When it comes to pulp artists, while there are several female artists, I think most can only name one: Margaret Brundage (1900-76). Famous, or infamous, for her many Weird Tales covers, her work is well-remembered today.
Living and working in Chicago, both helped and hurt her career.
Her pulp-cover career lasted from 1932 to 1938 for a total of 66 covers. She first started off doing covers for Oriental Stories, the spin-off title from Weird Tales. But soon graduated to doing Weird Tales starting with the September 1932 issue. In fact, she did all the covers from June 1933 to August 1936, 39 in total. She continued to work for WT until it moved to New York in 1938, though there was a final original cover in January 1945.
The problem was that she worked in pastels, which couldn’t be shipped to New York, where most pulp publishers where. When she began, Weird Tales publisher Popular Fiction Publishers were in Chicago, as where a few others. This was how she was also able to do two covers for Golden Fleece. It’s noted that a new “decency standard” was imposed in New York, but I am sure she could have continued to do covers. But that sadly ended her commercial career.
I find it interesting that the cover artwork she created would be based on a scene from a story in that particular issue. Seabury Quinn, then writing the Jules de Grandin series, picked up on that and specifically included scenes in his stories to take advantage of that. More so because being the cover-featured story also brought in a little more money. Compare this to some of the other WT authors who turned up their noses at the artwork.
If you want to learn more about her, and see all of her cover artwork and more, get a copy of The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art by Stephen D. Korshak and J. David Spurlock from Vanguard Productions in 2013. It is available in a few editions. The hardcover and softcover editions are 184 pages, while the deluxe slipcase edition is 200 pages. I’m not sure what the extra pages are in that one.
In this volume are some bios of Brundage looking at her life and career. Probably the highlight is getting all her covers in chronological order. It’s a great work if only for that artwork. It’s interesting to learn some items, such as her main rival as cover artist on WT was Virgil Finley. I think one question some had was whether she use models for her artwork. And we learn that she did not use live models; she used photo references from various sources.
This book is on my shelf, along with several other pulp artist references. I recommend you check out Vanguard Productions, as they have other works of interest, including books on J. Allen St. John, Frank Frazetta, and more.
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