Weird Tales Dec 1934 – Robert E. Howard's 'A Witch Shall Be Born' Cover
Predicting nothing about future technology and proudly so, this brazenly sensational cover illustrates Robert E. Howard's Conan-adjacent sword-and-sorcery tale with two scantily-clad dark-haired women in a stone dungeon, one standing dominantly over the other who kneels in submission. The standing figure wields a whip and wears an exotic jeweled costume, embodying the 'weird fiction' genre's obsession with dark magic, captivity, and dangerous feminine power. Pure Hyborian Age pulp energy at its most unapologetic.
This is peak weird fiction — sword-and-sorcery adjacent, dripping with dark fantasy tropes of domination, witchcraft, and exotic menace. Margaret Brundage's signature pastel-soft yet sexually charged dungeon tableau made her the defining visual voice of Weird Tales' most controversial era.
“Weird Tales A WITCH SHALL BE BORN Dark Magic • Mad Passion Red Carnage By ROBERT E. HOWARD CLARK ASHTON SMITH BASSETT MORGAN C. L. MOORE DEC. 25c NRA [eagle logo]”
