OtherEric

I will agree that Lancers tend to be more well loved than other 60’s books. I just don’t think they compare to earlier books.

Not sure who I would pick, but I'm sure it's not Lancer. Unless the books have laminate to peel they're not a candidate for the worst.

That makes sense. I've got Conan 23 & 24, Savage Sword #1, and the whole run of Kull & the Barbarians, so I'm in good shape in any case.

Why Kull and the Barbarians #3 over #2? Just because it's the 3rd Sonja cover? She has a solo story in #2 as well.

Squa Tront is a great fanzine from the issues I've seen.

May 1937 Weird Tales, with "The Horror in the Burying-Ground", a revision Lovecraft did for Hazel Heald. Lovecraft passed away a couple weeks before this issue hit the stands.

You may be happily surprised... MCS is famous for grading insanely tightly on unslabbed books. Nice pickup in any case.

I don't recall exactly what I paid for my copy... but I do remember I paid a bit more than I usually do for Weird Tales from around then, because I just couldn't find a copy cheaper. While I'm missing lots of issues with Lovecraft poems or reprints, I do have every WT from October 1931 up with the first publication anywhere of a Lovecraft story. I think this was the last one I needed from 1933 or later.

Just a reader, but I feel it was a well spent $6 at my LCS today:

Dropped these pics in the magazine forums a few weeks ago, but figure they fit here as well:

Nice! I recognize the second two covers, the 2nd is by Bok from the December 1951 Famous Fantastic Mysteries and the 3rd is from the September 1952 Weird Tales. Not sure where the first one is from. (The WT cover was found on the web, the FFM scan is my own.)

January 1937 Weird Tales. This issue actually has two Lovecraft stories. There's "The Thing on the Doorstep" by Lovecraft himself, and a revision "The Disinterment" with Duane W. Rimel. This is one of the revisions where the credited writer actually did a lot of the work, unlike most where Lovecraft was essentially the ghostwriter.

"Last of the Lovecrafts" is technically wrong... there are eight stories entirely by Lovecraft that were published after "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward". But, with one exception, they were extremely minor works- four pieces of juvenilia, "Sweet Ermengarde", "The Transition of Juan Romero", and "Old Bugs". The only major story by Lovecraft after this was "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath". This is the last new story by Lovecraft in Weird Tales. I vaguely recall reading something where they said they thought the manuscript for Kadath was lost or incomplete and they didn't expect to find it, but I couldn't find the reference while skimming through Weird Tales from around this time.

And now we have the last story Lovecraft ever wrote, although not the last published, or even the last published in his lifetime. "The Haunter of the Dark" in the December 1936 Weird Tales. Just for fun,I'm throwing in the cover of the Marvel Comics adaptation of the story as well:

Another one where I don't have the early hardcover... although I do have the Gregg Press reprint somewhere. And these:

A sad item today: the October 1936 issue of Weird Tales, which has a letter from Lovecraft remembering Robert E. Howard. Lovecraft himself would pass away about half a year later. I'm including a scan of the page with the letter that I found online as well as the cover; the book itself is mine:

June 1936 Astounding, with the first publication of "The Shadow Out of Time". This is the first Lovecraft pulp I ever owned, my favorite Lovecraft story, and possibly my all-time favorite pulp cover, to the point where I had it made into a t-shirt. What's not to love about a cover that features Lovecraftian monstrosities who are also librarians?

@Scrooge: I just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying the covers and the histories you've been posting here. I just haven't had much to say about any individual one. But I didn't want you to think they're unappreciated!

Sorry for pulling back up a year-old post, but something just occurred to me... Can we see what the price box looks like on the interior? Since it seems like the LM prices were possibly added in a separate step (given how irregularly placed they can be on different copies of the same book), I'm wondering if the price box on the inner comic is blank. That could indicate that the prices were added after the books were bound.

April 1936 Astounding, with part 3 of "At the Mountains of Madness".

Today’s find at the local book store:

Part two of "At the Mountains of Madness"

Sorry I didn't check on its availability when I first posted it. I think mine is the 2nd print, if I recall correctly. I really do need to get this (and the others) framed and hung one of these years

My reaction to that cover is always 90% "awesome!" and 10% "where are their legs?"

February 1936 Astounding Stories. Part 1 of "At the Mountains of Madness", and only the second pulp to have the Lovecraft story as the cover art. Or the first, if you don't count his revision for Harry Houdini. It's amazing how rarely Lovecraft got the cover on pulps, given how popular illustrations of his creations are now. As a side note, this happens to be the first issue of Astounding with factory trimmed edges.