Pulp fiction magazines have always teetered between the line of low and high art, and as such are considered fairly niche when it comes to art historical scholarship. As pulp fiction covers especially from Weird Tales have begun selling for thousands of dollars in auctions, there’s been a renewed interest in Margaret Brundage both for her sensational cover work and the sensationalism that surrounds the legend of the “Queen of Pulp Pin-Up.”  Brundage is finally beginning to see some recognition in the public eye as a legendary artist  in recent years, especially with the coming of Korshak and Spurlock’s coffee table book : The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage, Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art. 

Brundage is the artist behind the wildly sensational covers of Weird Tales during the 1930s and was largely responsible for the success of their sales during a depression ridden America. She was revolutionary for many reasons, not only steamy covers for science fiction and fantasy, but as a woman making them, as well as her involvement in progressive causes such as civil rights for African Americans and the labor movement.

However, as with all legends, her caveats are overlooked. The existing scholarship on Brundage’s artwork often frames itself in the context of Brundage being a leftist and a woman artist, largely from a feminist angle.  It might make her more palatable as a feminist hero to frame her in a solely progressive light, but it is reductionist and overlooks important themes in her work, particularly her inclination to ‘yellow peril’ imagery and other orientalist themes. 

In this paper, I will consider the existing scholarship on Brundage’s work for Weird Tales through the analysis of one of Brundage’s most popular covers: The Weird Tales September 1933 issue, which corresponds to Robert E. Howard’s story The Slithering Shadow. I’ll also be offering my own input as an art historical scholar. I will discuss how queer-coded depictions of kink were another, although less obvious example of orientalist imagery in  1930s America. Finally, unlike prior scholarship on Brundage’s work, I will consider her art in relation with the writing and authors they corresponded to rather than as art alone.

1930s BDSM:  The Slithering Shadow 

The September 1933 issue of Weird Tales was one of the most controversial, and popular covers that Brundage created. Like her other illustrations, the original drawing was created using soft pastels on an illustration board before being printed on pulp paper for mass production. This cover depicts a scene from Robert E. Howard’s story, The Slithering Shadow.  Two women are set against a brilliantly red background and a massive black abstract shadow. The dark-haired woman holds a whip and seems ready to whip her victim again, a blonde woman chained by the wrists pulling against her bonds. 

The dark-haired woman wears loose, skimpy garments reminiscent of outfits worn by Middle Eastern belly dancers. Unlike her counterpart, the blonde woman is nude.  She embodies many characteristics of a classic ‘Brundage Girl, ’ including the character soft pinkness and triangular perkiness of her breasts.¹ It’s likely that the hairstyles of both of these women are based on references that Margaret Brundage had available to her in the time through fashion magazines and nudie mags, hence the coifs and curls.² The blonde woman’s chains are not fixed to anything; they float in space. Similarly, the two women look as if they have just been placed into this space. There is no illusion of depth or foreshortening, creating a poster-like quality to the cover similar to Brundage’s other Weird Tales work. 

Spurlock vs. Yaztek : The existing writing on Brundage and her work.

At the current moment, Stephen D. Korshak and J. David Spurlock portray themselves as the torchbearers to Brundage’s legacy, reviving long-lost interest held in Brundage’s artwork through a book dedicated solely to her: The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art.  

Taking a different approach, Lisa Yaztek frames Brundage in the context of women working in science fiction from the 1930s to 1960s in her book Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction.  

Both of these historians consider Brundage’s role as a female artist working during that period, and the effects it had in her work. However, they take different interpretations on what this meant. 

A woman making women

Spurlock considers the way that Brundage created these empowered female figures in the light of her own leftist ideas and interest in civil rights. According to him, being a female artist in the 1930s who created sexual pieces was inherently a means of pushing back against the norm.³ He claims that Brundage was both trying to inject her own personality and point of view into her ‘women in peril’ pieces.⁴  He also frames Brundage’s ability to get her job for Weird Tales within the context of her social scene and husband in Chicago.⁵ 

In Spurlock’s opinion, while Brundage’s illustrations catered to the male gaze, they also offered a way for women to reclaim space in a patriarchal society. He points out that in the 1930s, it was typical to show women as weak and cowering victims.⁶ He considers the ‘Brundage girls’ to “have a unique sense of dignity” compared to other illustrations portraying women of the time.⁷ Of particular note, Spurlock points out that when there are scenes of bondage or subjugation in Weird Tales, Brundage frequently had a woman in charge.⁸ 

The September 1933 issue showcases one of these scenes. Spurlock considers scenes like these to be examples of feminine strength, where these female figures can be viewed as heroic and powerful compared to weak and submissive alternatives.⁹ Their strength is further emphasized by how they struggle and resist against evil, without signs of pain or abuse on their body or emotional distress.¹⁰ We can see this in the September 1933 issue, the blond woman pulls against her chains but she does not seem to be in emotional or physical pain. Rather, her movement is considerably beautiful. She looks as if she might be stretching or lying down. Despite her binds, she is in complete control of her body.

How does a female artist make art?

Lisa Yaztek places Brundage within the context of other female illustrators of the time, for science fiction and otherwise. While Spurlock only briefly mentions Brundage’s history in fashion as something that bored her, Yaztek elaborates on how this background in ‘woman’s art’ led to Brundage’s work in Weird Tales. Yaztek points out how the aesthetic conventions of the 1930s for women and by female artists of the time lent themselves to female illustrators in science fiction.¹¹  Working in soft mediums was likely something Brundage picked up from her fashion illustration days, the familiar look of which might have contributed to some of her popularity with the Weird Tales female audience.  Furthermore, because fashion magazines of the time depicted women in bright colors and marketed a progressive and active lifestyle for women, Brundage was skilled in both portraying active women and textiles.¹²  

Like Spurlock, Lisa Yaztek considers the ‘Brundage Girls’ to be strong female figures. For her, Brundage is one of many female artists creating female bodies infused with power.¹³ Furthermore, while Brundage’s illustrations catered to the male gaze they “endowed their female subjects with personality, using their subject’s reactions to the situations at hand to critically assess masculine behavior.¹⁴  Yaszek considers the Brundage women to push back against patriarchal and Enlightenment-based conventional standards for women. Her illustrations challenge a “good woman’s place” within a rational universe.¹⁵ 

Both Yaztek and Spurlock agree that Brundage both as a female artist and her background of women’s art in fashion meant she had a good grasp on female anatomy.¹⁶ Compared to male artists who were trained in a classical mode of representational painting, women artists were simply better at drawing women and fabrics.¹⁷

Caveats: The Progressive leftist and her use of racist, orientalist imagery

However, while Spurlock frames the Brundage women within Brundage’s desire for equal rights for minorities, Yaztek takes it a step in the other direction. She does not skip over how the ‘Brundage girls’ or Brundage’s background in women’s art were used to further xenophobic sentiment of 1930s America. Brundage’s background in fashion illustration meant she knew about Eastern fabrics and textiles and could incorporate them easily into the villains portrayed on the covers of Weird Tales. Yaztek points out that Brundage’s covers fused emerging twentieth-century fears of “yellow and black perils” with a colonial American Gothic style of painting. ‘Oriental’ men were the villains of these illustrations, taking the place of the ‘wild savage’ in colonial American Gothic art.¹⁸ 

The feminist focus on her role as a female artist creating female art often means scholars put a more favorable, progressive and feminist spin on Brundage’s illustrations, especially considering her own leftist views. This leaves scholarship on her more xenophobic and orientalist themes in her work to be wanting. I appreciate Lisa Yaztek’s analysis on Brundage’s background in women’s art lending itself to her expertise in creating racially charged ‘yellow peril’ and ‘red danger’ imagery, but I also notice that it specifically points out the male-female dynamic within this xenophobic imagery. The evils of the ‘Orient’ are portrayed through an oppressive male figure attacking a blond, beautiful and innocent woman who is easily read as a symbol for America.¹⁹ I’d like to expand on that.

As such, covers like the September 1933 issue of Weird Tales don’t seem to register as particularly xenophobic at first glance. After all, there are no men on the cover, and there are no obvious signs of ‘slanty eyed’ stereotypes or plotting, magical brown-skinned villains like there are in some of Brundage’s other work. I’d like to consider how the female-on-female dynamics in this cover were a way of expressing xenophobic and homophobic attitudes of 1930s America. This is not to take away from more ‘pro-woman’ readings into Brundage’s work or the progressive characteristics of her illustrations, but rather to consider her illustrations with nuance and as products of the time.   

What is The Slithering Shadow made for?

As I was researching, I noticed that scholarship of Brundage’s covers seem to consider the art as stand-alone pieces. Spurlock acts as if the choices Brundage makes to show women in peril or flagellation scenes are completely her own as an artist. He also considers illustrations like this, scenes of bondage with a woman in charge to be visual examples of female power and strength pushing back against conventional norms.²⁰  And while it wasn’t necessary for the covers to wholeheartedly accurately reflect the contents of the magazine as long as they were visually appealing to buyers, Brundage did read each written issue of Weird Tales before creating her illustrations.²¹ The choices she made as an artist were actively based on the written content of the stories, and in the case of the September 1933 issue that story would be Robert E. Howard’s The Slithering Shadow.  

We miss an important analysis into Brundage’s work both as a whole and specifically into this September 1933 issue if we don’t consider the writing the visuals accompany. The context in which the writing and the story were created offer insight to how the visuals must have viewed as well. We have insight directly from Brundage on how the September 1933 issue of Weird Tales was received by the public. We also have writing from Robert E. Howard himself that explains some of the thought processes in the themes in his work such as The Slithering Shadow. Seeing how these two worked together so frequently and were big fans of each other’s work,²² it seems only fitting to consider their partnership when analyzing Brundage’s work. 

Fred Taraba offered this comment on the September 1933 issue: “This is more than a picture of flagellation.”²³ Brundage herself seemed to agree; in an interview she said “We had one issue that sold out! It was the story of a very vicious female, getting a hold of the heroine and tying her up and beating her. Well, the public apparently thought it was flagellation.” ²⁴ 

Despite her denial, I find it incredibly difficult to believe that Brundage could not have had at least a little inkling on how the scene depicted flagellation for a few reasons. First, she was heavily involved in a counterculture social circle. She frequented the Dill Pickle Club, where artists, bohemian, and queer culture all came together and people would discuss different lifestyles and philosophies.²⁵ It’s highly likely that Brundage’s work took some kind of inspiration from this community. At the very least, she would have needed to figure out some kind of mental or visual reference for the cover illustration. Furthermore, Brundage was deeply familiar with Howard’s writing not only because she read through each issue of Weird Tales to hand pick scenes that she wanted to illustrate, but also because she was a huge fan of his work. He held similar sentiments towards her illustrations.²⁶  

Robert E. Howard and his obsession with kink and lesbian erotica

The Slithering Shadow is not simply about a villainess holding the heroine captive; both the story and the cover illustration clearly have queer and sexual elements. This doesn’t inherently mean that it was expressed in a positive light.  Howard regarded “lesbianism” as a way of showcasing the barbaric behavior of these fantastical and exotic realms in his writing and similar Weird Tales environments.²⁷ These moments of ‘lesbianism’ were never consensual, and always involved a villainous woman torturing her victim mercilessly.²⁸ At the same time, Howard’s extensive library on sadomasochism and “lesbianism,” and his own erotic poetry indicates that he had a fascination and deep interest in kink.²⁹ Howard knew that readers were interested in sexually deviant stories and illustrations and activities that challenged normal convention.³⁰  For readers that wanted “weird tales, ” this was about as weird as it could get. 

Regardless of whether Brundage considered the scene to be some form of erotic flagellation, the reality is that this sexual, sensual and queer-coded imagery was both hugely taboo and hugely popular with the Weird Tales audience. The September 1933 issue was so popular it sold out almost immediately. Taking a cue from this, Howard continued to show scenes of female on female flagellation and Brundage continued to illustrate them, as we can see from the December 1934 Weird Tales cover.  Other authors caught on that if they wanted to make the cover story, they were more likely to be chosen if they featured a woman in a state of undress.³¹ Showing scenes of sadomasochism or homoeroticism would also up their chances– after all, it was the scandal and sex that sold these magazines, even if they were about science fiction and fantasy. We can see this pattern catching on in the covers of January and March 1936 Weird Tale Issues. 

So how is this scene of lesbian BDSM “of the times?” 

Brundage’s covers may have portrayed women in positions of power and can be interpreted as working against society’s patriarchal views on a woman’s place in society, covers like the September 1933 Weird Tales were still examples of capitalizing and encouraging xenophobic attitudes of America of the time. Both Howard and Brundage’s work often centered around themes of barbarism and a romantic notion of uncivilized and exotic lifestyles. In the cover illustration, the dominatrix-like villainous has dark hair, probably based on the description that Howard offered for these characters in his writing. His character design plays into ‘good versus evil’ tropes; the blond woman is the virtuous heroine and the brunette woman is the harsh and cruel villainess.³²  These sentiments are reflected visually and brought to life by Brundage’s illustrations. As Yaztek mentioned, Brundage’s work frequently featured white, blond women in danger of an oppressor- often a ‘yellow peril’ or /red danger’ male.³³ Here the oriental stereotype is not a male, but note that the villainess is a dark haired woman wearing ‘Oriental’ clothing that Brundage was familiar with drawing. The woman herself is ethnically ambiguous, but certainly could be a Middle Eastern or Asian woman. By creating queer scenes within the context of ‘exotic’ and ‘fantasy’ worlds acts of non-heteronormative behavior were more acceptable to the public. At the same time, it was the homophobic and xenophobic attitudes of the time that Brundage and Howard employed with sexual imagery to make their content marketable.

Although homophobic and xenophobic attitudes contributed to the creation of sadomasochistic and queer coded illustrations and writing for Weird Tales, the covers still might have found appeal with female and queer audiences. Weird Tales had a relatively high proportion of women in their workspace. A decent percentage of the writers were women, as well as other artists and staff.³⁴ And while their readership was predominately heterosexual men, it certainly wasn’t limited to them.  In a discussion about the  later genre of 1950s and 1960s lesbian pulp, Paula Rabinowitz says “even if slip-wearing is not tied to a woman’s desire for women, its extravagant display of sexuality marks her as a sister rebel.”³⁵  Although this analysis pertains to work a couple decades later, I think this statement can be retrofitted to consider Brundage’s work considering both Korshak and Yaszek’s analysis of Brundage’s female figures. I also would like to consider that Brundage’s images could have been a predecessor for lesbian pulp fiction cover iconography. Lesbian pulp covers aided lesbian women on how to recognize each other by the way that they dressed through the depiction of risqué lingerie, which heterosexual women aligned to normal conventions would not find the need for.³⁶ In this way risqué and sexy fashion conveyed counterculture ideas available to women through pulp fiction cover illustrations.

The continuing effects of Brundage’s covers in art and media 

The scholarship around Brundage’s work is very clear on her impact as the ‘Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art.’ Before Margaret Brundage began producing iconic ‘women-in-peril’ cover illustrations for Weird Tales, science fiction pulp magazine covers mostly showed things like aliens and robots. She was the first of either sex whose covers featured nudes in science fiction.³⁷ As the editor of Weird Tales caught on that sexually charged imagery would help sell magazines and other pulp fiction magazines caught on, more sexualized and sensational imagery began showing up on their covers.³⁸ This type of iconography eventually translated over to comic books and mainstream media in years to come. Earlier, I discussed the possibility of Brundage’s artwork leading to more portrayals of queer-coded illustrations in mainstream media. Bobby Derie, a scholar on Howard’s writing, offers another angle. He points out that one month after the September 1933 Weird Tales, Dime Mystery debuted, the first of “shudder pulps” that focused on stories of torture and sadism on women.³⁹ He defines “The Slithering Shadow” as a potential marker indicating that there was an audience for this pulp genre.⁴⁰ Yaztek interprets Brundage’s legacy and iconography of strong and powerful women to continue in the work of female science fiction artists like Rowena Morill, Victoria Poyser-Lisi and Julie Bell.⁴¹

Concluding Thoughts

There is a strong temptation to portray Brundage as ‘ahead of her time’ due to a simplified conflation of her personal views and scholarship on her illustrations.  Her covers expressed her progressive and counterculture sentiments using her iconic women, but at the same time capitalized on xenophobic and homophobic attitudes in America.  By examining her artwork alongside the writing, it accompanied rather than considering them as stand-alone pieces, I think it helps us learn more about the motives behind creating certain types of visual imagery. It offers a more nuanced perspective into Brundage’s artmaking rather than flattening her artwork as inherently female-positive and progressive because she was a leftist and female artist.

Afterthoughts

Since I have the platform, I would also like to offer a brief review on the authors and scholars that I referenced throughout this essay. As a introduction and a book to peruse through the covers, Korshak and Spurlock’s book is adequate. However, the overall quality of the writing mediocre at its best, and repetitive and fanboyish at its worst. And the foreword by Rowena Morrill is truly awful. For a book about Brundage, Rowena Morrill barely seems to know anything about her. One of the most delusional quotes I can pick from the foreword is “The photo I saw of her looked very attractive. I have always thought it is a great advantage to the a woman in a male-dominated field. The art directors treat you better!” I could go on for a while about how insensitive and untrue this is, but there are literally interviews depicting Margaret Brundage’s experience in the book from Brundage herself that point out the contrary. I would much more highly reccomend Lisa Yaztek’s Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction (Early Classics of Science Fiction. Although it may not market itself as sensationally as The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage, it offers much more substantial information on not only Brundage but other women working in the science fiction genre in the 1900s.

Citations:

1. Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock, The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art (Vanguard Productions, 2013), 35
2.  Ibid, 117.
3.  Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock, The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art (Vanguard Productions, 2013), 148
4. Ibid, 147.
5. Ibid, 145-148.
6.  Ibid.
7.  Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock, The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art (Vanguard Productions, 2013), 148.
8.  Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock, The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art (Vanguard Productions, 2013), 148.
9. Ibid.
10.  Ibid.
11. Lisa Yaztek, Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction (Early Classics of Science Fiction) (Wesleyan University Press, 2016), 334.
12.  Ibid, 336.
13. Lisa Yaztek, Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction (Early Classics of Science Fiction) (Wesleyan University Press, 2016), 335.
14. Ibid,  333.
15.  Ibid.
16. Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock, The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art (Vanguard Productions, 2013), 149.
17.  Lisa Yaztek, Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction (Early Classics of Science Fiction) (Wesleyan University Press, 2016), 333.
18.  Lisa Yaztek, Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction (Early Classics of Science Fiction) (Wesleyan University Press, 2016), 335.
19. Ibid, 333.
20. Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock, The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art (Vanguard Productions, 2013), 148.
21. Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock, The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art (Vanguard Productions, 2013), 149.
22.  Ibid, 150.
23.  Fred Taraba. Masters of American Illustration: 41 Illustrators & How they worked. (The Illustrated Press, 2011).
24.  Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock, The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art (Vanguard Productions, 2013), 29.
25. George Hagenauer, “Wobbies and Weird Tales: Brundage’s Life and Marriage in Chicago,” in The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage, ed. Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock ( Vanguard Productions, 2013), 114-115.
26.  Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock, The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art (Vanguard Productions, 2013), 149-150. 
27.  Bobby Derie, “Conan and Sappho: Robert E Howard on Lesbians Part 1 & 2.” The Dark Man: Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies. (2017).
28.  Ibid.
29. Charles Hoffman, “Elements of Sadomasochism in the Fiction and Poetry of Robert E. Howard.”  The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies, Volume 4, No. 2 (June 2009).
30. Bobby Derie, “Conan and Sappho: Robert E Howard on Lesbians Part 1 & 2.” The Dark Man: Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies. (2017).
31.  Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock, The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art (Vanguard Productions, 2013), 19.
32. Charles Hoffman. Elements of Sadomasochism in the Fiction and Poetry of Robert E. Howard. The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies, Volume 4, No. 2 (June 2009).
33.  Lisa Yaztek, Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction (Early Classics of Science Fiction) (Wesleyan University Press), 335.
34.   Lisa Yaztek, Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction (Early Classics of Science Fiction) (Wesleyan University Press), 396.
35. Paula Rabinowitz. Scenes of Reading Women: Feminism and Paperbacks: A Possible Origin Story. Australasian Journal of American Studies 37, no. 1 (2018), 195. 
36. Ibid. 
37. Stephen D. Korshak & J. David Spurlock, The Alluring Art of Margaret Brundage: Queen of Pulp Pin-Up Art (Vanguard Productions, 2013), 147.
38. Ibid, 148. 
39.  Bobby Derie, “Conan and Sappho: Robert E Howard on Lesbians Part 1 & 2.” The Dark Man: Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies (2017).
40.  Ibid.
41.  Lisa Yaszek,  Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction (Early Classics of Science Fiction) (Wesleyan University Press, 2016), 340.