Margaret Brundage's 'A Witch Shall Be Born' – Weird Tales, Dec. 1934
Before you stands one of the most iconic — and controversial — covers from pulp fiction's golden age. Painted by Margaret Brundage, the only woman to regularly grace Weird Tales covers, this December 1934 image illustrates Robert E. Howard's Conan-adjacent tale 'A Witch Shall Be Born.' A dominatrix figure in a golden bikini top and flowing red skirt stands over a cowering woman on stone pavement, whip in hand — all rendered in Brundage's distinctive soft pastel-meets-oil style that consistently pushed the boundaries of 1930s newstand propriety.
Brundage's soft, almost delicate pastel technique creates an odd tension with the overtly aggressive subject matter — the whip and power dynamic rendered with the aesthetic gentleness of a glamour portrait. The result is peak Weird Tales: simultaneously titillating, threatening, and strangely elegant.
“DECEMBER, 1934 Weird Tales A WITCH SHALL BE BORN Dark Magic • Mad Passion Red Carnage By ROBERT E. HOWARD CLARK ASHTON SMITH BASSETT MORGAN C. L. MOORE DEC. 25c Vol. 24, No. 6—25c WEIRD TALES Printed in U.S.A.”
