All right, who's the artist on this SMASHING WESTERN cover? There's a big letter "R" down in the lower left corner, but is that the artist's initial, or just something written on there by somebody who owned that copy at some time in the past? My first thought was A. Leslie Ross because of that hat brim, but Ross often signed his covers and his signature doesn't look like the letter on this one. The man's face reminds me a little of Walter Baumhofer or Tom Lovell without convincing me it's either of them. Many of you are better at artist IDs than I am, so I'm hoping someone knows. As far as what's inside this pulp, there are stories by three excellent Western authors--E.B. Mann, Wayne D. Overholser, and C. William Harrison--and two house names, James Rourke and Cliff Campbell. According to the Fictionmags Index, Abner J. Sundell wrote the Cliff Campbell story. I believe Campbell started out as a personal pseudonym for Sundell before becoming a house name later on. I like the cover and that's a good bunch of authors, making me think this is probably a pretty good issue.
UPDATE: This cover is definitely by A. Leslie Ross. See the comments for more info.
3 comments:
I think those are three very plausible possibilities. The palette looks very much like Baumhofer, the dynamic “split lighting” on the face was definitely one of Lovell’s signature touches and the somewhat loose brushwork absolutely recalls Ross — both hands are lumpy and vaguely defined, and the cloth folds are pretty mushy too.
But then again, there were SO MANY “good” to “great” painters banging out pulp covers back then, it’s just as possible that it’s the work of an artist I’ve never even heard of.
b.t.
It's definitely A. Leslie Ross. It's one of three signatures that he used.
You can see them in this page on David Saunder's Pulpartists site.
Thanks, Sai! I need to get in the habit of checking David's site for stuff like this. Lots of great information there.
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