‘Illustration’ magazine is back

I had previously posted on the excellent Illustration magazine, published by Illustrated Press, which was published quarterly for several years and then ended with issue No. 84 in 2023. It published articles on a variety of illustration artists who did advertising art, book and magazine covers, and interior artwork. This included some pulp magazine artists.

Daniel Zimmer is the person behind it and was a main contributor, but others like David Saunders also did articles. Some articles would later be expanded into large-size hardback books.

But I was surprised when they came back recently, offering subscriptions for four issues, Nos. 85 through 88. Since it doesn’t look like they are being distributed via newsstands and comic shops, what with the collapse of Diamond Distribution, I decided to order them. The print run is probably low, so the best way to guarantee getting a copy is to subscribe.

The issues came out about monthly, with two to three artists covered in each. Daniel Zimmer wrote almost all the articles.

Illustrated Press recently started offering subscriptions to the next four issues. Artists covered will include Carlo Demand, Bruce Bomberger, William Welsh, James Bingham, Keith Ward, Emmett Watson, Walter Everett, and David Levine. And, yes, some of them did work in the pulps. You can get back issues from their website, but who knows for how long.

Here then is a basic rundown of the latest issues:

#85 (August 2025) features Thomas Blackshear and Howard V. Brown. The Blackshear article is by Anthony Thaxton, who is coming out with a book on Blackshear. Blackshear did poster and illustration art, as well as U.S. postage stamp art. I sort of remember the art for the planned Elfspire book. Too bad it never got published. I wonder what all happened? Brown did magazine covers, including a lot of pulp magazines (many science fiction), which we get to see a lot of.

#86 (August 2025) features Joyce Ballantyne, Edward Penfield, and Elmor Brown. Ballantyne is the artist who did the famous Coppertone sunscreen ads and did both “good girl” art and other work. Penfield did covers and posters. And Brown did both covers and illustrations for various slick magazines.

#87 (September 2025) features Amos Sewell, F.R. Gruger, and Mortimer Wilson Jr. Sewell got his start in the pulps before moving on to the slicks, but sadly we don’t get any examples of his pulp work. Gruger did atmospheric pen-and-ink work for magazines. And Wilson went from magazines and ads to fine art.

#88 (October 2025) features Stanley Borack, Arthur William Brown, and Sam Bates. Borack did cover artwork for books and men’s adventure magazines. It’s clear that Steve Holland modeled for some of his covers. Brown was an artist for the Saturday Evening Post. Bates also did work for the Post as well.

The quality of these magazines is great, same as always, and even if they don’t have that many pulp artists, I think it’s worth getting them. I’ve subscribed to the next four issues and look forward to them.