RedFury

There is a fun story involving Senf: In 1931, Robert E. Howard created the fictional arcane tome "Nameless Cults by von Juntz" and mentioned it in his stories The Children of the Night and The Black Stone. H.P. Lovecraft liked it and wanted to use it in his mythos stories, but wanted to give it a proper German name, since the book was supposed to be in German. He asked August Derleth, who knew some German from living in German settled Sauk City, WI, and Derleth suggested Unaussprechlichen Kulten. Soon after, E. Hoffmann Price, who had studied German at West Point, chimed in and suggested Unnenbarren Kulten was more correct. Editor Farnsworth Wright knew a little German as well, and sided with Price. But then one day C.C. Senf stopped by the Weird Tales offices for a visit. Knowing that Senf was a native German speaker having been born in Prussia, Wright asked his opinion and Senf immediately said Derleth was correct. And ever since the book has been called Unaussprechlichen Kulten.

I don't think so. I've never seen any. He did 45 covers for Weird Tales, and also a lot of interior illustrations. He lived in Chicago, so I suspect Wright could rely on him for timely delivery of the artwork. Maybe he worked cheaply too? Just speculating, but if he was reliable and cheap it explains why he was used for so long.

I never really thought about it before, but yes, it does seem it took a long time for comics to embrace westerns. Westerns had been big in the pulps not just since the early 40s, but in the 20s and 30s as well. The king of the western pulps, Western Story Magazine, was so popular it ran weekly for most of the period between 1919 and 1943!

Weird Tales, Sep 1928 Cover by C.C. Senf Senf's covers for Weird Tales are not generally well-regarded, then or now. Lovecraft wrote to August Derleth about Senf "the present ‘artist’ Senf has no sense of the fantastic whatever." However, Senf was an improvement over the cover artists that came before him, so there was incremental improvement that continued to Rankin before getting to the truly great Weird Tales artists like Brundage, St. John, Finlay and Bok. I do, however, like a few of Senf's covers, and this is one. Also, here's a picture of Farnsworth Wright, who was tall and thin, next to C.C. Senf, who wasn't.

One of my favorite Spider covers, The Red Death Rain. The Spider, Dec 1934 The basic image on the cover of the girl fleeing the villain was reused several times, but I think this is the original.

Doc Savage Magazine, Mar 1934 Baumhofer cover

Golden Fleece, Jan 1939 Howard's story in this one is Gates of Empire, an historical fiction tale set during the crusades. I think it was probably written in the early 1930s when Howard was trying (unsuccessfully) to break into Adventure and contributing to Oriental Stories and Magic Carpet. Even though Gates of Empire is considered by many Howard's best historical fiction story, I suppose it was rejected by all the aforementioned titles because it was not published until 1939, a few years after his death. The cover illustration by Harold De Lay is not for the Howard story, but for Farley's.

Thrilling Love, May 1945 Earle Bergey cover

I had one until a few months ago when I traded it away. The Thrill Book, Sep 15, 1919

Pete Rice Magazine, Nov 1933 (#1) A western and a hero book. Baumhofer cover

Weird Tales, Jun 1923 (#4) cover by William F. Heitman This is a tough issue to find. I've had two, and this is the nicer copy, haha. There's an Otis Adelbert Kline story in this one. He was an assistant editor early on.

Spicy Adventure Stories #2, Dec 1934 cover by Harry Lemon Parkhurst

Weird Tales, Nov 1946 Boris Dolgov cover, Bradbury, Bloch, and Wellman inside.

Astounding Stories, Feb 1934 Howard V. Brown cover

Exciting Sports, Aug 1948 Bergey cover, reminds me of Bull Durham

Oriental Stories and Magic Carpet One (two) of the great short runs in pulps, IMHO. Sister publication to Weird Tales, featuring many of the same artists and writers. Highlights include: 8 Robert E. Howard stories, including the first appearance of Red Sonya (Roy Thomas changed it to Sonja) Other notable writers include H. Bedford Jones, E. Hoffmann Price, Clark Ashton Smith, Otis Adelbert Kline, and Frank Owen 6 Margaret Brundage covers, including her first cover (OS, Spring 1932) and my personal favorite Brundage cover (MC, Oct 1933) 2 J. Allen St. John covers, and he did some of the logo work 5 Donald Von Gelb covers (the first 5 OS) Bare breast cover by Lucille Holling (OS, Fall 1931, she painted all the lettering on the cover too...it's all on the painting)

Science Fiction Stories, May 1943 Classic robot cover by Milton Luros Stories by Burks and Kuttner

All-Story Love, Nov 1945 Cover by Gloria Stoll (Karn)

Science Wonder Stories, Jun 1929 (#1) Cover by Frank Paul Bedsheet sized first issue of Science Wonder Stories, a title that would merge with its sister publication, Air Wonder Stories, in 1930 to become Wonder Stories, re-brand itself Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1936, and last all the way until 1955.

Star Western, Dec 1936 and Jan 1937 A couple of nice Saunders covers.

Thanks Pat. I've been wanting to get that Munn book. Here are three of his werewolf cover stories, all part of his Werewolf Clan series. Jul 1925 Jul 1927 Oct 1928

Women with wolves was a recurring theme on the covers of Weird Tales. I wonder if this was a conscious decision by Wright, or just happened because there were a lot of werewolf stories? Apr 1926 Sep 1927 Dec 1930 Jun 1932 Mar 1933 Oct 1935 Aug 1938 Sep 1942

Yep, several really good artists come to mind where they are very famous for their book covers (hc and pb), comics or digest work, and did some pulp work too, but not a lot. Freas, Schomburg, Bok, Fox, and St. John fit that description, I think. Some of them did some amazing pulp covers, just not very many.

"Two pounds of ground Chuck, please." Dime Detective Magazine, Aug 1938

Yes, that was a very strong price. Glad you have one already!