Born August 1, 1914, North Bergen, New Jersey
Died December 25, 2008, Ramsey, New Jersey
Whether he knew it or not, Edd Cartier contributed to Weird Tales. His drawing in the Winter 1985 issue was used to fill out a page containing a book review by Gustavo H. Vintas, M.D. The drawing (which I will post once I have my scanning problem figured out) looks like a clipping from a larger drawing and probably came from another magazine. Cartier is best known for his illustrations in The Shadow, Doc Savage Magazine, Astounding Science Fiction, and Unknown. He also worked for Gnome Press and Fantasy Press. I suspect the drawing came from either Astounding or Unknown.
Edward Daniel Cartier was born on August 1, 1914, in North Bergen, New Jersey, and studied at the Pratt Institute in two stints, one before and one after the Second World War. He served in the U.S. Army during the war and used his G.I. Bill benefits to earn a bachelor of arts degree from Pratt in 1953. He was a unique and versatile artist, and his work, whether signed or not, is unmistakable. It's a shame that he never drew pictures for Weird Tales, as his dark, weird, macabre, and often humorous style would have worked in the magazine. In any case, Cartier died on Christmas Day in 2008 at age ninety-four. I checked my copy of Edd Cartier: The Known and the Unknown (Gerry de la Ree, 1977) and could not find the illustration used in Weird Tales. That's no great surprise, as Cartier created hundreds of drawings published from 1937 onward.
Edd Cartier's Illustration in Weird Tales
Spot drawing on the book review page (Winter 1985; from an unknown source)
Further Reading
- "Edd Cartier (1914-2008)" by Bhob, Potrzebie (online), Dec. 27, 2008, here.
- "Edd Cartier, 94, Pulp Illustrator, Dies" by William Grimes, New York Times, Jan. 8, 2009, here.
 |
| An illustration by Edd Cartier, originally from another source--an unknown source but not necessarily an Unknown source--and used in Weird Tales for Winter 1985. |
Text copyright 2016, 2023 Terence E. Hanley
I'm familiar with Cartier's work on the Shadow, but not his illustrations for Doc Savage, which is interesting because I am a huge fan of the pulp adventures of the Man of Bronze. (I once drove to La Platta, Missouri just to visit Lester Dent's grave.) But now that I think about it, I realize that all of my exposure to the Doc Savage stories has been through the Bantam reprints that began in the sixties. I don't own a single one of the original pulps, and thus am unfamiliar with their interior artwork. I do know many of the Walter Baumhoffer covers, but that's due to their having been published in various histories of the pulps. (And I did -- quite by chance -- once come across one of his original Doc Savage cover paintings hanging in the Museum of American Art in Bristol, Connecticut.)
ReplyDeleteMike,
ReplyDeleteI have never seen Cartier's illustrations for Doc Savage, either. He is much more well known for his science fiction and fantasy drawings.
It's funny that a pulp cover would be in a museum. The world of fine art has looked down on popular art for decades. In their eyes, the only thing lower than a pulp magazine would be a comic book. A painting by Roy Lichtenstein taken from a comic book is art. The original comic book is trash. Things have changed lately, I'm sure, but it's still not a good situation.
I could see a tour of America, visiting all the pulp magazine sites of interest: Lovecraft's Providence, Lester Dent's grave, Robert Heinlein's hometown, Robert E. Howard's Cross Plains, etc.
Thanks for writing.
TH