The WEIRD TALES Thread: Collecting The Unique Magazine 5 5

[detective35]

1 hour ago, RedFury said:

I'm pretty sure the St. John original still exists.  I read a story once where Jack Williamson said he visited the Weird Tales offices and Farnsworth Wright offered him the painting.  He turned it down because he felt he had no place to put it, and regretted it. 

Yes,  it is part of the Robert Lesser collection which is permanently housed in the New Britain Museum!

 

[detective35]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by detective35DF

[Ricksneatstuff]

I only have a handful of this title, some of my favorite Brundage covers, including this one, of course.  
 

[jimjum12]

These three, unless I upgrade, are NFS  GOD BLESS....

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

 

[RedFury]

Weird Tales, Jun 1930

Cover by Hugh Rankin

Cover story is "The Moon of Skulls", a Solomon Kane story by Robert E. Howard.  Also contains a reprinting of one of Lovecraft's best, "The Rats in the Walls". 

[Sarg]

I hope I'm not cancelled for this opinion, but I think the only good Weird Tales cover artists are St. John and Finlay, who, combined, did what? About 1% of the covers? Brundage is a very crude artist. Her women all look like cartoonish kewpie dolls, and her men look like bald or masculine kewpie dolls. Her "Conan" reminds one of Gomer Pyle. CC Senf is worse, Andrew Brosnatch looks like a high school art student, and Lee Coye is just plain ugly and unappealing. A couple of the Bok covers are OK, but not nearly as fine as work he did for others. 

What a wasted opportunity. The editors had plenty of fine artists to choose from in Chicago and NY. They simply chose not to use them. 

 

Edited July 10, 2020 by Sarg
edit

[OtherEric]

11 minutes ago, Sarg said:

I hope I'm not cancelled for this opinion, but I think the only good Weird Tales cover artists are St. John and Finlay, who, combined, did what? About 1% of the covers? Brundage is a very crude artist. Her women all look like cartoonish kewpie dolls, and her men look like bald or masculine kewpie dolls. Her "Conan" reminds one of Gomer Pyle. CC Senf is worse, Andrew Brosnatch looks like a high school art student, and Lee Coye is just plain ugly and unappealing. A couple of the Bok covers are OK, but not nearly as fine as work he did for others. 

What a wasted opportunity. The editors had plenty of fine artists to choose from in Chicago and NY. They simply chose not to use them. 

 

I can respect your opinion, even if I disagree with large parts of it.  Finlay did a LOT more than 1% of the covers, I do like Brundage but will freely grant that her work is in a fairly narrow register and I certainly disagree with those who try to suggest she's the greatest Pulp cover artist.  I like a lot of the Bok covers, personally.

Freas did quite a few covers late in the run that I like as well.

Budget might have gotten in the way of hiring others, I understand that Weird Tales was always more of a niche magazine than a lot of others.

It's too bad Gahan Wilson only showed up in time to have interior art in a couple very late issues... I would have loved to see a cover by him on the classic run.

[Sarg]

7 minutes ago, OtherEric said:

I can respect your opinion, even if I disagree with large parts of it.  Finlay did a LOT more than 1% of the covers, I do like Brundage but will freely grant that her work is in a fairly narrow register and I certainly disagree with those who try to suggest she's the greatest Pulp cover artist.  I like a lot of the Bok covers, personally.

Freas did quite a few covers late in the run that I like as well.

Budget might have gotten in the way of hiring others, I understand that Weird Tales was always more of a niche magazine than a lot of others.

It's too bad Gahan Wilson only showed up in time to have interior art in a couple very late issues... I would have loved to see a cover by him on the classic run.

 

According to this page, Finlay did 20 covers total for WT

https://tellersofweirdtales.blogspot.com/2014/02/weird-tales-cover-artists.html

So, yes -- 7% is more than 1%, but not much. Brundage did 67, or 24%.

[Sarg]

10 hours ago, RedFury said:

Weird Tales, Jun 1930

Cover by Hugh Rankin

Cover story is "The Moon of Skulls", a Solomon Kane story by Robert E. Howard.  Also contains a reprinting of one of Lovecraft's best, "The Rats in the Walls". 

 

Somebody help me out here -- is this thought to be good, well-drawn draftsmanship? People don't buy these for the cover art, do they? 

[RedFury]

5 hours ago, Sarg said:

I hope I'm not cancelled for this opinion, but I think the only good Weird Tales cover artists are St. John and Finlay, who, combined, did what? About 1% of the covers? Brundage is a very crude artist. Her women all look like cartoonish kewpie dolls, and her men look like bald or masculine kewpie dolls. Her "Conan" reminds one of Gomer Pyle. CC Senf is worse, Andrew Brosnatch looks like a high school art student, and Lee Coye is just plain ugly and unappealing. A couple of the Bok covers are OK, but not nearly as fine as work he did for others. 

What a wasted opportunity. The editors had plenty of fine artists to choose from in Chicago and NY. They simply chose not to use them. 

 

I agree with you about Brosnatch, Senf (the Lovecraft circle often discussed their dislike of his work), and Coye (although I do like his pen and ink work, I don't like his paintings).  But I have to disagree with your assessment of Brundage.  I think her work, though amateur and primitive, produced some of the most striking covers not just of Weird Tales, but of all pulps. 

[RedFury]

4 hours ago, Sarg said:

 

Somebody help me out here -- is this thought to be good, well-drawn draftsmanship? People don't buy these for the cover art, do they? 

No, it's not a great cover.  It's by Hugh Rankin who, while better than Senf who he succeeded, wasn't great.  But it's a Robert E. Howard Solomon Kane cover story in high-grade, and there's a lot of value in that to Howard and Weird Tales collectors.  It's not always about the cover.  In fact, with pulps it's often not.

[RedFury]

Weird Tales, Sep 1934

One of the 9 Conan story covers.  I think this is one of Brundage's best.  I just love the composition and bright colors, and especially the black, draping cloak.  

"The People of the Black Circle"

[Kihei Collectibles]

15 hours ago, Sarg said:

 

Somebody help me out here -- is this thought to be good, well-drawn draftsmanship? People don't buy these for the cover art, do they? 

You are contributing absolutely nothing to this thread, it is clearly a thread for those who appreciate this title and it’s artist, not to mention you have no appreciation for the fact the Todd has assembled one of the most high grade collections of this title in existence. If you don’t like them, guess what, NO ONE ASKED YOU. Take your hate back to your reprints and other cheap garbage you bum. 

[detective35]

16 hours ago, Sarg said:

I hope I'm not cancelled for this opinion, but I think the only good Weird Tales cover artists are St. John and Finlay, who, combined, did what? About 1% of the covers? Brundage is a very crude artist. Her women all look like cartoonish kewpie dolls, and her men look like bald or masculine kewpie dolls. Her "Conan" reminds one of Gomer Pyle. CC Senf is worse, Andrew Brosnatch looks like a high school art student, and Lee Coye is just plain ugly and unappealing. A couple of the Bok covers are OK, but not nearly as fine as work he did for others. 

What a wasted opportunity. The editors had plenty of fine artists to choose from in Chicago and NY. They simply chose not to use them. 

 

Your said it yourself in your opening line, probably not appropriate to go onto a thread created by somebody that’s obviously very passionate about weird tales and Brundage, and trash Brundage.  You might word it like “what is the appeal to Brundage, because I see that her work as very stylized and not as professionally detailed as other artists.”

I personally would not go onto a thread of Norman Rockwell ‘s art, and trash him on the thread.  If I didn’t like Rockwell, I might take the tact in saying “what is the appeal to Norman Rockwell that drives you as collectors as I would like to know, as I personally don’t  see it”

I understand your points of view, but phrasing it differently would have been a better choice.

Edited July 11, 2020 by detective35DF

[Ricksneatstuff]

I do have to say from the prices of Brundage original Weird Tales covers the dissenting opinion is in the minority. Many iconic covers. The Altar of Melek comes to mind as a strong example and this one that definitely had several interested parties.

 

https://fineart.ha.com/itm/other/margaret-brundage-american-1900-1976-a-rival-from-the-grave-weird-tales-magazine-cover-january-193/a/5347-71023.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

[Sarg]

11 hours ago, RedFury said:

I agree with you about Brosnatch, Senf (the Lovecraft circle often discussed their dislike of his work), and Coye (although I do like his pen and ink work, I don't like his paintings).  But I have to disagree with your assessment of Brundage.  I think her work, though amateur and primitive, produced some of the most striking covers not just of Weird Tales, but of all pulps. 

IIRC, Lovecraft himself was pretty lukewarm at best about Brundage. He said that he didn't know what her barely-clothed ladies had to do with weird fiction. it was polite way of saying that Weird Tales was sinking to pure sensationalism in order to sell magazines, hugely disappointing to somebody like Lovecraft, who considered himself a serious, philosophical writer who did not simply include salacious scenes in his stories for commercialism. 

[buttock]

I find Brundage similar to LB Cole.  Not the best technical artist, but very adept at design and making an image that would attract the eye and entice readers.  

[Sarg]

23 minutes ago, Kihei Comics said:

You are contributing absolutely nothing to this thread, it is clearly a thread for those who appreciate this title and it’s artist, not to mention you have no appreciation for the fact the Todd has assembled one of the most high grade collections of this title in existence. If you don’t like them, guess what, NO ONE ASKED YOU. Take your hate back to your reprints and other cheap garbage you bum. 

 

It was a sincere question. I'm sorry you were offended by my curiosity. 

[Sarg]

1 minute ago, buttock said:

I find Brundage similar to LB Cole.  Not the best technical artist, but very adept at design and making an image that would attract the eye and entice readers.  

 

Good comparison, I never thought about that. Her covers have direct impact to the eye, just like Cole's. 

[buttock]

2 hours ago, Kihei Comics said:

You are contributing absolutely nothing to this thread, it is clearly a thread for those who appreciate this title and it’s artist, not to mention you have no appreciation for the fact the Todd has assembled one of the most high grade collections of this title in existence. If you don’t like them, guess what, NO ONE ASKED YOU. Take your hate back to your reprints and other cheap garbage you bum. 

I think you could get your point across without such aggression and name calling.  I know you’re new here, but these boards typically have a much kinder tone and we can all allow for discussion and opinion.