Weird Tales story (the)

série: Etude Comics
dessinateur / scénariste: Weinberg Robert
éditeur: Wildside Press EO 1977
genre: Etude
classement: biblio619
date: 1977
format: broché, N&B
état: TBE/N
valeur: 10 €
critère: *
remarques: English book

prelude by Robert Weinberg
- first issue in March 1923 which should last for more than 30 years
and have 279 issues, it was sold at that time with a price of 25 cents a copy,
a high price for a pulp fiction magazine but it contained already 192 pages
- Robert Howard had his first book published in weird tales
- the magazine developed into a trailblazer publishing stories
that broke taboos and defied conventions
- the purpose of this book is to examine weird tales
and the people who made it great

1) a brief history
the most famous writer of weird fiction
was the literary grandfather of weird tales:
J.C. Henneberger, the creator and thus father of the fantasy magazine

2) Farnsworth Wright
the editor and creator of the weird tales magazine,
with the best-known authors:
Robert Howard, H.P. Lovecraft and Edmond Hamilton

3) why weird tales?
up to the day the first issue of weird tales was placed on the stands,
stories of that sort were taboo in the publishing world,
two classifications for weird tales:
a) stories of psychic phenomena or occult stories
b) highly imaginative stories

4) the stories
description of the main authors and of their stories
as well as a short history of weird tales magazine

5) recollections of weird tales
within short time, weird tales has become a kind of ineffable magic,
the "unique magazine", a living legend
only two other pulp magazines have acquired this legendary aura today:
"unknown worlds" and "astounding science fiction"

6) cover art
in the 1920's and 1930's there were literally hundreds
of different pulp magazines offered to the public,
with a title like weird tales, eye appeal to the casual browser,
which was of prime importance
many artists were involved in the covers of the magazine,
but probably the most famous ones were
Margaret Brundage and Edmond Hamilton

7) interior art
additionnally to the covers, one of the things
that made weird tales "the unique magazine"
was the high level of artwork used
during much of the magazine's story

8) one story as once published in weird tales:
"yours truly, Jack the Ripper" by Robert Bloch

9) competition
as weird tales grew succesful, it was natural for other magazines
to copy its formula and the first magazine to use it as a model
was 1927 "tales of magic and mystery",
but this magazine never offered any serious threat to weird tales

>>> quite an interesting book, much detailed with some illustrations,
unfortunately only in black and white
n.b. see difference with the two color covers here presented


enclosure
- cover of the book
- 2 color covers of comics weird tales story, first edition 1936
by Edmond Hamilton
- black and white covers as presented in the book
couvertures:
Copyright 2008 - 2024 G. Rudolf