[Update, May, 2021! … I recently learned from Mike Chomko, publisher of The Pulpster (affiliated with PulpFest), that the cover artist of this issue of Startling Stories was Alex Schomburg. So, the text of this post has been updated accordingly. Thanks for the tip, Mike.]
I’ve recently had the good fortune to acquire several issues of Startling Stories, giving me the opportunity to present my own scans of this magazine, rather than images randomly found on the ‘net.
This post is the first such example: Originally created on February 17, 2018, it’s been updated to include images of the front and rear covers of the the magazine’s issue of April, 1952.
Though no artist’s names appear in the issue’s table of contents, this softly-pink-horizoned-moonscape-with-cloudless-earth-floating-in-the-distance was created by Alex Schomburg. It looks as if the light gray to silver to dark gray to black shadings of the lunar mining machine were done via airbrush…
So, the front cover:
…and the back cover, with an advertisement for The Collected Works of Zane Grey.
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Here’s Paul Orban’s Illustration – on page 89 – for “The Intruder”, by Oliver E. Saari, whose life encompassed the realms of engineering and science fiction.
I’ve not read Saari’s story, but the theme of the “header” blurb – below – reminds me of episode six from (the otherwise sadly and highly uneven) season four of The Man in The High Castle: (“All Serious Daring“).
The concept is also highly reminiscent of Fritz Leiber, Junior’s, “Destiny Times Three” – one of the most brilliantly executed tales of parallel universes I’ve ever read! Then again, Leiber was an extraordinary writer! – which appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in March and April of 1945.
“To have an exact duplicate of yourself show up and take over your business, your wife? … brother, it’s murder!”
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Here’s the cover image – from Archive.org – that originally appeared in this post.
