Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

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Like Norman Rockwell, Norman Saunders would pose for many of his own paintings. Here he is posing with model Ellene Politis, also his wife.

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Norman Saunders was an artist for hire during the pulp magazine boom, and he managed to develop a distinct style that garnered many imitators.

The story of his birth sounds like it came out of a pulp novel itself.  His father, after being shot in the leg by a Muslim sniper in the Philippines, worked for a railway station. Following being black-listed after a strike, he was driven to work in Mexico.  In Mexico, he killed a Mexican in a bar room brawl, then escaped a Monterrey jail and worked in the circus for some time as a boxer, where he killed another fighter in a match.  Afterword, he met a woman named Elva. The unwed couple had a child named Norman.  It seems that a book based on the life of Clarence Saunders might have been more interesting reading than one based on the life of a graphic illustrator.

 

As a child, a hot poker caught Norman in the eye, causing an infection that nearly blinded him.  His parents, believing that he was near death and unable to afford health care, sent him away to a hospital where he slowly recovered.  Whilst in hospital, a nurse read to him from Mark Twain’s ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’, a work that would influence him.  Norman regained his eyesight and was eventually returned to his parents.  Seeking solitude, he opted to live in a cabin on the family farm during his adolescence.  He took a correspondence course in art and performed well enough to earn a scholarship to the Chicago Art institute.

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Saunders' career was launched when his contributions to Captain Billy's Whiz Bang resulted in a job with Fawcett Publications, where he was employed from 1928 to 1934. He explained in 1983 the events that led to his arrival at Fawcett's offices in Robbinsdale, Minnesota:

 

I was hitchhiking, got into this Model-T Ford with a big trunk strapped up and these two guys in front. One of them had a gun, a rifle. He said, "Keep your eye peeled on the back, kid, see if there are any police or motorcycle cops or something." What the hell was this? These two guys had robbed somebody, or tried to, out in North Dakota, and they had stolen this car from some farmer and were trying to get away. As we got to the outskirts of Bemidji, I was getting awful nervous. There at the town they saw a sand pit with a big hole dug out of it, and they took this car over and got out and pushed it in. They went that way, and I went this way. That night I caught a freight train to Minneapolis. I took a streetcar ride to the end of the line, and there was a two-story bank there and a big sign: "Robbinsdale, the home of Fawcett Publications." I said, "By gosh and by gracious, we got us a real true publisher here!" There was where they were printing Captain Billy's Whiz Bang.

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He painted for all the major publishers and was known for his fast-action scenes, his beautiful women and his ability to meet a deadline. He worked in almost any genre—Westerns, weird menace, detective, sports and the saucy pulps (sometimes signed as "Blaine"). He was able to paint very quickly, producing 100 paintings a year—two a week from 1935 through 1942—and thus lived well during the Depression era.

 

During World War II, Saunders served with the Military Police overseeing German prisoners. Transferred to the Army Corps of Engineers, he supervised the construction of a gas pipeline following the Burma Road.

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Today I'll focus on his pulp output and everything else tomorrow. So sit, back, relax, and enjoy the thrills of yesteryear!

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I'll also post some examples of original art for comparison with the covers they were made for - but I'll save the majority of the OA for the very end!

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