Tag Archives: Ed Emshwiller

Ed Emshwiller

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Today, February 16, is the birthday of Ed Emswiller (1925-1990). Emshwiller was a prolific cover and interior artist in the nineteen fifties and sixties. He was married to author Carol Emshiwiller.

Galaxy February 1955, Cover by Emsh

He signed his work as Emsh. Much of it was for digests in the fifties, such as F&SF and Galaxy. His covers for Galaxy  tended to be fun and somewhat zany, especially his Christmas covers, which featured a four-armed Santa Claus.

His covers for publiscations such as F&SF, Infinity, and other magazines of the time tended to be darker in theme and tone. I’m not sure how much of this was due to editorial policies, Emsh’s preferences, or the nature of the fiction he was illustrating. Galaxy, after all, published more satire than any other publication of the day. Many of those covers feature beautiful women.

In the sixties, he did a number of covers for paperbacks. His work has a definite style and feel to it.

Belowo are some samples of his work. Continue reading →

Emsh

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Artist Ed Emshwiller (1925-1990) was born today, February 16. He signed his work Emsh.

Emshwiller was best known for his covers for Galaxy in the 1950s and for F&SF in the early sixties. That’s one of my favorites there ont he left. He also did a series fo Christmas covers for Galaxy. Mush of his work for Galaxy had a a whimsical flavor to it.

His covers for F&SF and other magazines tended to be more serious and even dark at times.

In the 1970s his interests moved to film. Here are som of his covers. Continue reading →

A Look at Jack Williamson’s Golden Blood

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Before he became a master of science fiction, Jack Williamson was a master of pulp adventure. He’s becoming forgotten these days, especially much of his early work.  It doesn’t help that most of his books are not available in electronic format. Haffner Press collected all of his short fiction in a ten volume set. They’re pretty much out of print except for a couple of limited editions of the later volumes.

Williamson started writing for the pulps in 1928. His last novel was published in 2005. He passed away in 2006.  I’ve always wanted to attend the Williamson Lectureship in Portales. It’s within driving distance, but the day job has always interfered.

But I digress. There’s a clear difference in Williamson’s early work compared to his later novels. As he said in the Tamerlane Press edition of Golden Blood (still available for a reasonable price online) as well as the introduction to the Phantasia Press edition of The Reign of Wizardry (also still available), these were works he probably wouldn’t be able to write as an older writer. (I’m paraphrasing here, of course.)

Golden Blood was first serialized in Weird Tales after being rejected by Argosy. If there is an electronic version, I’m not aware of it. It got the cover twice, with both covers painted by J. Allen St. John.St. John also did the interior illustrations shown below.

The first cover, from the April 1933 issue, is a near classic image in the field of fantasy art.  Williamson had an opportunity to buy the painting at the time the story was published but had to decline due to lack of funds.

There have been two paperback reprints, one with a cover by Ed Emshwiller at the bottom of the post. The other was a large print edition from Lancer. My favorite cover is the one with the giant tiger on it. Continue reading →