Tribute to Pulps 1

Having spent a couple days last week at the 66th World Science Fiction Convention, I thought I'd look at the wonderfully evocative women that graced the covers of pulp magazines, the kind of women that made 10-year-old boys aspire to acts of heteronormative heroism.

This is a great cover, coming in the latter part of the 20's and showing how scandalous these early covers could be. I'm not so big a fan of the aesthetic of the 20's covers. Although I like the clarity and simplicity of line they use, I don't like the tendency toward waify heroines. Nonetheless, this cover reminds me of some magazine covers where they airbrush out a woman's nipples to be able to expose more of the breast in an attempt to be evocative. Here, though, the candle cuts both ways, since it fools the eye for a moment into believing it actually sees the woman's nipple. Not to mention the odd, convenient tree.

This cover is good because its obviously S&M context seems really contemporary. The woman's outfit is practically the stereotypical bondage costume. And then to juxtapose her against the clothed or armored men completes the sense of perversity the magazine wants to use to entice its readership.

This cover, of course, pushes the nudity barrier just a little too far. At the same time, though, the revealing anatomical absence is interesting. It reminds us that what we are dealing with is fantasy. The images do not reflect real women or real men. All this is merely play. Simultaneously, it exposes the fantasy of control that is censorship. Censors may be able to remove the nipples from magazine covers, but they cannot remove them from real women, any more than they can stop real men and women from engaging in real sexual acts. Image suppression cannot effect mind control.

You gotta love Planet Stories, or, rather, I can't help but love Planet Stories. Classic woman harrassed by green BEM, late enough that this trope was standard fare. It's so formulaic, it's tempting to dismiss the art of it, but there are a number of cool things about this image. First, it's full of tension. Not just the suspense at the woman's peril, but tension in a real physics sense. As a static image, all the elements are balanced in terms of force pressing against each other. Second, it's so obviously a penis with tentacles attacking the woman. Third, the image powerfully controls the viewers' eyes. No matter where you look on the page, you are brought to the central image, which is a figure 8 or, more potently, an infinity symbol turned on its side.

A couple more Planet Stories covers. Not quite so well-done as the first, but good examples of the type of titillation the covers used. Shredded or revealing clothing and convenient angles that almost let you see what you want. Perhaps the story will tell you.

These covers may be a little sleazy, but I don't believe they're really degenerate. Although their dominant subject is woman, I don't think they are trying to or claim to say anything about women at all. Instead, their purpose is to celebrate virility. Action is the core element of their narratives, and sexuality is merely a side-effect.

The argument may not hold for the covers I'm looking at next time: "spicy" stories and men's mags.