Newest CGC Pedigree Honors Collector and Illustrator Roy G. Krenkel
Posted on 5/31/2024
Certified Guaranty Company® (CGC®) is excited to announce the recognition of a third pedigree centric to pulps! This collection has been named after its famous owner Roy G. Krenkel (1918-1983), who was one of the great mid-20th century American fantasy illustrators.
His most celebrated art includes the classic 1960s Ace paperback covers for writer Edgar Rice Burroughs and his 1950s work for EC Comics, which involved collaborations with his close friends Frank Frazetta and Al Williamson. Krenkel also contributed interior illustrations for pulps and book illustrations, among them the stories of Robert E. Howard.
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Ed Hulse, journalist and author of the award-winning series of books about pulps titled “Blood ’n’ Thunder,” is among Krenkel’s fans.
"Many baby boomers, including this one, will always associate Roy G. Krenkel with the ’60s wave of paperbacks reprinting fantasy-adventure pulp fiction,” Hulse said. “To those who didn't experience the revival firsthand, it's difficult to overstate the impact of Krenkel's covers and illustrations for Ace's series of Edgar Rice Burroughs reprints. Roy's paintings — whether depicting an alien or prehistoric landscape, a decaying city built by some ancient race, or a gleaming, futuristic metropolis on a faraway planet — evoked a sense of wonder that oozed from every page.”
Hulse contends that "those of us whose fascination with Tarzan, John Carter and Conan the Barbarian extended beyond the paperback reprints eventually discovered pulp fandom and marveled at Krenkel's work in such fanzines as Amra and ERB-dom. His pen-and-ink illustrations for those amateur publications occasionally smacked of hasty execution, but even the crudest of them reflected his passion for those wonderful yarns written decades earlier."
From an early age, Krenkel was also a serious collector, focusing on inspirational fantasy art as well as pulps. He purchased his pulps directly from the newsstands and kept them in uniformly high-grade condition. Eventually amassing over 1,000 pulps, Krenkel added a small, inked issue number to the front of every cover, making a Krenkel pulp distinctive.
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After Krenkel passed away in 1983, his pulp collection was broken up and sold, with noted Michigan dealer Ray Walsh (Curious Book Shop) brokering the sale of a handful of substantial groups, including the Planet Stories run. Krenkel’s complete Doc Savage run was acquired by Al Williamson.
Heritage Auctions will feature the Krenkel runs of Planet Stories #1-59 and Startling Stories #1-68 in an upcoming auction, with bidding opening on June 13, 2024.
Related Link
CGC Now Grading Pulp Magazines
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