Earle Bergey's Monster Abduction, Thrilling Wonder Stories June 1943
Featuring space suit technology and alien biology as central conceits, this wartime pulp cover depicts a helmeted spaceman in a red pressure suit grappling with a scaly, reptilian alien creature whose serpentine tentacles ensnare a blonde woman in a form-fitting blue uniform and golden utility belt. The creature's grotesque amphibian face and writhing appendages dominate the composition, rendered in Bergey's signature lush, painterly gouache style against a swirling atmospheric background.
Holy smokes, that lizard monster has like a dozen tentacles and it's grabbing everybody at once! The way that dame is screaming and the spaceman is fighting it off while the whole thing swirls like some crazy nightmare — this is the best cover on the newsstand, no contest!
“THRILLING WONDER STORIES 15¢ JUNE A THRILLING PUBLICATION EARLE BERGEY THROUGH THE BLACKBOARD A Novel of Strange Adventure By JOEL TOWNSLEY ROGERS WOBBLIES IN THE MOON A John Carstairs N... By FRA... BUY WAR BONDS AND STAMPS FOR VICTORY!”
