I like this PLANET STORIES cover by Jerome Rozen, and inside this issue are stories by some excellent writers: Leigh Brackett, Nelson S. Bond, Carl Jacobi, Ross Rocklynne, Ray Cummings, and Milton Lesser (better known these days as Stephen Marlowe). This and a bunch of other PLANET STORIES issues can be read on-line here. Would that I had time to do so!
I don't think J. Allen St. John's cover on this issue of FANTASTIC ADVENTURES is one of his best, but it's still pretty darned good and is intriguing enough to make me want to read the story it illustrates, so I guess it did its job. The whole issue is on-line here, along with lots of other issues of FANTASTIC ADVENTURES. Will I ever get around to reading it? Who knows? But there's a good group of writers inside including Robert Bloch, Nelson S. Bond, Don Wilcox, Ross Rocklynne, Leroy Yerxa, Dwight V. Swain (writing as Clark South), James Norman, and Robert Moore Williams (writing as Russell Storm). The lead novel is by house-name E.K. Jarvis, so there's really no telling who actually wrote that one.
A nice, colorful, eye-catching cover by H.W. McCauley on this issue of AMAZING STORIES. G.H. Irwin, the author of the lead novel, was actually editor Raymond A. Palmer. I don't believe I've ever read any of RAP's fiction. There are some good authors in this issue, including Henry Kuttner, Nelson S. Bond, Ziff-Davis stalwarts Leroy Yerxa and David Wright O'Brien (writing as John York Cabot), old-timer Miles J. Breuer ("The Sheriff of Thorium Gulch"? Really?), John Russell Fearn, Festus Pragnell, and a couple I've never heard of, Jep Powell and Richard O. Lewis. Probably no classics here, but I'll bet it's an entertaining issue.
I hate snakes in real life, but for some reason, put one on the cover of a pulp or a book and it always catches my attention. Throw in a scantily clad young woman with a spear, and I'm definitely going to notice a cover like this one by Malcolm Smith. Several of the Ziff-Davis regulars show up in this issue of FANTASTIC ADVENTURES, including David Wright O'Brien (once as himself and once as John York Cabot in a collaboration with another Z-D stalwart, William P. McGivern), Don Wilcox, Robert Moore Williams, and David V. Reed. Also on hand some pretty famous names: Robert Bloch, August Derleth, Nelson S. Bond, Stanton Coblentz, Ralph Milne Farley, and future comic book scripting legend John Broome. FANTASTIC ADVENTURES always had good covers and pretty good writers. I'm not sure why I haven't read more of them.
I like the cover by Harold McCauley on this issue of AMAZING STORIES. It's hard to go wrong with a floating skull and a sexy redhead, even though she's probably evil. I mean, she's the "Priestess of the Floating Skull", which sounds pretty sinister. The author of this featured story is Edwin Benson, which was a Ziff-Davis house-name, so there's no telling who actually wrote it. Perhaps Leroy Yerxa, who also has a story in this issue and was very prolific, or Robert Moore Williams, also on hand under his own name. Other authors in this issue are Nelson S. Bond (with a Lancelot Biggs story), Ross Rocklynne, and Festus Pragnell, a name that's always sounded like a pseudonym to me but evidently wasn't. None of these authors are particular favorites of mine, but I'm sure I would have enjoyed this issue anyway, had I plucked it off the newsstand in 1943.
An excellent cover by George Rozen graces this issue of PLANET STORIES, and there's a really fine group of writers behind it: Leigh Brackett, Clifford D. Simak, Nelson S. Bond, Carl Jacobi, Wilbur S. Peacock, Charles R. Tanner, and Henry Hasse. I haven't read it, but you can read or download the entire issue here.
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.
I like the covers Hubert Rogers did for ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION. This one is certainly eye-catching and effective. The lead story is the first part of a three-part serial, "Sixth Column" by Anson MacDonald, better known, of course, as Robert A. Heinlein. I haven't reread anything by Heinlein in years. I ought to. Other authors in this issue are Nelson S. Bond, Eric Frank Russell, Manly Wade Wellman, and L. Ron Hubbard writing as Kurt von Rachen.
The usual eye-catching cover by Herbert Morton Stoops leads off this issue of BLUE BOOK, and inside are some familiar names, too. As often happened, H. Bedford-Jones has three stories in this issue, one under his own name and one each as by Michael Gallister and Gordon Keyne. Fulton Grant and Nelson Bond, two more BLUE BOOK regulars, are on hand, too, and there are also stories by Howard Rigsby, William Bryon Mowery, Charles L. Clifford, and Tracy Richardson. BLUE BOOK was one of the classiest of the pulps, with consistently excellent stories.
That's kind of a busy cover on this issue of PLANET STORIES, but the art is by Virgil Finlay, so I'm not complaining. There's a really strong line-up of authors inside, too, including Leigh Brackett, Raymond Z. Gallun, Nelson S. Bond, Ross Rocklynne, Ray Cummings, Henry Hasse, and Frederic A. Kummer, Jr. PLANET STORIES was always fun.