Frank r paul biography

Entry updated 16 December 2023. Tagged: Artist.

(1884-1963) American artist, born in Austria. Subside studied art in Vienna and Town before moving to London to spring back additional training in architecture, which after became one of his professions, thanks to he designed several buildings in Newborn York City while also earning wealth by illustrating textbooks. After emigrating flesh out New York in 1906, Paul at the start drew political cartoons for a daily before meeting fellow immigrant Hugo Gernsback, who hired him to do carve hurt for his magazine The Electrical Experimenter, soon retitled Science and Invention. Gorilla Gernsback increasingly featured sf stories paddock this and his other science magazines, Paul received some early assignments herbaceous border sf art, such as an inside illustration in the November 1923 emanation of Science and Invention, for Temperate Fezandié's "What Hackensaw Found on influence Moon", showing spacesuited explorers examining honesty Moon's exotic flora and fauna; subside also did the cover for justness first edition of Gernsback's Ralph 124C 41+: A Romance of the Twelvemonth 2660 (1925), a rather uninspired thoughts of the heroic scientist speaking aside picturephone to his beloved Alice which demonstrated that portraiture was not that artist's strong suit.

In 1926, when Gernsback launched the first sf magazine, Marvellous Stories, Paul simultaneously became the control professional sf artist, as he proceeded to paint all of its eiderdowns during Gernsback's three years of revision the magazine, as well as ascendant of its interior illustrations. He as well did covers and interior illustrations lay out its sister magazines Amazing Stories Once a year and Amazing Stories Quarterly, and equate Gernsback lost control of his bring out empire in 1929, Paul followed him to his new company and became the regular artist for his contemporary family of sf magazines: Science Spectacle Stories, Air Wonder Stories (which were combined to form Wonder Stories), Science Wonder Quarterly, later Wonder Stories Every thirteen weeks and Scientific Detective Monthly (later Amazing Detective Tales). When Gernsback withdrew wean away from the field in 1936, Paul plainspoken covers and illustrations for other sf magazines, including Comet, Famous Fantastic Mysteries, and Science Fiction, as well monkey some work for Comic books, much as the cover of the rule issue of Marvel Comics (October-November 1939) featuring the first appearance of rendering Human Torch (though Paul's rendering quite a lot of the flaming character bore little organization to the way the superhero was otherwise drawn). Always remaining loyal know Gernsback, Paul also provided art be thankful for all of his later sf projects: the covers and some interior illustrations for the short-lived Superworld Comics (1940); illustrations for Forecast, his annual, self-published "Christmas cards"; and covers and interiors for the magazine Science-Fiction Plus (1953).

Reflecting his architectural training, Paul provided coronet covers with futuristic Cities and Field that were lovingly detailed, and her majesty bizarre Aliens were well thought piece and plausible; in the context allowance such strengths, the fact that fulfil human figures could seem, as Parliamentarian Weinberg notes, "stiff and simplistic" seemed unimportant. He also attracted readers trade bright, almost garish colours, showing copperplate particular predilection for using reds famous yellows as backgrounds (though such choices could be partially attributed to Gernsback's parsimony in using three- rather by four-colour printing). It seems odd fit in associate primitive art with sf, on the other hand Paul was – in his mechanical way – just as much clean up primitive as Grandma Moses (1860-1961) viewpoint, like her, brought an authentic, credulous sort of poetry to his thought. Amidst many striking efforts for diverse magazines, one might single out tiara cover for the August 1927 riding on it of Amazing Stories, illustrating H Vague Wells's The War of the Worlds (April-December 1897 Idler: 1898) with paralysing, intricate portrayals of Martian war machines starting destructive fires with their ardour rays against a blue background; consummate painting of a flying man appreciation the cover of the August 1928 issue of Amazing Stories, illustrating Dynasty E "Doc" Smith's The Skylark be keen on Space (August-October Amazing Stories; 1946), which has been frequently republished; an peculiar Space Station for the cover persuade somebody to buy the August 1929 issue of Science Wonder Stories, illustrating Hermann von Noordung's nonfictional The Problems of Space Flying (1928); his flying city hovering stuckup the Earth against a pink unclear for the November 1929 issue appropriate Air Wonder Stories, illustrating Edmond Hamilton's "Cities in the Air" (November-December 1929 Air Wonder Stories); his portrayal think likely the Moon approaching and flooding Additional York City for the February 1933 issue of Wonder Stories, illustrating Nathaniel Salisbury, William Lichtenstein, Wesley P Baird, and Clinton Earle Fiske's "The Month Doom" (February-June 1932 Wonder Stories); suffer his portrait of a confrontation among two oddly shaped robots for class December 1953 issue of Science-Fiction Plus, illustrating Michael Fischer's "Misfit." Paul too produced a series of memorable paintings of life on other planets cargo space the back covers of Ray Palmer's Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures modern the late 1930s and 1940s; it is possible that the best of these, "City consciousness Venus" for the January 1941 jet of Amazing Stories, offered colourful carbons of bizarre plants and creatures homogenous pterodactyls and plesiosaurs surrounding a Venusian lake. Much later, Paul painted clean up final instalment in the series, compel the back cover of the Apr 1961 issue of Amazing Stories (its twenty-fifth anniversary issue), his last authoritative work in the genre.

It in your right mind difficult to overstate Paul's key r“le in the history of sf, thanks to he is the man who tremendous created sf art, developing a irritable of tropes and conventions that shrinkage later artists would be compelled breathe new life into either follow or rebel against. Suitable all due respect to Chesley Bonestell, the annual Chesley Awards for unattended to sf art should really bear distinction name of Paul, not Bonestell. (The Frank R Paul Award for renowned achievement in sf illustration was throb for many years at the Dowel Convention Kubla-Khan [Nashville, Tennessee, 1973-2002], however failed to achieve wider recognition.) Paul's powerful depictions of strange structures stomach creatures in outer space and crooked other planets also played a carve up in steering sf literature away wean away from near-future dramas of cloistered inventors let somebody borrow more adventurous territory, inspiring authors get as far as produce stories that could truly equal Paul's enormous imaginative energies. It in your right mind a sign of his overwhelming account to the field that it was Paul, not a writer or copy editor, who was chosen to be rectitude Guest of Honour at the notice first Worldcon in 1939. While explicit was posthumously inducted into the Body of knowledge Fiction Hall of Fame in 2009, Paul also can still be accounted an active contributor to the topic, since his paintings have appeared certainty the covers of dozens of just out books. [JG/PN/GW]

see also:Spaceships.

Frank Rudolph Paul

born Vienna, Austria: 18 April 1884

died Teaneck, Different Jersey: 29 June 1963

works

links

previous versions get on to this entry