This week, we open the vault on 50 Golden Age pulp fantasy magazine covers — glamorous and sexy painted visions of peril, power, and unapologetic drama from the 1940s and ’50s.
You’ll find heroes defiant. Monsters enormous. Damsels imperiled (and often doing the imperiling). Fear, surprise, defiance — every emotion painted at full radio volume.
As you wander this gallery of painted pulp imagination, I’ll be curious which covers seize your eye . . . and which visualized tropes make you grin, cheer, or wince.
Let’s step inside.
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Pure Fantasy Fuel from the Pulp Era
Beneath all the painted drama was a real magazine, printed on real pulp paper and stacked on real newsstands across America. Fantastic Adventures first appeared in 1939, published by Ziff-Davis during the height of the pulp era.
It ran through 1953, blending fantasy, adventure, weird menace, and the occasional dash of science fiction for readers hungry for escape in uncertain times.
Prominent authors who had work published in Fantastic Adventures included Edgar Rice Burroughs, Nelson S. Bond, Edmond Hamilton, Robert Bloch, Don Wilcox, August Derleth, Rog Phillips, Theodore Sturgeon, Walter M. Miller, Jr., Fritz Leiber, L. Sprague de Camp, and Ray Bradbury.
Inside its pages lived tales of lost civilizations, ancient curses, cosmic threats, and jungle empires — but it was the covers that did the shouting. Bold, theatrical, impossible to ignore, they promised danger, romance, and wonder before a single page was turned.
Behind every lunging dragon, powerful goddess, and shadowed temple stood the unsung heroes of the pulp age — the illustrators. Artists like J. Allen St. John, Margaret Brundage, Virgil Finlay, H.W. McCauley, Raymond Naylor, Robert Gibson Jones, Walter Parke, Frank R. Paul, Malcolm Smith and many others shaped the visual language.
Working fast, they painted bold compositions designed to stop a passerby mid-stride at a newsstand. Their work was dramatic, exaggerated, sometimes outrageous — and foundational to the fantasy imagery that would inspire and echo through generations of artists, right down to today.
Step up to the newsstand, Adventurer, and take your pick — fifty painted portals to wonder await . . .
Collector’s Note:
The cover images featured in this edition were sourced from listings by the excellent eBay seller MyComicShop. If you’re interested in collecting these exact original issues of Fantastic Adventures or other vintage pulp magazines, you can explore their shop here
Pixie: “Just great. Try explaining this to my wife. So much for ever having guy time at the waterfall ever again.”
When he arrived for their date, poor Toka realized she was the victim of catfishing once again.
This one would make an amazing D&D module cover!
Devil: “You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, . . . “
Ancient Egyptian selfie
This guy better hope Captain Kirk doesn’t kick his a$$ and steal his green chick.
28 years later, this adventurer would become known as “Bo Duke”.
John Schnieder
(Just kidding - but it does look like him, no?)
“You’re not leaving the house dressed like that, young lady! Now get back inside and discuss this with your Mummy.”
Love this cover! Viking’s like, “Get away from me kid, you’re starting to bother me.”
Ummm. Probably best not to comment on this one.
“No! Bad boy. Down! Get down.”
Woman invited in to be by the fire
Woman thrown into the fire
Woman becomes the Goddess of the fire
“Gee, the ferry is finally arriving.”
Now we at last glimpse the origin of the modern-day term - back then it was known as being “C-whipped”
And to finish off this tour, let’s take a look at 8 more quirky but fun fantasy covers that spill heavily into other genres. (Apologies in advance - I couldn’t keep myself from commenting on each one.)
Adventure story or (every) boyhood dream?
This cover (and its text) is dripping with so much innuendo that you’ll just have to imagine your own captions.
“Gigawatts” or “Jigglewatts”?
“Come with me if you want to live.”
Not really sure what in the wild wild world of sports is a goin’ on around here, but I definitely ain’t gonna be her huckleberry if she asks. You can tell by her outfit that space cowgirl is plumb crazy. Not sure which Venusian mental institution she escaped from, but from her accessories, there is obviously a Spirit Halloween real close by.
“Darling, when I said I would play that tabletop wargame with you, I didn’t know the miniatures actually come to life!”
“Fear me - and the wrath of my giant seahorse, ‘Bob’!”
“Oh, hey, this isn’t what it looks like, man. I just met this groovy chick, and she said she was single. I’m just gonna get my cape and get out of here and let you two work it out, alright?”
In an age before social media marketing and cinematic universes, these painted covers did the heavy lifting. They promised wonder in a single glance. They invited readers into lost worlds with nothing more than pigment, pulp paper, and imagination.
They may feel exaggerated to modern eyes — but their confidence is part of their charm. They weren’t afraid of spectacle. They embraced it.
Which cover seized you the hardest?
Let’s hear it below.
May your quest be painted ever boldly, Adventurer.
💬 Tavern Talk
❓Which cover would have stopped you cold at the 1940s newsstand rack?
❓Which cover made you grin… cheer… or wince the loudest?
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Love old pulp covers.
Gorgeous, usually slightly naughty art.
Fun stuff.
Thanks for the share!