Margaret Brundage's 'Strange Orchids' — Weird Tales March 1937 Cover
Breathless terror saturates this iconic Weird Tales cover as a scantily-clad blonde woman in a flowing blue robe recoils in horror, arms thrown upward in desperation, while a silhouetted figure below brandishes a knife toward her. Behind her, a pallid figure lies draped in crimson and adorned with orchids — sinister and still. Margaret Brundage's signature pastel-soft sensuality clashes wickedly with the scene's lurking menace, embodying the lurid promise of pulp horror at its most seductive and dangerous peak.
A knife-wielding silhouette lunges from the shadows toward a barely-dressed woman while a flower-crowned corpse reclines in the background — Brundage packs three layers of lurid menace into a single cover with her trademark velvet-soft pastel technique.
“All Stories Complete Weird Tales The Unique Magazine MARCH, 1937 MARCH 25c "STRANGE ORCHIDS" a goose-flesh story of weird happenings, lovely girls, and gorgeous flowers. By DOROTHY QUICK Eando Binder G. G. Pendarves Earl Peirce, Jr. Robert Bloch Henry Hasse WEIRD TALES Vol. 29, No. 3 Printed in U.S.A.”
