Spawn of Dagon – Weird Tales July 1938 Kuttner Cover by Virgil Finlay
A newsstand browser in 1938 would have stopped cold at this lurid tableau: a swaggering swordsman in scarlet confronts a grotesque giant clutching a swooning, scantily clad woman while a pallid, wide-eyed dwarf cowers at his feet. Painted for Henry Kuttner's Lovecraftian sea-horror story 'Spawn of Dagon,' the cover radiates classic Weird Tales menace — deformed flesh, distressed beauty, and baroque staging that made the magazine the most notorious pulp on the rack.
A classic Weird Tales formula executed with Finlay's unmistakable musculature and grotesque character work — lurid, skillful, and genuinely unsettling. It belongs in a pulp museum display case under glass, but you'd absolutely want a print on your wall.
“16th Year of Publication Weird Tales JULY 25¢ SPAWN OF DAGON By HENRY KUTTNER Robert Bloch • Seabury Quinn • Edmond Hamilton • David H. Keller Virgil Finlay 38”
