As always, December 7 is the feast day of Saint Leigh, Our Lady of Planetary Adventure. Her classic, early sword and planet tale, "Lorelei of the Red Mist," first appeared in Planet Stories, Summer 1946. However, it's the reprint from the issue of Tops in Science Fiction, Fall 1953 when everything came together. The editors had the profound wisdom of pairing one of the greatest SF authors of the post-war period with one of the greatest SF artists of that era: Frank Kelly Freas.

Freas was just beginning to establish himself in 1953. He obviously took full advantage of the opportunity to illustrate Brackett, who was the reigning queen of SF by that the time. Freas would provide numerous further illos and covers for Brackett tales during the next two decades, only being dislodged as the Brackett illustrator--in my opinion--when Brackett hand-picked Jim Steranko to illustrate her "Book of Skaith" novels.