I'll pound you to a "Pulp" if you don't show off yours! 23 23

[OtherEric]

1 hour ago, N e r V said:

Pick up today. Special thanks to redfury for his time and knowledge. 

Arguably one of the top ten all-time classic pulp covers!  An awesome pick-up.

[N e r V]

The Shadow has for me been one of the main gold standards for pulp covers. So many great ones in the run. This one is special because it’s probably one of the first ones I noticed as a kid from Steranko’s History of comics. 

Still every time I see the character I can’t get that parody Mad magazine did of him. I saw that for the first time in one of those Nostalgic Mads reprints in their specials. Still can’t forget it. 

[PopKulture]

5 hours ago, OtherEric said:

Arguably one of the top ten all-time classic pulp covers!  An awesome pick-up.

Who's arguing?? 

[OtherEric]

1 hour ago, PopKulture said:

Who's arguing?? 

I'm just trying to figure out what the other nine would be, I figure there are about 20-30 candidates.  Then we can start figuring out what the real top ten are...

I would include the August 1928 Amazing Stories and October 1933 Weird Tales as guaranteed on the list.  I would also definitely include the June 1936 Astounding, but others might prefer the February 1936 and it might split the vote.  And I think the January 1950 Startling Stories could make a case.  Not sure off the top of my head what else I would include, but will probably come up with a few more after I think for a bit.  What do others think?

[N e r V]

1 hour ago, OtherEric said:

I'm just trying to figure out what the other nine would be, I figure there are about 20-30 candidates.  Then we can start figuring out what the real top ten are...

I would include the August 1928 Amazing Stories and October 1933 Weird Tales as guaranteed on the list.  I would also definitely include the June 1936 Astounding, but others might prefer the February 1936 and it might split the vote.  And I think the January 1950 Startling Stories could make a case.  Not sure off the top of my head what else I would include, but will probably come up with a few more after I think for a bit.  What do others think?

I think this Shadow would be on most people’s top 10 too.

 

If I had to pick an Astounding I’d go with these 2 over what you listed.

I’d also think this Amazing Stories is high on some lists as well.

 

I think this issue of Planet although not hard or expensive to get seems super popular with its cover too.

 

 

Me I could probably pick a top 5 pretty easy but after that there are to many to choose from.

Edited April 12, 2018 by N e r V

[adamstrange]

I love that Shadow cover and it may be the most iconic, used back in the day for the BLB as well as the first one that Steranko painted for the 1970s paperback series.

There are so many pulps and so many great pulp covers that I think we would get a wide divergence if we each created Top 10 lists.

 

[OtherEric]

1 hour ago, N e r V said:

I think this Shadow would be on most people’s top 10 too.

 

If I had to pick an Astounding I’d go with these 2 over what you listed.

I’d also think this Amazing Stories is high on some lists as well.

 

 

Me I could probably pick a top 5 pretty easy but after that there are to many to choose from.

Creeping Death is definitely a strong candidate as well, although I think not as iconic as the Black Hush cover.  I certainly wouldn't fault anybody for including both.  Less sure on the Astoundings, I might agree on the ape cover but I don't think the Black Destroyer cover is that famous as a cover.  It's unquestionably a key and famous issue, but I don't think the cover drives it.  The Amazing with the lion is definitely up there, but I don't think it would crack the top 10.

Very interested in what anybody else thinks, I'll try to get some images posted tomorrow on the handful I have that I think are at least candidates.

[PopKulture]

Boy, is that a road we really want to go down?? I think it's even tougher (and more subjective) than a top ten covers for comics. I think you'd have more variability. There are very few pulps that have covers that most collectors would agree are classic - great covers, sure, but tastes vary widely. You just don't have the equivalent in pulps of Superman14, More Fun 54, Detective 31, etc.  And then you have that whole "iconic versus classic" thing going on. I would argue that the cover to the Spider #1 is iconic in the same way Action 1 is iconic but perhaps not classic - at least not in the sense 'classic' is used in comics. I would argue that the Amazing Stories with the first Buck Rogers is more iconic than classic, as it's not even Buck pictured on the cover.

Point being, I have what I consider a very modest pulp collection. These are just a few scans from my collection that I have at the ready, and I could post another few dozen of an ilk caliber. And just look how cool some of these covers are!!

The only one of these that there might be consensus on is the All Detective, and I doubt it would crack a top 20 list:

 

Edited April 12, 2018 by PopKulture

[PopKulture]

Honorable mentions, cuz I just plain like them:

Edited April 12, 2018 by PopKulture

[PopKulture]

Additionally, when you think Weird Tales, you could have ten Brundage covers on the list! And there are some St. John Weird Tales that might qualify, and everybody seems to like the Fox Weird Tales covers now as well. Add to that the Magic Carpets by Brundage, and the snake cover from Strange Tales and the list is already getting crowded. I can think of a half dozen Amazing Stories bedsheets that are candidates, and then add Science Wonder Stories and you start to scratch your head. Throw in Spicy Mystery and Horror Stories and Terror Tales and a few Mystery Tales and so on. 

For me, it's impossible! 

[Robot Man]

19 hours ago, N e r V said:

Pick up today. Special thanks to redfury for his time and knowledge. 

One of the best for sure! Wish I had one. Here is something you don't see often. The three Shadow hardback books. One of the covers looks familiar. Also, all three Shadow Big Little Books.

[Robot Man]

53 minutes ago, PopKulture said:

Additionally, when you think Weird Tales, you could have ten Brundage covers on the list! And there are some St. John Weird Tales that might qualify, and everybody seems to like the Fox Weird Tales covers now as well. Add to that the Magic Carpets by Brundage, and the snake cover from Strange Tales and the list is already getting crowded. I can think of a half dozen Amazing Stories bedsheets that are candidates, and then add Science Wonder Stories and you start to scratch your head. Throw in Spicy Mystery and Horror Stories and Terror Tales and a few Mystery Tales and so on. 

For me, it's impossible! 

I don't think I could even attempt to post my say top 10 pulp covers. So many, so many different genres and subject matter. Many of the ones you posted are just prime examples of the expanse of this media.

[N e r V]

1 hour ago, PopKulture said:

Additionally, when you think Weird Tales, you could have ten Brundage covers on the list! And there are some St. John Weird Tales that might qualify, and everybody seems to like the Fox Weird Tales covers now as well. Add to that the Magic Carpets by Brundage, and the snake cover from Strange Tales and the list is already getting crowded. I can think of a half dozen Amazing Stories bedsheets that are candidates, and then add Science Wonder Stories and you start to scratch your head. Throw in Spicy Mystery and Horror Stories and Terror Tales and a few Mystery Tales and so on. 

For me, it's impossible! 

I kind of said that in my earlier post. Maybe a top 5 that many would agree with but after that it’s difficult even for my own choices let alone trying to pick universal favorites.

The books I posted in response to othereric’s comment were my own observations of books that seem in high demand based on their covers including a lot of them with images used on posters, shirts,etc as well as being reproduced regularly in various sources.

We had a top Matt Baker cover thread here a ways back which was interesting but after looking at the final list objectively (which probably had a few covers not done by him) it looked to me more  like a mish mash of boardie favourites than any general top list that most buyers/collectors would agree on.

It is safe to say though that the Black Hush cover is a classic cover and one that’s been popular and used for many years for reproduction regardless if anyone feels its a top 10 or not.

Edited April 12, 2018 by N e r V

[N e r V]

I’m also sad to report in purchasing the Black Hush copy (I originally set out to buy a copy of Weird a Tales June 1933 but it had some issues) I ran across a number of other pulps I’ll probably have to buy resulting in me posting some covers that may be iconic or classic in some sense depending on your collecting views.

You’ve been warned...

[RedFury]

I'm in an all-day meeting, but I'll pop in here long enough to post this, my current favorite cover in my collection.

Spicy Adventure Stories, Jun 1935

Cover by Harry Lemon Parkhurst

[adamstrange]

3 hours ago, PopKulture said:

Additionally, when you think Weird Tales, you could have ten Brundage covers on the list! And there are some St. John Weird Tales that might qualify, and everybody seems to like the Fox Weird Tales covers now as well. Add to that the Magic Carpets by Brundage, and the snake cover from Strange Tales and the list is already getting crowded. I can think of a half dozen Amazing Stories bedsheets that are candidates, and then add Science Wonder Stories and you start to scratch your head. Throw in Spicy Mystery and Horror Stories and Terror Tales and a few Mystery Tales and so on. 

For me, it's impossible! 

Sums it up for me

[OtherEric]

2 hours ago, adamstrange said:

Sums it up for me

But just because it's impossible doesn't mean the discussion isn't fun!  Here are the ones I mentioned earlier as possibles; I unfortunately don't have a copy of the Batwoman Weird Tales to include.

[RedFury]

Wow, it's tough to narrow down 10.  But here's my 10 favorite covers at the moment from my collection.

[comicjack]

Just ten you have so many wonderful pulps,love the Black Mask and of course the Magic Carpet 

[Randall Dowling]

2 hours ago, RedFury said:

Wow, it's tough to narrow down 10.  But here's my 10 favorite covers at the moment from my collection.

It’s one thing to nominate all of these, it’s another to own all of them!  What a group!!