Search Results for “weird tales”

Weird Tales, September 1953

The Moon Terror & Other Stories

The Moon Terror & Other Stories is a hardcover collection of four early stories from Weird Tales magazine from its first year of publication (1923). It was issued in 1927 by the publisher of Weird Tales.

Since its initial publication in as a two-part serial in 1923, readers of Weird Tales had sent in letters making repeated requests asking for the short novel The Moon Terror to be reprinted. Unfortunately, by the time the publishers finally got around to reprinting the story in book form in this collection in 1927, interest in The Moon Terror had waned (one factor being that Amazing Stories had come into existence in 1926 and was publishing similar SF horror tales).

So despite the publisher’s initial great hopes for The Moon Terror & Other Stories, the book proved to be a fiasco. It took years for it to sell out despite being peddled for $1.50 a copy in Weird Tales (usually in a prominent back cover ad) on into the 1930s. It was eventually given away free with a subscription to the magazine to try to dispose of the unsold copies.

This entire book can be downloaded here.

Murgunstrumm

This was the 7th and final issue. It also includes The Cairn on the Headland by Robert E. Howard, and the entire issue can be downloaded here.

This issue also contained a mystery that endured for almost thirty five years. On page 106 is a blurb about the stories in the next issue. They were The Valley Of The Lost by Robert E. Howard, The Seed From The Sepulchre by Clark Ashton Smith and The Case Of The Crusader’s Hand by Gordon MacCreah. The problem here was that there never actually was a “next” issue. This was the final one. So what happened to the stories? Well, the Clark Ashton Smith story was picked up by Weird Tales for the October, 1933 issue. The MacCreah story, which would have been the third in his Dr. Muncing series, languished until 1951 when it appeared in Weird Tales for January of that year. By then it had been rewritten without Dr. Muncing and retitled The Hand Of St. Ury. But what about the Howard story? There was much speculation over the years. Had Howard changed the title and sold it somewhere else? They couldn’t ask Howard since he had committed suicide in 1936. A couple of Howard stories were suggested as possibilities. The Valley of the Worm and King of the Forgotten People. The mystery wasn’t solved until 1967 when, at the urging of editor Robert A.W. Loundes, Glenn Lord went through the Howard papers in his possession and discovered the original typed manuscript. There was no question that this was the correct story because attached to it was the letter from Strange Tales editor Harry Bates explaining why he was returning it. Apparently Howard never tried to sell the story to any other magazine. Lowndes published the story for the very first time, along with the letter from Bates, in his Startling Mystery Stories magazine for Spring 1967 as The Secret of Lost Valley.

via via

Original covers for Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, published between 1933 and 1936

All nine were painted by Margaret Brundage, who was the most popular of Weird Tales’ cover artists. She was known for her images depicting bondage and flagellation of women. Authors would insert unnecessary scenes depicting nude women being tortured or whipped to ensure their story got the cover of an issue.

The Altar of Melek Taos

This was the first Weird Tales cover by Margaret Brundage. The original recently sold at auction for $50,787.50. Notice that the cover itself has been altered to cover up her nipples.

This entire issue can be downloaded here

via

The Heart of Siva

This is my 1,000 post here on Pulpcovers.com, and I think a Weird Tales cover by Margaret Brundage is the perfect way to mark this milestone. She is one of the quintessential artists who defined the look of the quintessential Pulp magazine. This entire issue can be downloaded here

via via