Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Strange Stories, December 1940

The Weird Menace boom was over by the end of 1940, but STRANGE STORIES, a semi-Weird Menace pulp from the Thrilling Group was still hanging on. This is a good cover, a little reminiscent of the Spicy pulps. Good-looking girls sure had trouble keeping their clothes intact in those days. There are some good writers in this issue: Seabury Quinn, Norman A. Daniels, Don Alviso, Alexander Samalman. As well as some I've never heard of: Dorothy Quick, Joseph H. Hernandez, George J. Rawlins, and Dr. Arch Carr. Unusual to see a doctor using his title in a pulp magazine, but there you go. I wonder if he was a medical doctor. David H. Keller was always billed as David H. Keller, M.D.

UPDATE: The cover artist was the great Earle Bergey, who did six covers for STRANGE STORIES during its 13-issue run.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1942

I've seen other science fiction pulp covers featuring some giant figure menacing fleeing crowds. Without reading the stories, I never know if they're meant to be taken literally or symbolically. And I don't suppose it makes a difference, if they're eye-catching and prompt a potential reader to fork over a dime (or a dime and a nickel, in this case) as this painting by Rudolph Belarski does. There's a good line-up of pulp SF writers inside this issue of THRILLING WONDER STORIES, too: Nelson S. Bond, Ray Cummings, Eando Binder (Earl and Otto Binder), Oscar J. Friend, and Alexander Samalman.