Today marks the one hundred and thirteenth birthday of Allen Gustav Anderson, one of the true titans of pulp illustration. I meant to write this post back in October, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Anderson’s death, but it wasn’t meant to be. This post serves as a mulligan for that lapse.

As stated on the Pulp Artists site, Anderson grew up in Minneapolis. After art school, he did artwork for Fawcett Publications during the 1930s. It was there that he met his lifelong friend, Norman Saunders. Saunders would also go on to make his mark in the pulps and Men's Adventure magazines.

Allen joined the Navy during World War II, which explains his much-decreased output during the early '40s. Upon leaving the Navy, Anderson roared back, with his paintings being featured on the covers of numerous issues of Planet Stories. Between 1947 and 1953, Anderson was the man at Planet Stories. He has the singular distinction of providing the covers for all three of the original Eric John Stark tales from Leigh Brackett.

As James Gurney, no slouch when it comes to depicting exotic adventure, put it:

"Anderson created dynamic, action-packed covers..."

Damn straight, James. To me, Anderson's style owes something to both Norm Saunders and Walter Baumhofer, but it is inimitably his own. I would take one pulse-pounding Anderson painting for ten static Brundage covers...but that's me.

So, when Dave Ritzlin of DMR Books told me he was doing a collection of Poul Anderson's awesome Planet Stories adventures, I said, "Ya gotta use Allen Anderson's 'War-Maid' cover". To me, that is one of the all-time great pulp SFF covers. As it turns out, Dave had already picked that masterpiece as the cover for Swordsmen from the Stars. It was meant to be.

Heritage Auctions has a cool story on how that particular cover painting survived the holocaust when Fiction House--the publishers of Planet Stories--went under:

'[The cover art for the May, 1953 issue of Planet Stories] is thought to be one of only three surviving science fiction covers by Allen Anderson. From Robert Weinberg's A Biographical Dictionary of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists (1988), page 310, "'an unusual twist of fate' was reported as the reason behind the survival of this painting. When Fiction House, publishers of the magazine, went out of business in the sixties, all of the original art stored in its warehouse was burned by workers who saw no reason to keep the art. Fortunately, Frank Kelly Freas had rescued several of his own paintings years before." Later, as Freas told it, he took the Anderson painting, one of two, in trade for monies owed him when he was visiting the publisher to discuss his own artwork, shortly before the fire.'

Kelly Freas. Kickin' ass, as usual. That painting would later sell for around forty thousand dollars.

Anderson's impact on the SFF/pulp scene ended in 1953, when he remarried and moved to Tillson, NY to open a prosaic sign-painting business. What coulda been, right?

It would appear that Anderson walked away from the SFF scene right before Don Wollheim published the Conan the Conqueror/The Sword of Rhiannon double at Ace Books in 1953. Just imagine that Ace Double with Allen Anderson covers on both sides. I'm sorry. While Norm Saunders' Conan cover--which can be seen here--ain't bad, I truly believe that Anderson would've done a much better job. He simply had more of a feel for the fantastic.

Feel free to click on the Anderson art gallery below. It features several covers from his Western and "spicy pulp" work. In my opinion, they demonstrate quite clearly why Anderson would've done a better job on Conan the Conqueror than his old buddy, Saunders.

I need to do a post on Anderson’s Eric John Stark covers, as well as his complete run of Planet Stories covers, so don’t badger me about that. It’ll get done.

Happy birthday, Allen.