THE ALLURING ART OF MARGARET BRUNDAGE: QUEEN OF PULP PIN-UP ART
By Stephen D. Korshak and David Spurlock (Authors), Margaret Brundage (Artist).
Book Review By Joe Tell.
The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art is a very entertaining and interesting read. The book sheds new light on the life and career of legendary Weird Tales cover artist, Margaret Brundage. Margaret’s lush and alluring paintings created great controversy in the 1930s. Her lavishly colored artwork featured scantily clad young women bearing whips and wielding knives that were menaced by all types of monstrous beings. Margaret’s innovative and shocking artwork was in high demand because her covers sold the most pulp magazines. The best part of this book is all of Margaret’s stunning, pulp magazine cover art for Weird Tales, Oriental Stories, Magic Carpet and Golden Fleece are all compiled together along with some never before seen, unpublished work. Many of her covers featured gothic fetish themes based on the stories that were published within Weird Tales. Stories that were written by renowned authors like H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert Bloch and Conan the Barbarian creator, Robert E. Howard. The second part of the book reveals, for the first time ever, the secret life that Margaret led apart from the pulp magazine scene. She and her husband Slim were political activists who took part in the birth of the American counterculture. Margaret Johnson and Slim Brundage first met at Chicago’s infamous Dil Pickle Club. The club was known as a speakeasy but its members also participated in the highly political causes that defined the Chicago Renaissance. The Dil Pickle Club was at the center of a diverse subculture that encouraged free speech and rallied for workers and civil rights at a time when activism led to blacklisting. This is essential reading for any fan of fantasy and horror art.
