Feldstein, Al - Weird Fantasy, issue 14, cover (July 1952)
Artist: Al Feldstein (All)
25 Comments - 5,367 Views - 3 Likes
Artwork Details
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DescriptionI’m thrilled to add this Al Feldstein Weird Fantasy #14 cover to my gallery. When I began the search for a Feldstein cover, I knew I was not going to have the chance to be picky. But, given my druthers, I really wanted a cover from his Weird Fantasy run between issues #9-14. Why? Because from all of the reading and research I had done, I think Feldstein was creating covers in that run that he wanted to create – covers that represented his view of what was engaging about science fiction and fantasy and spoke to the little kid in him that dreamed of exploring outer space. They speak to a science fiction defined by the expanse and majesty of strange universes and moons, not scary aliens and exploding planets.As a starting point, its important to remember that, according to Feldstein himself, it was Bill Gaines that was the impetus for pushing EC into creating science fiction and fantasy titles. Granted, it was at the urging of Feldstein who was trying to push EC into innovating and creating its own properties that would hopefully be more stable and rely less on trends. The first manifestation of that effort was their horror titles – Gaines & Feldstein had a shared love of horror movies and radio shows, and mutually decided to publish such stories in comics. But, it was Gaines who loved science fiction, something that Feldstein had never read. Gaines actually supplied Feldstein with copies of Astounding Science Fiction – John Campbell’s pulp magazine – to familiarize him with the genre and see if Feldstein could create science fiction titles for EC. The result was Weird Fantasy and Weird Science. The Weird Fantasy covers were all created by Feldstein, with the exception of two by Joe Orlando (issue 19 and 22), one collaboration between Feldstein & Al Williamson (issue 18) and one collaboration between Al Williamson & Frank Frazetta (issue 21). The first cover from the May/June 1950 issue (numbered as thirteen given the EC practice of starting a new title over an old one to save new title fees with the post office) is prototypical Feldstein – it’s crowded with lots of text. It’s more akin to one of his horror covers with a brain in a jar, a dismembered and headless robot in the background and the tag-line ‘Fantastic SuspenStories We Dare You to Read!’ – the same type of tag-line readers were seeing on EC’s Haunt of Fear title. In conjunction with the ‘Tales of Tension’ from Crime SuspenStories, the look of early Weird Fantasy covers mimics many of the same text, tone and visuals of EC’s horror titles. It’s issue nine – a cover featuring spaceships with astronauts working outside – that begins a different run of covers. As Bill Spicer calls it in Russ Cochran’s EC Library Weird Fantasy collected edition, it was ‘as if Feldstein was on a hardware and topography kick and did not want to be interrupted’. The run of covers from issue #9-14 focuses on rocket ships, planet surfaces and astronauts. Spicer goes on to further speculate that perhaps ‘Feldstein was indulging his personal preferences over what traditionally sold better’. It was also about this time that the growing popularity of Wally Wood would result in him taking cover assignments from Feldstein (the first was Weird Science #9 – which was the same cover date of Sept-Oct 1951). Perhaps Feldstein was focused on drawing from the heart and not for others? The run ends with issue 15 – we’re back to damsels in distress with a big monster attacking a handcuffed girl. While I’ve not been able to discover anything that would indicate what precipitated the change, it does highlight the different visual tone Feldstein had pursued for the previous six issues. In the end, it would turn out that neither motif would have the requisite impact on sales for the title to survive. Ultimately, Weird Fantasy and Weird Science were never as popular as their horror brethren in the EC line. They were eventually merged into Weird Science-Fantasy in 1954, which ran for seven issues before being changed to Incredible Science Fiction for four issues. While I’m a huge fan of pretty much every cover on the series, the run from issue #9–14 was really something special. All of which is to say that I owe Terry Doyle, the former owner of this cover, an enormous thank you. Becoming a steward of this piece was made that much more enjoyable by virtue of my interaction with him. I had the pleasure of picking this up from him directly in London. We spent a few hours drinking pints of Guinness while he educated me on British comics, strips and dailies and introduced me to some artistic names that I was not even aware of (which is going to end up costing me some more money!). How I wish every deal was brought to conclusion in such manner. Thank you, Mr. Doyle – for both your friendship and the piece. I promise to take extremely good care of it! Social/Sharing |
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Comments on this Artwork
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Felix Lu 
Member Since 2005
Posted on 9/3/2014
Terry had a killer collection of EC covers...that provenance is a nice bonus. I know you wanted one of these badly...congrats on knocking this one off the list!
Filmore W. Bedwick
Member Since 2003
Posted on 9/3/2014
Holy Guacamole! Does it get any better that this Al Goodness?!!!!
Ron S
Member Since 2007
Posted on 9/3/2014
That is simply awesome. Love the write up, and love the cover. Feldstein was in control of his art at this time, and it shows in the care and detail he put into this piece. Congrats!!
Chris C
Member Since 2004
Posted on 9/3/2014
SEE? I told you if you backed off of your "I wanna Great Al Feldstein EC Cover with a super phallic space ship on it" stance and went with "I wanna great Al Feldstein EC Cover" that the world would be your oyster. You're welcome. Side Note: This is fabulous. Super fabulous.
Michael Kenyon
Member Since 2008
Posted on 9/4/2014
Chris take a bow take a bow!!! Your beautiful cover is from 1952. When you realize the Cosmonaut from the former Soviet Union was the first person to conduct a spacewalk in 1 9 6 5 it blows your mind. This is a visionary a creation. Look at those 4 astronauts working outside the ship long before it really happened. Great description as usual*****
Chris K.
Member Since 2008
Posted on 9/4/2014
Michael Kenyon wrote:
Chris take a bow take a bow!!! Your beautiful cover is from 1952. When you realize the Cosmonaut from the former Soviet Union was the first person to conduct a spacewalk in 1 9 6 5 it blows your mind. This is a visionary a creation. Look at those 4 astronauts working outside the ship long before it really happened. Great description as usual*****I have to be honest...I had not thought of that...very cool thought, Michael - thanks for sharing it!
Terry Doyle
Member Since 2004
Posted on 9/4/2014
Not something I ever thought I'd part with (sigh). Still, it's nice to know that it's gone to a good home . . . and a good guy in this hobby! Now, where did I put that can of draught Guinness?
Oystein Sorensen
Member Since 2005
Posted on 9/4/2014
A splendid cover, perfectly expressing Feldstein´s fifties science fictional sensibilities. Great writeup too.
J L
Member Since 2005
Posted on 9/5/2014
Great choice and it really does look fantastic!!!! Congrats again my friend!!!!
Andy Robbins
Member Since 2003
Posted on 9/11/2018
This thing must look beyond amazing in person. Any substantial discussion between collectors will inevitably touch on what prices may do as we who have the direct nostalgia for a given comic age. But not in the case of this stuff - its value (in dollars and general society) is rock solid.
Bill J
Member Since 2009
Posted on 12/5/2018
Wow! I love this Wierd Tales cover. Although, it's funny how it's not so wierd any more.
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