Sarg

Not mine! I meant, I anticipate a lucky owner will soon have it slabbed, and hopefully will post it here.

St. John is great, but most of his best work was done for books, not pulps. Some of his pulp covers look a little rushed or not very well thought out. "Golden Blood" is a masterpiece, however.

Yes. A classic, though a cover that is a lot less visually striking than many other Amazing Stories covers from the period. Its "classic" status derives from it being reproduced so many times over the decades, plus also, I believe it is the first sci-fi cover to portray a man flying. So a precursor to comic super-heroes.

The see-through blouse that launched a thousand ships.

Fair enough, but where's the evidence that, e.g., Startling Stories #64 was regarded as classic by collectors "over (a) long period of time"? Covers like this and others so designated by CGC seem very trendy and recent -- unlike Batwoman or Creeping Death, which have been coveted and reproduced many, many times over the past 40 to 50 years.

Makes you wonder, what are considered the "classic" covers by the connoisseurs of this forum? It should be a very short list, otherwise the word "classic" loses any meaning. Needless to say, Startling Stories #64 should not be on the list. Not even close. Covers that especially gory, weird, or sexy should not automatically qualify. No Spider or Operator #5 covers are "classic," IMO, though all of them are striking to behold today. A classic has to do more than simply arrest one's vision with lurid action. A few off the top of my head: Shadow - skeleton coming out of curtain - Rozen WT - Batwoman - Brundage WT - giant tiger (Golden Blood) - St. John Shadow - Book of Death with skeleton - Rozen WT - Skeleton Writing Book - Bok FFM - Green hooded Skeleton holding people - Finlay

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Anticipating a slabbed All Story Tarzan.

"Digest" has two applications, I think: 1. Size: digests are wider than typical paperbacks (4.25" x 6.375"). Digests are 5" wide or more. 2. Publication Status. "Digest" most commonly refers to periodicals, whereas "paperbacks" are books, not periodicals.

Collier's, May 7, 1932. Another cover by W.T. Benda (but looks like it is signed "Bendoc"). Interiors by Flanagan.

Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu sagas were possibly the most pulp-like series to ever run in the slick magazines. Unfortunately, the covers of Collier's rarely featured the characters from this long-running series, the editors preferring instead light, silly, humorous covers that have no appeal today. The March 8, 1930, cover is one of the exceptions. It is painted by W.T. Benda. The interior illustrations are by John Richard Flanagan, the true inheritor of Joseph Clement Coll (the original illustrator of Fu Manchu).

According to this article: "I don't think there can be any doubt that 'The Spirit Fakers of Hermannstadt' was ghostwritten. The question is, who was the ghostwriter? I would like to nominate Otis Adelbert Kline for that title. Whoever wrote the story was well versed (or mostly well versed) in the history, language, and geography of fantasy, adventure, historical, and weird fiction. Kline fit the bill in that way. Kline was also a manuscript reader, workhorse writer, sometime editor, and partway agent for Weird Tales. He seems to have been a real go-to guy for Henneberger and Baird. In early 1924, the two men at the head of Weird Tales would have needed ghostwriters for Houdini's coming stories. Kline would have been an obvious choice for the first. Lovecraft of course came last."

I wonder if any readers at the time noticed that Houdini writes just like Lovecraft?

Personally, I think most of Senf's covers are ill-conceived rubbish, but I agree that this is one of his more effective ones. Under Satrap Pharnabazous's editorship, the best story in the issue was almost always passed over for the cover illustration, so good to see Two-Gun Bob prevail here. Always amusing, also, to see a world famous name from literature (Alexandre Dumas) added to the author roll on the cover -- as if to give the impression that Dumas actually wrote for "the unique magazine"!

I do like that CGC is giving them consecutive numbers, like comic books. It's good to know at a glance that the October 1, 1936, issue of The Shadow is #111, rather than "Volume 19, Number 3," which is a now-meaningless jumble of numbers.

The Man From Nazareth is a little out of place there.

Early pre-cleavage Avon. Crude compared to their later covers, but charming in its own way. Looking forward to reading this. The only other Merritt I've read so far is Burn Witch Burn.

Strangely, Matt Fox cited Alex Raymond as his biggest inspiration. I can't think of an artist more unlike Raymond than Fox.

Heritage's description of The One Between by Arthur Adlon (Beacon, 1962) is ludicrous: "The One Between dates to what's called the "golden age" of the lesbian pulp genre. These books used the public's appetite for erotic, lurid, and sensational stories to create space for representation of queer characters not allowed elsewhere in mainstream American culture and are highly collectible today." Beacon's strategy in publishing was purely and simply to peddle cheap thrills and sleaze to the prurient interests of men. Heritage knows this, of course, but decides instead to rewrite history to retroject a false motive of "inclusion" on the publisher's part. I hate dishonesty in advertising.

8.5 ... highest graded pulp so far?

Will CGC Note Pedigrees on Pulp Labels? Just curious.

Fascinating stuff. Until now, I had no idea there was a "Pocket Book Armed Services Editions" series.

I wish someone would start a thread on just the Strasser Collection. The most mysterious of all pedigrees?

What the heck is a "N.J.P.O. Bandit"?

Pulps were periodicals printed on uncoated pulp wood paper. It was a medium that thrived between 1895 and 1950. Pulps specialized in popular fiction, and selling at a price of 25 cents, were more affordable than hard cover books ($3.00 to $6.00). The introduction of comic books and mass market paperbacks in the USA in the mid-to-late 1930s started a competition with pulps, which contributed to their decline. True Detective, Stag, Saga, and many more men's adventure titles from the 1950s onward are magazines, not pulps. However, the writing style in many stories in those magazines can be called "pulp fiction." Weird Tales, Black Mask, The Shadow, Doc Savage, The All-Story, Astonishing Stories, Adventure, are prime examples of pulps.