Giants on the Cover of Weird Tales

This is a loose collection of two giant robots, a dinosaur, a rogue elephant, a green-skinned demon, and a colossus with stars in his eyes. They don't have a lot in common, but the people (and demons) on these five covers do: they're all frightened, wide-eyed, and hurrying to get out of the picture as fast as they can go.

Weird Tales, December 1926. Cover story: "The Metal Giants" by Edmond Hamilton. Cover art by Joseph Doolin.

Frightened people in the foreground running from something terrible in the background is a pretty common image in popular culture. Here's an example from comic books, drawn by Basil Wolverton.

Here's another example from Weird Tales of the Future #6, from March-April 1953. The artist was Tony Mortellaro.

Weird Tales, November 1930. Cover story: "A Million Years After" by Katherine Metcalf Roof. Cover art by C.C. Senf. 

Weird Tales, February 1939. Cover story: "Death Is an Elephant" by Nathan Hindin (Robert Bloch). Cover art by Virgil Finlay.

Weird Tales, July 1941. Cover story: "The Robot God" by Ray Cummings. Cover art by Hannes Bok. (The man in the picture is almost certainly a self-portrait.)

Weird Tales, September 1941. Cover story: "Beyond the Threshold" by August Derleth. Cover art by Margaret Brundage. The stereotype of Margaret Brundage's work is that she drew little feminine confections in the most delicate of pastels. Here's a cover from 1941 showing her to have been a more versatile artist.

Weird Tales, November 1947. Cover story: "The Cheaters" by Robert Bloch. Cover art by Matt Fox.

Text copyright 2014, 2023 Terence E. Hanley