EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 23 © 2018 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

43 Virgil Finlay One of the master illustrators from Weird Tales, the popular horror pulp magazine from the thirties, and an artist whose black-and-white artwork brought science-fiction and horror to the forefront, as Diego Cordoba recounts in his lifestory. Perhaps the best known artist from the iconic Weird Tales , a pulp magazine that began in 1923, and was best remembered for having published the work of H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Seabury Quinn, Robert Bloch, and many other authors who would first make an impact in the horror and fantasy field in the early part of the twentieth century and during the Great Depression. Weird Tales also featured many artists, both in its colour covers and interior black and white illustrations; artists that alas would be forgotten in time, but by the late ’60s and early ’70s would have some sort of resurgence thanks to both old and new fans of the genre. The first among them to receive a new wave of recognition was Virgil Finlay. A master illustrator in both the horror and science-fiction fields, with his images of ghastly creatures and beautiful women, Finlay was best known for his intricate black and white artwork. Working mainly in pen and ink, he employed a variety of techniques: stippling (applying hundreds of tiny dots to create different tones of gray), cross-hatching (applying small ink lines, again to create different tones) and scraperboard (a clay-covered board with a blackened surface that is scratched away to reveal white lines underneath: in Finlay’s day, the board was white, and the artist had to apply black ink, and when it dried, would then scrape it off with a blade, cutter or pointed knife). Sometimes he used all three of these techniques within the same frame of work. His drawing skills, and the great attention to detail in his illustrations made him a favourite among the readers and the writers as well. His drawing method was extremely time-consuming, and even with the modest rates paid by the pulps (not to mention short deadlines), he was, nevertheless, All images are courtesy of Heritage Auctions FACING PAGE: My Destiny is the Stars , also known as The Tower , pen and ink on scraperboard, date unknown. Finlay did most of his drawings at a very small size (almost the size they were printed on the pulps), this one being only 8 by 6 inches (reproduced at its original size). ABOVE: The Golden Helix , pen and ink on scraperboard, 1954. Interior illustration for Thrilling Wonder Stories , summer 1954. This image was accompanied with the following text: “The needle- cluster rode with her head, fanning out behind the nape like the mechanical extrapolation of an Elizabethan collar.” Incredible that Finlay came up with an image to illustrate something following that text!