I don't know the artist (Richard Lyon, maybe?), but this is an eye-catching cover on this issue of THRILLING ADVENTURES. Nor am I familiar with Crawford Sullivan, evidently the real name of the author who wrote the featured story. But I know the work of the other authors in this one: Tom Curry, Frederick C. Painton, Jack D'Arcy (D.L. Champion), Chart Pitt, S. Gordon Gurwit, and William Merriam Rouse. An adventurous bunch, indeed!
It's been cold and dank here, so what better antidote to that than a cover depicting a nice warm beach and a beautiful island babe? That guy over there in the bushes with a gun? Oh, don't pay any attention to him. I'm sure he doesn't mean any harm. And while you're lying there on the beach, you could read an issue of SOUTH SEA STORIES like this one, which features stories by David Wright O'Brien, S. Gordon Gurwit, Orlin Tremaine, L. Ron Hubbard, and Ziff-Davis house-names Alexander Blade and Peter Horn. That sounds to me like a pretty good way to spend an afternoon.
It's been a while since there's been a Mountie cover in this series, so here's one from the February 1938 issue of THRILLING ADVENTURES. Not only does this issue feature a cover with a two-gun Mountie on it, there are stories inside by E. Hoffmann Price, Edmond Hamilton, Philip Ketchum, Arthur J. Burks, and S. Gordon Gurwit. That's a pretty strong line-up for any pulp with the word "Adventure" in the title.
That's a Margaret Brundage cover, of course. What else could it be? And this issue is so packed with stories that Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and August Derleth don't even make the cover. E. Hoffmann Price, Paul Ernst, and Kirk Mashburn are still remembered today, but I doubt if S. Gordon Gurwit is exactly a household name. I don't know that I've ever read anything by him. Still, his work was popular during that era, because I've seen his name on numerous pulp covers. Anyway, with issues like this, it's easy to see why WEIRD TALES is such an iconic pulp magazine.
