Weird Tales July 1936 – Margaret Brundage's 'Red Nails' Robert E. Howard Cover
More sensual and painterly than the mechanical wonders of contemporaries like Frank R. Paul at Amazing Stories, this cover exemplifies Weird Tales' signature style of exotic peril and feminine allure. Three dark-haired women in jeweled bikini tops attend a pale, reclining blonde figure atop a green sarcophagus-like altar, one clutching a small vial — suggesting poison or sorcery. Rendered in lush pastels against a verdant background, the composition drips with sword-and-sorcery menace befitting Howard's Conan-universe tale 'Red Nails.'
Three scantily clad women hovering over a prone blonde with a mysterious vial is pure newsstand dynamite — exactly the kind of lurid, gorgeous imagery that made Weird Tales notorious and irresistible. Howard's name and the 'black lotus' tagline seal the deal for any fantasy reader of the era.
“Weird Tales July Red Nails a fascinating story of the black lotus and the queerest people ever spawned. By ROBERT E. HOWARD Clark Ashton Smith Edmond Hamilton Ronal Kayser C. L. Moore 25c”
