Planet Stories Fall 1944 – 'The Eyes of Thar' by Henry Kuttner, Alien Monster Cover
This cover graces Planet Stories Vol. 2 No. 8 (Fall 1944), published by Fiction House, featuring the lead story 'The Eyes of Thar' by Henry Kuttner. A scantily-clad blonde heroine wearing futuristic headgear wields a spear against a snarling red crustacean alien creature, while a helmeted male companion crouches with a ray gun on an alien rocky landscape. Rust-colored rock spires pierce a lurid purple sky in the background, epitomizing the sword-and-planet subgenre at its most flamboyant.
This cover is closer to an exploding space station than a quiet library — a barely-dressed heroine jabbing a spear at a giant red lobster-alien while a ray-gun-toting companion scrambles in the dirt is peak sword-and-planet pulp delirium. Fiction House never met a cover they couldn't dial up to maximum spectacle.
“PLANET STORIES FALL 1944 VOL. 2 NO. 8 STRANGE ADVENTURES ON OTHER WORLDS — THE UNIVERSE OF FUTURE CENTURIES 20c FICTION HOUSE MAGAZINES SELWYN JACOBI WYLIE The EYES of THAR By HENRY KUTNER CITADEL OF DEATH BY CARL SELWYN PARKHURST”
