Planet Stories Winter 1940 – Beyond Light by Nelson S. Bond Cover Art
Published in Winter 1940 by Fiction House, this is the fifth issue of Planet Stories, arriving at the dawn of science fiction's Golden Age when pulp magazines ruled newsstands. A spacesuited hero brandishes a ray gun inside a blinding searchlight beam while looming bat-winged alien creatures close in from the darkness, with a fallen woman and monstrous green beast adding to the chaos. The composition masterfully uses a dramatic light-versus-darkness contrast to amplify the sense of desperate, cosmic danger.
A lone spaceman with a ray gun holds off multiple swooping bat-demons in a cosmic void while a woman lies helpless at his feet and a green monster lurks nearby — this cover hits every pulp hysteria button simultaneously. The theatrical searchlight beam bisecting monstrous darkness is maximally overwrought in the best possible way.
“PLANET STORIES STRANGE ADVENTURES ON OTHER WORLDS — THE UNIVERSE OF FUTURE CENTURIES BEYOND LIGHT TOMORROW'S ADVENTURE IN THE OUTER VOID by NELSON S. BOND One Thousand Miles Below by Eando Binder Phantom of the Seven Stars by Ray Cummings THORNTON AYRE • ROSS ROCKLYNE • LEIGH BRACKETT FICTION HOUSE MAGAZINES 20c”
