Continuing from my prior post, “Art on the Margins: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction – Part I“, this post presents the “other” five categories of interior illustrations that were featured in MF&SF from the early 50s through the mid 60s. As mentioned previously, these illustrations were created by Edmund Emshwiller, Henry Martin, somebody by the initials “S.F.” (seriously!). And, someone totally anonymous.
The illustrations below represent five themes. The numbers represent the total number of illustrations in each category that appeared through the magazine’s history.
The creation of these images involved scouring the magazines to find the best examples of these illustrations (the specific issue is listed in each caption, along with the artist’s name), and, typically scanning them at the ridiculously high resolution of 400 dpi. (Gad. Well, the detail becomes crisp that way.) Finally, I cleaned them up to eliminate extraneous background fuzz and make them stand out a little bolder.
This work all done in 2018, with a few “fixes” in 2024. (Seriously.) And now, we’re in 2025. It’s taken me a couple of years to create these two posts, but, here they are.
Color (rear) Cover Logos
Interior Advertising Logos – 2
Supernatural – 3
Symbols – 21
The Truly Unclassifiable – 12
Cover (rear) Logos
Fall, 1949 (first issue!) – BLACK
August, 1951 – RED
April, 1952 – BLUE
October, 1957 (page 125) – Henry Martin
Interior Advertising Logos
December, 1962 (page 126) – Unknown
Supernatuwal!
December, 1954 (page 83) – Edmund Emshwiller
July, 1955 (page 113) – Henry Martin
August, 1955 (page 56) – Henry Martin
Symbols
March, 1954 (page 32) – Edmund Emshwiller
June, 1954 (page 36) – Henry Martin
July, 1954 (page 64) – Henry Martin
August, 1954 (page 27) – Henry Martin
September, 1954 (page 114) – Henry Martin
October, 1954 (page 29) – Henry Martin
January, 1955 (page 33) – Henry Martin
March, 1955 (page 69) – Henry Martin
September, 1955 (page 37) – Henry Martin
November, 1955 (page 51) – Henry Martin
February, 1956 (page 60) – Henry Martin?
May, 1956 (page 87) – Henry Martin
November, 1956 (page 76) – Henry Martin
March, 1958 (page 76) – Henry Martin
April, 1958 (page 55) – Unknown
April, 1958 (page 92) – Henry Martin
July 1962 (page 75) – Unknown (Edmund Emshwiller?)
July 1962 (page 102) – Edmund Emshwiller
November 1962 (page 4) – Unknown
March 1965 (page 38) – Unknown (Edmund Emshwiller?)
January 1966 (page 32) – Edmund Emshwiller
The Uncwassifiable!
October, 1954 (page 68) – Henry Martin
September, 1955 (page 46) – Edmund Emshwiller
April, 1956 (page 37) – “S.F.”
September, 1956 (page 65) – Frank Kelly Freas
June, 1960 (page 79) – Edmund Emshwiller
July, 1962 (page 90) – Unknown
August, 1962 (page 68) – Edmund Emshwiller
August, 1962 (page 87) – Edmund Emshwiller
November, 1962 (page 57) – Edmund Emshwiller
December, 1962 (page 68) – Edmund Emshwiller
July, 1964 (page 70) – Edmund Emshwiller
February, 1967 (page 58) – Edmund Emshwiller
