Datajunkie has posted an astonishing collection of over 50 covers from the beautiful 1930's pulp Astounding Science Fiction. Curiously enough, though I was born in the late 70's, I spent a lot of my youth reading these magazines, and some of the covers are familiar to me. The local used book stores had a huge pile of these selling for the original cover price. The page slithered with tiny blood red spiders and the paper would decompose in your hands, giving my dust-allergic hands splotchy rashes where I touched them, but I was always fascinated with the lurid covers. In retrospect, I'm not sure what a frontier transvestite cleaning his nails with a knife has to do with science-fiction though.
Datajunkie followed this incredible post with another, highlighting the work of Astounding Science Fiction artist H.W. McCauley.
He also worked on Imaginative Tales, which appears to have been a smuttier pulp. I love that tag for "Mr. Margate's Mermaid" — "Want wacky adventure? Meet Trina! Every man should be so lucky!" Yeah, but the merman part is on the bottom, Mr. Margate!
Astounding Science Fiction Gallery [Data Junkie]
