EXTRACTS: Illustrators issue 30 © 2020 The Book Palace (96 PAGES in Full edition)

3 Mort Künstler FACING PAGE: Sergeant Gregory’s Escape From Red Chinese Captivity , gouache on board. Stag cover , October 1960. Make the most unbelievable situation seem real. ABOVE: I’m Taking Over the Boat , gouache on board. Interior illustration in Male , April 1959. Before becoming one of the most celebrated his‐ torical painters of the American Civil War, Mort Künstler ( featured previously in illustrators 17 ) honed his artistic talents by doing hundreds of illustrations for the adven‐ ture magazines during the mid-20th century. It was his re‐ markable versatility, and speed in executing these pictures, that made him one of the most in-demand artists among the pulp illustrators. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1927, Künstler showed an innate talent for drawing as a child. His parents encour‐ aged him to pursue his love for drawing, and even teachers at his elementary school remarked on his artistic talent. He eventually studied at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. After graduating fromPratt, he worked during the 1950s and ’60s for the men’s adventure magazines that had replaced the pulps from the previous decades. Mort Künstler has since been known as the ‘Godfather of Pulp Illustration’. I recently had a conversation with him about the work he did for these ‘pulps’ (a term he considers doesn’t fit the adventure magazines).