be a white blur in the ‘arms’ of the red blur representing another scantily clad woman? I’m thinking our strange legged robots are on some kind of poorly thought out rescue mission to steal back the woman-folk from the city in the background. Clearly the women are being kept in some kind of harem. Hence their state of undress. And some kind of mind control would explain the rather blank expresssion.
I’ve got to think the second one depicts some kind of labour camp on an Earth taken over by the little crab aliens. The crabs, being small and weak, have developed some kind of exoskeleton suit to protect themselves (for some reason in the form of giant ostriches). Maybe they even learned from the mistakes of the Martians in War of the Worlds and the suit protects them from our environment and germs. Anyway, I assume we are either witnessing a failed jail break or punishment for a job poorly done. Of course, the aliens being aliens attack the woman first. Fortunately our hero has managed to sneak in a gun to help even up the odds a little.
And we’ve got a last-minute winner here. Details count.
Michael, I think you’ve got my email. Let me know what you need. I’m not sure what WC you may have already. I haven’t received my copies of FORT FREAK, yet, and the copies of the Tor volumes I have are not signed by a lot of people (I virtually sold out at the Comic Expo), but the good news is that Bubonicon is only a couple of weeks away and Steve Leigh will be a guest, so I’ll be able to add him to the list of usual usual suspects as I replenish my stock.
Also, I do have some copies of the old Marvel wild card comic sitting around (Have to check to see if I have a full set), as well as some miscellaneous stuff like a an extra DVD of THE MYSTERIANS (one of my favorite Japanese sf movies), as well as some copies of my solo efforts, and a few copies of CAREER GUIDE TO YOUR JOB IN HELL, the recent anthology I have a story in.