Today is Good Friday, representing the day on which Jesus Christ died upon the Cross. Weird Tales was of course a popular and secular magazine, although I would guess that most of its writers were either Christians or Jews, or nominally so.* I'm sure there were some atheists in there, too. Even so, "The Unique Magazine" published stories that have a religious background, or they contain references to religion and faith, or some of their characters are believers in God. Six years ago, I wrote about Easter stories, of which there were at least three in Weird Tales. You can read what I wrote by clicking here. If anyone finds more Easter stories, I would be happy to hear about them.
I have found crosses on six covers of Weird Tales. Most of these are incidental to the picture. Three are of crosses as headstones or parts of headstones. The first illustration below, created by Hugh Rankin, shows men who look like Crusaders, but the crosses on their surcoats appear to be upside down. And they are looking to a cross upon which a bat is hung. So even though this looks like it could be a Christian scene, it's not. It's actually an inversion and corruption of Christianity. Reading the story confirms as much. The third picture below, by C.C. Senf, is a picture of torture or punishment. It sure looks like the red-robed cultists are affixing a woman to a cross.
Regarding the second picture below, illustrating "A Million Years After" by Katherine Metcalf Roof, I am reminded of something I noticed several years ago in the comics page. It used to be that in the comic strip Beetle Bailey, drawn by the late, great Mort Walker, any long view of Camp Swampy would show the camp church or chapel with a cross on top. That's what churches are like. But then, after Mr. Walker died, an editor must have gotten ahold of the strip--an editor who must think of crosses as being exclusive or offensive, I guess--because the cross disappeared. There was and still is a chaplain, Chaplain Stainglass, but he appears to be a preacher without portfolio, for the Cross is the symbol of his Christian faith and now it's gone from his chapel. What a ridiculous and insulting thing for the people behind Beetle Bailey to do. How stupid and petty. But we should remember that there have always been and always will be anti-Christian people, ideas, and actions--until there aren't anymore. Anyway, Happy Easter to Everyone, even if you don't believe in anything.
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*One of those writers was a Christian minister, Reverend Henry S. Whitehead (1882-1932).
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| Weird Tales, December 1928, with cover art by Hugh Rankin. Cover story: "The Chapel of Mystic Horror," a Jules de Grandin story by Seabury Quinn. |
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| Weird Tales, November 1930, with cover art by C.C. Senf. Cover story: "A Million Years After" by Katherine Metcalf Roof. |
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| Weird Tales, February 1932, with cover art by J. Allen St. John. Cover story: "The Devil's Bride" by Seabury Quinn. |
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| Weird Tales, April 1939, with cover art by Virgil Finlay. Cover story: "Susette" by Seabury Quinn. |
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| Weird Tales, May 1946, with cover art by Ronald Clyne. Cover story: "The Valley of the Gods" by Edmond Hamilton. |
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| Weird Tales, January 1952, with cover art by Jon Arfstrom. I talked to Jon Arfstrom at PulpFest, in Columbus, Ohio, in the last year of his life. He said that this was a portfolio piece that he submitted to Weird Tales. The editor decided to run it as a cover, but the proportions were off, and so a green shape was added to the top of Mr. Arfstrom's illustration and the main title logo placed over the top of it. The cover text reads "The Black Island" by August Derleth, but I can't say that Derleth's is the cover story. |
Text copyright 2025 Terence E. Hanley
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