The artist for this cover is unattributed in the usual online sources. The presence of a space babe in a skimpy outfit makes me think immediately of Earle Bergey, but something about this one seems like it's not Bergey's work. If anyone has any more information, it will be much appreciated, as always. Whoever painted it, it's a great cover and I really like it. FANTASTIC STORY MAGAZINE was edited by Samuel Mines at this point in its run, and the contents are a mixture of new stories and reprints. The reprints in this issue are by David H. Keller (one of the early big names in science fiction), Wesley Arnold (don't know that name at all), and Gordon A. Giles (who was really Otto Binder). The new stories are by L. Sprague de Camp, Mack Reynolds, Robert Moore Williams, and H.B. Fyfe. That's not a bad line-up, although hardly a star-studded one. The whole issue is on the Internet Archive, if you want to check it out for yourself.
5 comments:
I’m 99.99% sure it’s Bergey, James. I don’t have a direct reference source to cite, but it sure looks like his style to me. And I agree, it’s really nice.
b.t.
Via Death is by Otto Binder. It's part of a wonderful series of space exploration stories collected in the book Puzzle of the Space Pyramids. I have this issue, and The Evening Star is a great story.
Thanks. I like Binder's work, what little I've read of it. I may have to read this issue on the Internet Archive.
Hi, James. It makes perfect sense why someone would think of Earle K. Bergey in this instance. Earle contributes the first 6 cover paintings to this title's run, including its debut, and he's the go-to science fiction artist for Standard. However, this cover was painted by SAM CHERRY. It's more common in the Western genre pulps to find some overlap that can cause confusion between Cherry and Bergey. I've seen Cherry Westerns wrongly attributed to Earle a number of times. Your eye's right to have made you pause here. It's a very cool cover by an artist who was a professional buddy of Earle's.
Joshua, thanks for the artist ID. I love Sam Cherry's work but would not have thought of him in connection with this cover. I can usually recognize his Western covers but when he ventures into other genres it's more of a challenge.
Post a Comment