The Telsa Raiders

Several years ago, I was fortunate enough to win three pulp paintings by artist Frederick Blakeslee in an auction. Blakeslee was best known for his aviation covers, and of the three, two were for the aviation hero pulp, G-8 And His Battle Aces, while the third was for the futuristic aviation hero pulp, Dusty Ayres And His Battle Birds. Both were published by Popular Publications. G-8 -- which was set in an alternate world in which WWI was fought not only by those weapons of mass destruction which actually existed at the time but also by fiendish inventions concocted by mad scientists -- proved to be a hit and was one of the major hero pulps. On the other hand, Dusty Ayres -- set against the backdrop of a future war -- crashed and burned after only a dozen issues (running from July 1934 to July-August 1935). Apparently Battle Aces trumped Battle Birds. This cover is for the final issue of Dusty Ayres And His Battle Birds, which featured the story "The Telsa Raiders" by Robert Sidney Bowen.