In the late Forties, WINGS got away from the usual aerial dogfights that most aviation/air war pulps used and started putting good-looking women on their covers, probably in a shameless attempt to boost sales. I have a hunch it would have worked on me, because I like this cover quite a bit. I have no idea who painted it. The authors inside are pretty darned good, too, starting with iconic aviation pulpster Arch Whitehouse, who in this issue brings back his characters the Casket Crew, the stars of a series going back to 1931. A volume of early Casket Crew stories has been published by Age of Aces Books, and of course I have a copy, but equally inevitably, I haven't read it yet. Also on hand in this issue are Walt Sheldon, a prolific pulp writer and a well-respected paperbacker, J.L. Bouma, best remembered for his Westerns, Alfred Coppel Jr., known for his science fiction and mainstream novels, and an assortment of names unfamiliar to me: Cornelius Morgan, Scott Sumner, Frank Harvey, and Joe James. Whitehouse, Sheldon, Coppell, and Bouma would make this issue worthwhile for me.
UPDATE: Eagle-eyed commenter b.t. not only identified this cover as probably being by Norman Saunders, he even provided the information that Saunders based it on an earlier cover from WINGS COMICS #93 by Bob Lubbers, which you can see below. Many thanks!
7 comments:
Cover looks like Norman Saunders to me. At first glance, the Lovely Leggy Lady reminded me of one of Bob Lubbers’ iconic covers for Fiction House’s WINGS COMICS — a quick peek at the Grand Comics Database, and sure enough, Saunders seems to have based this painting pretty closely on Lubbers’ cover for WINGS COMICS #93 from earlier that year. I’ve seen similar instances of double-dipping cover compositions on Fiction House’s JUNGLE and PLANET pulps and comics before, but this the first time I’ve spotted one on their WINGS titles. Sometimes, it’s the other way around (a pulp cover painting being turned into line-art). Now I’m wondering if they did it with their Western mags too…
b.t.
I think you're right. I can see Saunders there, too.
I recall reading a couple collections of Air Force stories written by Frank Harvey, and published by Ballantine, in the late 1950s or early 1960s. I think they were titled "Air Force" and "Jet."
Thanks for that tip! I see that Harvey also wrote a novel about aircraft carriers called HUDASKY'S RAIDERS. There are a couple of adventure novels set in Africa called THE LION PIT and THE WHITE MERCENARIES, but I don't know if they're by the same Frank Harvey.
Upon further investigation, those novels are by the same Frank Harvey, but THE LION PIT is about Pittsburgh, not Africa (an understandable mistake). He also wrote a mainstream novel called NIGHTMARE COUNTRY, in addition to his books about aviation, which include one called AIR WAR: VIETNAM.
In Flying Mag. Vol. 79 n. 3 Set. 1966 one can read: Frank Harvey is a pilot and a writer. He was training officer aboard the carrier USS Midway during WWII. Since then he's devoted his life to writing--mostly about aviation- His published books includes Jet, Strike Command and Udarsky's Raiders. His article shave appeared in virtually every. mags in print.
Best from Italy,
Tiziano Agnelli,
Thanks! I need to try some of his books.
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