Friday, November 21, 2014

Monsters Alone on the Cover of Weird Tales

There were many monsters on the cover of Weird Tales over the years, but most of those monster covers showed the monster menacing a human being, very often a woman. You can see some of them in my previous postings:
There will be at least a couple of more categories with monsters, but the following three covers don't fit into any of them, for they show monsters alone with nary a human in sight.

Weird Tales, January 1947. Cover story: "The Hog" by William Hope Hodgson. Cover art by A.R. Tilburne. Albert Roanoke Tilburne specialized in depicting animals, but he also had a flare for truly weird monsters. His image of Hodgson's diabolical hog is a perfect example of that.

Weird Tales, July 1948. Cover story: "Twilight of the Gods" by Edmond Hamilton (?). Cover art by Matt Fox. Who else could have created such a phantasmagoria?

Weird Tales, July 1949. Cover story: None. Cover art by Matt Fox. 
Fox's cover reminds me of Grandpa's Ghost Stories by James Flora (1978), a book that might just as easily be called Weird Tales for Kids. It's hard to recommend books to other readers. My list extends to three books for adults, True Grit by Charles Portis (1968), Red Sky at Morning by Richard Bradford (1968), and maybe The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester (1956). I feel much more confident recommending children's books. Grandpa's Ghost Stories is near the top of the list.

Text and captions copyright 2014, 2023 Terence E. Hanley

1 comment:

  1. I would never have imagined that picture for "The Hog". I like it though.

    I liked the July 1949 cover too.

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