Thursday, October 22, 2009

Visions and Vagaries

This time of year is haunted with visions and vagaries of unholy life and moldy death, and what better image than this phantasmagoria to portray that.

This pulp illustration by Lawrence Stern Stevens is for the Ray Bradbury story Homecoming, from Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December of 1952, and is one of my favorites. The sky-clad witch is a vision unto herself.

Stevens and Virgil Finlay published side by side in these kinds of pulps. Each was unique in style and yet blended together, issue after issue, for a homogenous portrayal of the incredible. Finlay's visions went out among the stars, but Stevens were usually earth-bound phantasies.

1 comment:

Artman2112 said...

it still amazes me how much work those guys would put into a picture that was most certainly going to turn to mud when printed in the actual magazine. and for a fairly pitful sum too. thankfully they did though!