I was on Vimeo searching for something and happened to notice the Weird Tales logo leaping out at me from one of the video thumbnails. So I had to click it.
It was a Margaret Brundidge cover (of course) from the May 1936 number. The cover teases to a Doctor Satan novelette, “The Devil’s Double,” by Paul Ernst.
I had to watch the video to see how Weird Tales figured in.
It was a music video for the song “Low Shoulder” by Toro y Moi (the stage name for Chazwick Bradley Bundick). The song has a completely different vibe than the video, which takes a turn toward the pseudo-occult just after the cover of Weird Tales shows up.
But something didn’t quite look right. So I emailed Jeff Shanks to confirm my suspicions. His comment was: “Looks like whoever did it didn’t know the difference between a pulp and a comic.”
The Weird Tales in the video was thin and saddle stitched, with staples down the spine. There was no traditional squared spine featuring the magazine title that you normally see on perfect-bound pulps. It was a mockup.
(The ad on the back for “The NEW way to enjoy SPORTS Movies, Plays, Television” sort of tipped me off, too. This was supposed to be from 1936 after all.)
Clearly the mocked-up magazine was used to foretell the dark story ahead in the video.
You never know where pulps (or fake pulps) might turn up.
