Also…
(Editor’s note: CAPE Publishing Inc. is no longer in business.)
As mentioned on the CAPE Publishing Web site and often repeated elsewhere, of the tens of thousands of paintings created for pulp magazine covers, only about 1 percent of the original paintings still exist.
For most of us, hanging an original pulp cover painting on our wall is pretty much out of reach even if we were able to find one for sale. There’s always a reproduction painting. But if you want the original work, you might consider one of the prints produced by CAPE Publishing Inc.
The Buffalo, N.Y., company has licenses to produce prints from cover artwork by Gloria Stoll (Rangeland Romances, All-Story Love magazine), H.J. Ward (Spicy Adventure Stories, Spicy Western Stories, Red Star Mystery) and Lawrence Sterne Stevens (Fantastic Novels, Super Science Stories).
“We began making the prints after meeting pulp artist Gloria Stoll and viewing her original canvas oils,” Lisa Langer of CAPE Publishing wrote in an e-mail. “We felt they echoed of a more innocent time that can not be recaptured today.”
Stoll “is one of the few original pulp artists still creating art and certainly one of only several women in the field of pulp art,” Langer said. “Her work which we reproduced and call ‘Rocky Ride’ appears in (Frank) Robinson’s book (“Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines,” page 116) as ‘artist unknown.’ Gloria appeared at PulpCon 30 and to the surprise of the audience, she was also the creator of many mystery covers such as Black Mask and Dime Mystery.”
Despite the impression Stoll made at PulpCon, sales haven’t taken off for CAPE. “Unfortunately there hasn’t been a great demand for the pulp art prints, even after there was a cover article in Art Business News magazine this past spring about pulp art,” CAPE’s Jack Jaeger said via e-mail. “I don’t believe for this reason we will be adding any more pulp artwork at this time.”
CAPE Publishing uses a high-resolution ink-jet-like process called Iris Giclée to print the posters. I had a chance to see samples of their work during Tampa Pulp and Paperback Show a couple of winters back. The detail and color reproduction on the prints are excellent. Prices range from $75 to $150 depending on size of the print — less than half what they were two years ago.
For more information, write CAPE Publishing Inc., 1807 Elmwood Ave., Studio 300, Buffalo, N.Y. 14207.
