When "Pulps" Meet "Slicks" 1 1

[Sarg]

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). 

 

Edited April 15 by Sarg
fixed

[Sarg]

Collier's, May 7, 1932.

Another cover by W.T. Benda (but looks like it is signed "Bendoc"). Interiors by Flanagan.

 

 

 

[OtherEric]

My only issue of Collier's.  First publication of "There Will Come Soft Rains", my favourite Ray Bradbury story.

[OtherEric]

Saturday Evening Post with the first publication of Heinlein’s “The Green Hills of Earth”.  This one is important at the first time a SF writer from the pulps sold a SF story to the slicks.

 

 

Edited April 15 by OtherEric

[Darwination]

On 4/15/2024 at 6:41 AM, Sarg said:

Collier's, May 7, 1932.

Another cover by W.T. Benda (but looks like it is signed "Bendoc"). Interiors by Flanagan.

 

 

 

Sweet posts, Sarg!  These issues with both Benda and Flanagan (and Rohmer) are super cool. I'd very recently corresponded with Evan, @Yorick on the subject of Benda (and make a practice of sending him any new entries for his Flanagan index I come across).  Evan just shared a neat Benda item, a bound edition of the Shrine, over in "Non-Comics Magazines" where much excellent material seems to be exiled (and not surprisingly, one of my haunts).  We need a "Slicks" spot but it seems almost sacrilegious to put it in the pulps area even if there is A TON of crossover in terms of art and fiction.  It's not like a whole class of writers and artists sold exclusively to one or the other, as many walked in both worlds.  Flanagan's a good example as far as an old school fine artist that had to adapt to changing tastes in illustration and a changing marketplace.  He's all over Blue Book in the 30s (maybe the best illustrated pulp ever).

 My most recent correspondence with Evan on Benda had to do with a neat piece in the upcoming HA illustration auction even though it's not quite an illustration

The Mask of Fu Manchu cover you posted there fits into Benda's long running preoccupation with masks, and Evan tells me he did theater production work.  Some other mask covers:

I recently scanned this Collier's with a Rohmer/Flanagan feature (and I'm always happy to show off the cover, still have it on display in my office)

https://archive.org/details/colliers-v-087n-19-1931-05-09.-p.-f.-collier-son-darwin-ia

Rohmer's Fu Manchu also appeared in another slick, Liberty, later on (cover by Arnold Freberg)

The illos aren't Flanagan, though.  I guess Flanagan and Rohmer had a falling out over Flanagan's work in Wu Fang which he felt was a Fu Manchu knock-off, but I don't really know any details on that (Yorick knows all this stuff and has a long thread regarding Flanagan's DC work and other art somewhere on the boards). (scan courtesy of the immensely talented Miss Saskia at the pulpscans group)

Flanagan did have later appearances in Liberty, though, as they sometimes used him in the wartime "complete novel" feature which was actually a sort of retro throwback to the pulps in illustration style as well as cheaper paper used in the center section where the novels were contained. 

A surprising find for Flanagan last year was in an issue of Ballyhoo which was probably some remaindered artwork from Fu he managed to sell to Delacorte (scan courtesy of Vaguery at the IA):

I came across that one when did a feature on Ballyhoo (slick paper but not a slick by any means) at the DCM last year.

But Collier's is a magazine I have a special attachment to, as it's my namesake.  My grandparents used to have covers framed around their house - never the cool ones, though

In fact, it's the title I use for a pulp APA I belong to.  There's no shortage of title and masthead illustration to plunder and play with

Edited April 15 by Darwination

[Yorick]

Still grabbing the occasional Colliers and adding to the list....

So much terrific artwork in there.  I've been taking photos of some of Godwin's work when I go through them.  I've considered starting a thread for him...  another "favorite" artist of mine.

[Darwination]

Liberty April 4, 1936, cover by Walter Baumhofer, longtime pulp artist best known for covers for Adventure and Doc Savage and *many* other pulps.  In the late to mid 30s he began to "crossover" and his covers appeared on Liberty and The American Magazine and his interior illos appeared in the likes of Cosmopolitan, McCall's, Woman's Home Companion and other slicks.

Splash within for William James Blackledge's Company of the Damned (hmm, it's Doc Savage heh heh)

Also within, the conclusion of James M. Cain's Double Indemnity. Cain began his career as a newspaperman but went to work for H.L. Mencken at The American Mercury.  He moved into novels and screenwriting during the height of his popularity in the 30s and 40s and his work would often appear in Liberty.  While never writing for the pulps, outside of WWII service propaganda, Cain is often lumped into the noir or pulp category for his brand of crime fiction.  Cain did, however, have a couple appearances in early Manhunt crime digests which are pulp in my book and sold many an Avon paperback.  Illo from James Montgomery Flagg, who in his long, long illustrious career, to my knowledge, never did appear in the pulps.

 

[OtherEric]

On 4/16/2024 at 1:03 AM, Darwination said:

Also within, the conclusion of James M. Cain's Double Indemnity. Cain began his career as a newspaperman but went to work for H.L. Mencken at The American Mercury.  He moved into novels and screenwriting during the height of his popularity in the 30s and 40s and his work would often appear in Liberty.  While never writing for the pulps, outside of WWII service propaganda, Cain is often lumped into the noir or pulp category for his brand of crime fiction.  Cain did, however, have a couple appearances in early Manhunt crime digests which are pulp in my book and sold many an Avon paperback.

 

Several of Cain's books appeared in Avon's Murder Mystery Monthly series, which is something of an overlap between pulp digests and paperbacks.  The MMM edition of "Double Indemnity" was the first standalone complete edition of the story, it has previously been reprinted in an omnibus with two other stories by Cain.

 

[Yorick]

On 4/16/2024 at 1:03 AM, Darwination said:

Illo from James Montgomery Flagg

I used to think he was one of the best.  I've downgraded him a notch on my "best" list, but I still find really wonderful stuff from him.  He's simply not consistently the best.

Edited from a Hearsts/Cosmo.

[Darwination]

I'm most preferential to his pen and ink stuff, but he was pretty well versed.  The guy was around for so long and in so many different publications - I've never really sat down and tried to learn about the scope of his career or map out his art (maybe cuz I'm so pulp-centric).

I'm crazy about this one:

Here's some of that pen and ink I'm talking about