Beetle Horde Attack: Astounding Stories of Super-Science, Clayton 1930
Surprisingly visceral for its era, this cover depicts a leather-jacketed aviator brawling bare-knuckled with a towering insectoid monster while a terrified woman flees and more beetle-creatures menace a soldier in the background. The giant beetle's vivid red-and-teal carapace dominates the composition with almost Art Deco geometric patterning. A crashed biplane smokes on the alien hillside behind the melee, compressing multiple catastrophes into a single frenetic frame of pulp chaos.
A man in canvas sneakers punching a building-sized beetle while a woman in a fur bikini watches is precisely the caliber of crisis Ray Cummings would consider a Tuesday. Wesso outdid himself with the beetle's Art Deco abdomen, which frankly belongs in a museum.
“20¢ ASTOUNDING STORIES OF SUPER-SCIENCE Phantoms of Reality A Complete Novelette of Adventure in the Fourth Dimension By RAY CUMMINGS A CLAYTON MAGAZINE THE BEETLE HORDE A Startling Story By VICTOR ROUSSEAU”
