Weird Tales May 1937 – John Cawder's Wife, Blue-Skinned Woman with Portraits
Unexpectedly eerie for its era, this Weird Tales cover depicts a blue-skinned woman in a crimson gown clutching a small white animal, surrounded by framed portraits that seem to breathe with supernatural life — one showing a ghostly woman, another a figure in red. The unsettling reincarnation theme from P. Schuyler Miller's 'John Cawder's Wife' is rendered with painterly Gothic menace, blending portraiture-within-portraiture into a claustrophobic supernatural tableau that feels more psychological than pulpy.
A blue woman holding what appears to be a small lamb while haunted portraits loom behind her is either high Gothic art or a very unusual visit to a gallery. Brundage restrains herself admirably — there are no tentacles, which for Weird Tales counts as minimalism.
“THE MAN WHO AMAZED FISH — by FRANK OWEN MAY Weird Tales 15¢ SEABURY QUINN MINDRET LORD AUGUST DERLETH Through all the ages Cawder men will always return to — Cawder's wife JOHN CAWDER'S WIFE A novelette by P. SCHUYLER MILLER”
