Planet Stories 'Black Amazon of Mars' by Leigh Brackett, 1951
Published circa March 1951 by Fiction House, this cover illustrates Leigh Brackett's celebrated 'Black Amazon of Mars,' a landmark of planetary romance at a time when sword-and-planet adventure competed fiercely with hard SF on newsstands. A fierce, flame-haired warrior woman in form-fitting scale armor dominates the composition, wielding a double-bladed battle axe while a male companion fights behind her amid fire and chaos, with a hooded warlord's forces visible on a burning alien cityscape in the background.
A buxom, heavily armored Martian amazon swinging a double-headed axe over a burning alien city while a half-naked man battles beside her and a hooded warlord commands monstrous hordes in the background — this is planetary romance cranked to maximum volume. Fiction House never did anything by halves, and this cover is a glorious monument to shameless pulp excess.
“STRANGE ADVENTURES ON OTHER WORLDS PLANET stories A.N.C. TRADE MARK FICTION HOUSE MAGAZINES A hooded war-lord led the hordes of Mekh against the Ancient Doom... BLACK AMAZON of MARS A Novel of Warrior Worlds by LEIGH BRACKETT THE STAR-SAINT by A. E. VAN VOGT FYFE • GALLUN • ANDERSON”
