Weird Tales Jan 1937 – 'Children of the Bat' Seabury Quinn Cover by Margaret Brundage
Rendered in Brundage's signature soft pastel-over-board technique, this cover achieves a luminous, almost Art Deco glamour despite its lurid subject matter. A scantily clad blonde woman is bound and entwined by a writhing green serpent-dragon against a blazing red background, while a black panther crouches below and a bat wheels overhead. The composition is theatrically staged, with sensuous figure work and jewel-toned creature rendering that exemplifies the Weird Tales house style at its most brazenly commercial.
Brundage delivers peak 1930s exploitation spectacle: a helpless beauty, a coiling reptilian monster, a lurking panther, and a bat — all crammed onto one blazing red canvas. It's the Weird Tales formula executed with disarming painterly finesse, earning its near-perfect score for sheer unabashed pulp audacity.
“JANUARY Weird Tales JANUARY, 1937 25c CHILDREN OF THE BAT an eery story of unusual thrill and gripping interest ... by SEABURY QUINN H. P. Lovecraft Thorp McClusky Paul Ernst Alfred I. Tooke All Stories Complete Vol. 29, No. 1 Printed in U.S.A. WEIRD TALES”
