EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 25 © 2019 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

92 Freudian complex of her own personality (and sexuality?). Needless to say, she was a talented artist who dominated the pulp field for some years, an artistic world mostly composed of men (which might explain some of the jealousy or harsh words by some male writers who couldn’t tolerate a woman expressing a sexual freedom they most probably had repressed). And while her covers usually featured naked women, they were presented in a very delicate manner. The so-called torture scenes some men claimed she relished, are frankly, pretty tame. Also, of interest for followers of fantasy art, she was the first artist to depict Robert E. Howard’s Conan long before Frazetta and Barry Smith ever did. Although slightly controversial during her time, she was forgotten for many years, but thankfully a book titled ‘The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage’ by J. David Spurlock and Stephen D. Korshak, was published by Vanguard in 2013. l In her later years, after her work for the pulp magazines had dried up, Brundage continued to paint, mostly selling her work whenever she could around sci-fi conventions (where she also had many of them stolen). She also experimented with other media besides her pastels, but always painted naked girls, something she was rather fond of, despite her strict religious upbringing and beliefs. Here we see two samples of Brundage’s private work she did after her pulp cover years. TOP LEFT: Hawaiian Pin-up , gouache and watercolour on board, 17.25” by 26.25”. Date unknown. TOP RIGHT: Untitled , oil on canvas, 16” x 20”. Date unknown.