#scififriday

[thewitchoftherock]

Oh TO, where is your brain today? Well, no matter. I'm sure whatever task you gotta do today is gonna require low focus.

Maybe

Romance, Fantasy, Science fiction, ... Thousands of web novels and stories to discover in our online library

[bandtfans]

BandTfans Relaunch

New look, same mission! Everyone has a role in making Baron And Toluca a reality.

Hey there, Roswellians and Dans,

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The accounts existed since the first clues about @BaronAndToluca were posted back in 2016! It was the time when fans weren’t ‘dans’, yet. Needless to say that they have been supporting the project since day one, too.

BandTfans will continue to bring you news, throwbacks and fun stuff.

The walk down memory lane will continue on this place, as well and are you ready for making new ones? Follow the hashtag #AMemoryFromDandomHistory and you‘ll never miss a throwback.

BandTfans is a place from fans for fans... also known as Dans ... and that means that you are playing a big part! Remember... everyone has a role! You are cordially invited to submit

– content – feedback – artwork – photos – campaign ideas – and everything else you can think of.

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Tag your posts with #bandtfansrepost and we might share your creation on the BandTfans social media handles. Full credit is given.

Come and join us and please continue to spread the word about “Baron And Toluca”.

[brucedrawsworlds]

On the 37th day sharing my #Numenera art, we climb the gargantuan, mutated branches of the 'Chimeric Forest'. Sapient triple-headed insects make this place their home, creating bubbles within which the raw stuff of probability pops in and out of existence. #scifi #sciencefantasy #seattleart #seattleartist #rpgart #rpgartist #scififriday #chimera #chimaera #chimeric #mutant #mutation #postapocalypse https://www.instagram.com/p/B9-jLtQD9Yb/?igshid=11irojqzj324c

[raytoh]

Inktober 7 of 31 | 31 Oct 2019 Way overdue, but I think I will continue and try to finish this series. The plan I have is to do 6 characters, 10 types of equipment, and 15 scenarios. Let's see how far I can go.

[marsfallpod]

Listen here, or on your favorite podcatcher!

The Season 2 Finale is now live! Similar to our previous season finale, this episode is quite intense. But never fear, with Chip as your guide, you know you’ll have a great time 🙃

[pittrarebooks]

Pulp: Cover Art by Distinguished Artists

Last semester, Professor Jessica FitzPatrick’s class, Narrative & Technology, visited Archives & Special Collections to work with an array of materials including science fiction pulp magazines, science fiction fanzines, comic books, and artists’ books (just to name a few). For extra credit, students had the opportunity to submit a blog post to be featured on our Tumblr. What a perfect fit for #scififriday!

Figure 1: The artwork of Virgil Finlay for Fate Magazine

We often emphasize the importance of first impressions. The very first time that we meet someone or see something makes all the difference. I experienced this phenomenon when encountering science fiction pulp magazines for the first time. My eyes were first drawn in by the vibrant colors on the front page and then my gaze lingered as I glanced over the provocative headlines and the female on the front cover. This visual experience made me eager to learn more about these cover artists and their contributions to the production of pulp magazines.                                                

After doing some research, I found that many cover artists became as popular as the authors of the pieces within. While the editors of these magazines made decisions about the glossy paper to print the covers on, the artists used these choices to their advantage. They utilized sleek, higher quality paper for their artwork that contrasted with the cheap and rugged pulp paper inside. Interestingly, these covers would sometimes be designed before any content of the magazine was written (“Pulp Magazine”). In other words, artists would look to the cover art for inspiration. For this project, I focused specifically on the artwork of Virgil Finlay for Fate Magazine and the artwork of Richard Van Dongen for Astounding Science Fiction. I will be commenting on visual techniques and themes used on these covers that served the purpose of gaining the readership of their intended audiences as well as fueling the content written within.                                       

The first pulp cover that I examined was by a well-known cover artist at the time, Virgil Finlay. An obvious feature of this cover is the portrayal of the typical damsel in distress female. To go along with this are the words, “sex and hypnotism”, which indicate the provocative and exploitative nature of this pulp. This sexualized depiction of women was a common feature of sci-fi pulps that were targeted toward a largely male audience. Finlay’s style for this particular art piece is one of very bright, contrasting colors. This differs from much of his work in which he used black ink with a scratchboard technique. For these black and white illustrations, Finlay used a sharp blade to scratch away white lines from a clay board covered in black ink (Parker). While black and white ink creates an obvious contrast, Finlay chose to use the colors red and green to create a similar effect in this cover art. He cleverly chose to color the woman’s dress green to make her stand out against the swirling red background. Another indicator of her importance to the interest of perspective pulp readers is that we get to see her full face, while we only get to see the side profile of the hypnotist.

Figure 2: Psychiatry Looks at Hypnosis by John C. Ross

As you can see from Figure 2, the cover serves as a good indication of what is published within. In the piece, “Psychiatry looks at Hypnosis,” there is an illustration depicting a male psychiatrist conducting an evaluation on a troubled female figure. While she is not portrayed as provocatively as the female on the front cover, she is positioned in the foreground of the image. The focus remains on the female, while the psychiatrist remains in the background. While I am uncertain if Finlay’s cover art for this pulp was produced before the written content, that is my speculation based on this connection between the female figures in each.

Figure 3: The artwork of Van Dongen for Astounding Science Fiction 

The other pulp artist that I came across offered a contrasting style with the art of Finlay. Van Dongen used a different method than the female physique to appeal to the largely male readership. He relied instead on a realistic style that matched the pulp editor, John W Campbell’s  vision of a “more dignified” looking science fiction pulp (Gustafson, Nicholls, Westfahl, & Langford). Rather than illustrating a female in bright colors, he relied on the oddity of an alien creature sharing some brews with the captain of a ship (Figure 3). His colors are more dull and there is not one thing that sticks out more than others. This cover did not catch my eye in the same way, but it still serves a purpose. It is far less provocative than the cover of Fate Magazine which may suggest that the authors of Astounding Science Fiction (and its artists) made the effort appeal to those who are more interested in genre of Science Fiction itself.

Figure 4: An article found withing Astounding Science Fiction

As the front page had led me to guess, one of the pieces inside of this pulp seemed to be targeted toward those interested in the subject of science itself. On one of the first pages of this pulp, there was an article about an electric kit for “brainiacs” (Figure 4). There is an illustration of a male to go along with this, of course.

Virgil Finlay and Van Dongen were two distinguished pulp artists with very different styles. Finlay began his career in 1935 where he began doing interior magazine illustrations. In addition to this, he also illustrated the cover art of upwards of 60 magazine covers. He is well-known for both his mentioned black-and-white style as well as the color illustrations such as the one for Fate Magazine. He was nominated for seven Hugo Awards (science fiction literary awards) and inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012. (Gustafson, Nicholls, & Westfahl). Van Dongen on the other hand, entered the science fiction field in 1950 after going to school and training in retouching photographs. During his career, he painted over 40 covers for Astounding Science Fiction as well as Worlds Beyond, Space Science Fiction, and Science Fiction Adventures. Van Dongen received the Hugo Best Artist award in 1959 for his work in Astounding Science Fiction (Gustafson, Nicholls, Westfahl, & Langford). Finlay and Van Dongen each made a name for themselves in the field of science fiction pulp. The similarity that they share is the ability of their artwork to draw in readers and to fuel the content of what lies on the pages within.                                       

Works Cited:

Gustafson, Jon, Peter Nicholls and Gary Westfahl. “Finlay, Virgil.” The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Eds. John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls and Graham Sleight. Gollancz, 18 Jan. 2017. Web. 19 Mar. 2018.

Gustafson, Jon, Peter Nicholls, Gary Westfahl and David Langford. “van Dongen.” The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Eds. John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls and Graham Sleight. Gollancz, 2 Apr. 2015. Web. 19 Mar. 2018.

Parker, Charley. “The Dark and Light of Virgil Finlay.” Tor.com. N.p., 31 July 2013. Web.

“Pulp Magazine.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2018.

-Lydia Belezos, undergraduate, University of Pittsburgh 

[girlinspacepodcast]

Sudden Realization

[shitshowpulps]

Hey Space Ladies. #LadyStardust #scififriday