Pulp Magazines and the Work of Frank R. Paul (2)

Pulp magazines began in the 1890s, peaked popularity in the 1930s in the period of Art Deco and gradually disappeared in the 1905s during the emergence of Pop Art.(Robinson, Davidson, 2001, 2) In the 1930s it became popular because of the need of the people to escape from the misery of the Great Depression by including topics about mystery, adventures and sexuality.(Eskilson, 2007, 276) Most well known publishers for Pulp Magazines were Beadle & Adams and Street & Smith. (Smith, 2000, 19) The name "pulp" came from the low quality and cheap printed papers. However the covers were full of beautiful, brightly colored images and bold design elements, which attracted the attentions of readers to buy them. The magazine was bought for five to twenty five cents, it was seven by ten inches, and it included approximately 130 pages of stories.(Smith, 2000,19) Pulp magazines was an opportunity that provided work for thousands of artists and designers who were able to include realism and expressionism in their artwork.

Among the most famous pulp artists was the Austrian, Frank Rudolph Paul (1884-1963). He began in 1914 working with the Hugo Gernsback.(Ashley, 2000, 32) His work developed designing covers for the 1930s first science fiction magazines, which mainly focused on adventures in the outer space. In 1926 he designed a large number of covers for the Hugo Gernsback Science Fiction Empire. (http://blogs.bgsu.edu/pclnews/?p=10). Using his architectural background and his imagination he successfully became one of the important designers of pulp science fiction covers. An example for his use of architectural elements was the back cover of Quartz City on Mercury from the Amazing Stories in 1941. Where a tower made of hexagons is inhabited by fictional creatures. We can see how the green and red colors are dominant in a creative, attractive way.(Eskilson, 2007, 277) Fig.1 (http://www.frankwu.com/Paul-111.5.html)

A similar one to its architectural elements and composition was the back cover also in 1941 from the Amazing Stories, depicting "Golden City on Titan". He designed also covers for Planet stories, Science Fiction Magazine, Future Fiction and many other stories. Fig. 2 (http://www.frankwu.com/Paul-113.5.html)

From the Science Fiction Magazine is another example of his work. The colors were always bright and catching to the eye especially in the use of the complementary colors red and blue. Where here are two people in space with aliens around them.

Fig. 3 (http://www.frankwu.com/Paul-70.html)

Another example is a cover from the Fantastic Adventures Magazine where he used highly saturated primary colors with heavy outlining. Its strong colors with its composition and characters are shown in an uncommon, unique way.Fig. 4 (http://www.frankwu.com/Paul-105.html)

Other companies had also many other different themes. Culture Productions was a company owned by Harry Donenfeld (1926-1965) and Frank Armer in 1934. It displayed themes of sexual violence were it faced many oppositions and eventually was forced to close. Its stories were named Spicy Mystery. Other well known stories during the 1930s were Adventure, Black Mask, Dime Detective, Flying Aces, Horror Stories, Marvel Tales, Oriental Stories, Spicy Detective, Startling Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine).

Fig. 5 (http://www.vintagelibrary.com/pulpfiction/magazines/SpicyMystery.php)

Bibliography:

Ashley, M. (2000). The Time Machines: The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the beginning to 1950. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.

Eskilson, S. (2007). Graphic Design A New History. North America: Yale University Press.

Frank R. Paul Gallery. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2010, from http://www.frankwu.com/paul1.html

Robinson, F. and Davidson, L. (2001) Pulp Culture: The Art of Fiction Magazines.

Smith, E. (2000) Hard-Boiled: Working-Class Readers and Pulp Magazines. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

(2010). Pulp magazine. Retrieved April 25, 2010, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_magazine

(1994). The Lurid and the Alluring: Pulp Magazine Cover Art from the Robert Lesser Collection. Retrieved April 25, 2010, from http://blogs.bgsu.edu/pclnews/?p=10