Startling Stories Summer 1944: Undead Menace in 'Strangers on the Heights'

A lurid palette of sickly greens, deep teals, and warm ochres amplifies the horror-tinged tension of this wartime pulp cover. A gaunt, cadaverous creature — skeletal and menacing, with a third eye on its forehead — fires a ray gun at a broad-shouldered hero in khaki who shields a terrified woman in a pink slip dress. Crystalline alien formations loom in the background, grounding the scene in sci-fi while the monster's decayed flesh tips it firmly into horror territory.