Weird Tales Nov 1940 – Skeleton Scribe Cover, Vol. 36 No. 2
Published in November 1940, this Weird Tales cover arrives at the height of the pulp horror-fantasy era, when magazines like Weird Tales were the primary venue for dark fantasy and macabre fiction. A dramatically rendered skeleton hunches over a tall writing desk, quill in bony hand, scratching entries into a massive tome by candlelight. Behind it, fiery silhouettes of warriors on horseback rage across an apocalyptic orange-red sky — a vision of death as cosmic chronicler.
A skeleton scribe writing the Book of the Dead by candlelight while an apocalyptic cavalry battle rages in hellfire behind it — this is high-drama pulp macabre at its most theatrical. The composition is gloriously over-the-top, treating death itself as a meticulous bureaucrat.
“DREAMER'S WORLDS — Brilliant Novelette by EDMOND HAMILTON NOVEMBER Weird Tales 15¢ HENRY KUTTNER MANLY WADE WELLMAN AUGUST W. DERLETH ROBERT H. LEITFRED A WITCH'S TALE Specially Adapted From the Famous Radio Program by ALONZO DEEN COLE + A Drama of World Destiny— THE BOOK OF THE DEAD by FRANK GRUB[ER]”
