{"id":1521,"date":"2011-09-20T17:11:14","date_gmt":"2011-09-21T00:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/?p=1521"},"modified":"2013-11-01T16:55:56","modified_gmt":"2013-11-01T20:55:56","slug":"a-cover-worth-a-thousand-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/yellowedperils\/2011\/09\/20\/a-cover-worth-a-thousand-words\/","title":{"rendered":"A cover worth a thousand words?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Amazing Stories (June 1938)<\/figcaption><\/figure>The first two issues of Amazing Stories<\/em><\/a> under Ziff-Davis<\/a> editorial control (June and August 1938) took a daring step for a pulp magazine.<\/p>\n

When you think of pulp magazines, your mind probably first visualizes the colorful, outlandish covers. With the few exceptions of pulp magazines using a typographic treatment as covers (think early Argosy<\/em><\/a> and 1940s Unknowns<\/em><\/a>), the magazines’ vivid covers were almost always painted interpretations of the contents \u2014 gunfighters in action, scenes of overseas adventures, damsels in danger, alien worlds… you know the images.<\/p>\n

In addition to dropping the cover price from 25 cents to 20 cents, Ziff-Davis tried something completely different in a desperate move to boost Amazing<\/em>‘s sagging circulation: photographic covers.<\/p>\n

For two numbers \u2014 June and August 1938 \u2014 Amazing Stories<\/em> attempted to recreate the glorious, fantastic images usually dreamed up by an artist using staged photographs.<\/p>\n

Reference photos that artists often drew from didn’t have to be \u2014 and often weren’t \u2014 as dramatic as the finished painting. The reference photos certainly weren’t as detailed as the final paintings. Those shortcomings are clear in the covers of the two issues.<\/p>\n

Where artists could make even the most outlandish space costume seem plausible and the people portrayed on the covers look as dashing or beautiful as movie stars, a photograph captures all of the faults in vivid detail. Take a look at the June cover, in particular. That guy certainly isn’t dashing \u2014 or, is he supposed to look menacing?<\/p>\n

That June cover is credited to photographer Horace Hime<\/strong>, described in a newspaper column in 1942 as “one of the country’s most prolific color (photographers)”. The August cover is credited to photographer Henry F. Kroeger Jr.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those two Amazings<\/em> aren’t the only instances of photographic pulp covers. The next year, for example, saw the photo of the Buffalo Bill Monument in Cody, Wyoming, on the cover of Street & Smith<\/a>‘s Wild West Weekly<\/em><\/a> (July 15, 1939).<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Ziff-Davis’ two-issue tryout didn’t catch on, and painted covers remained the preference of publishers and fans alike.<\/p>\n

(Click below to see larger versions of the three covers mentioned above, plus The Shadow<\/em> from Nov. 1, 1937, I mention in the comments.)<\/p>\n