Walter M. Baumhofer Pulp Art Masters

by John P. Gunnison, Rudolph Belarski, Walter M. Baumhofer

A master at building suspense through figure, perspective, and color, Rudolph Belarski dazzled the newsstand browser with pictorial headlines of vital action scenes pertaining to the interior story. In doing so, he sold magazines and books to a drama-craving audience, and propelled publishing's mass markets, thus infiltrating American minds with the trends and fashions of pop culture. His remarkable versatility as an artist can be seen in the range of his published work in pulp magazines, his exciting paintings appearing on the covers of Thrilling Mystery, Wings, and War Birds, as well as The Phantom Detective, Mystery Book, Argosy, and Western Round-Up.

Genres: Art, Pulp

112 pages, Paperback

First published July 9, 2003

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amazing collection of pulp covers by Rudolph Belarski. I think I liked his aircraft paintings the best, as well as the damsels in distress. Many colorful pictures that cover a wide spread of focus. . .westerns, detective, war, and other fiction magazines. These magazines were a bit before my time, but I surely would have read them, as they were the precursors to those comics I devoured when I was a kid . . .Vampirella, Weird Tales, Sgt. Fury. Sgt. Rock, Tales of the Crypt. . . which I seem to have preferred over the superheroes ones (though I read my share of Batman and Superman, etc). So many of the 30s and 40s were shockingly risque, one step away from outright pornography in their depiction of violence, torture, and skin.

[Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm behind on my 100 book/year goal. Quick, get out some art books.

Belarski just doesn't do it for me compared to many other pulp cover artists. The book designer should have used less white space in order to reproduce the covers at a larger size.

[James Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book about the cover art of Rudolph Belarski. He did cover art for many of the pulps, and the book is divided into seven chapters filled with examples of his art work.

His illustrations covered the full range, including westerns, detective, airplanes, sports, mystery and science fiction.

Each illustration is identified (although some of the descriptions are not the best; sort of juvenile at times.)

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic reference boom for pulp cover art. Excellent selection of covers covering a wide selection of artists and books. Very recommended.