In a previous post I discussed how H. G. Wells was imagined by Pulp artist, Frank R. Paul in Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories. At that time I felt there was no way I could get all the original art for his monster tales because they are difficult to locate. That really isn’t true any longer, so here they are, the original, first imaginings of H. G. Wells’s greatest monster stories by the original artists.
“The Flowering of the Strange Orchid” (The Pall Mall Budget, August 2, 1894)
“In the Avu Observatory” (Pall Mall Budget, August 9, 1894)
“Aepyornis Island” (Pall Mall Budget, December 27, 1894)
The Island of Doctor Moreau (Saturday Review, January 1895)
“The Red Room” (The Idler, March 1896)
“In the Abyss” (Pearson’s Magazine, August 1896)
“The Sea Raiders” (The Weekly Sun Literary Supplement, December 6, 1896)
The War of the Worlds (Pearson’s Magazine, April-December 1897)
“The Stolen Body” (The Strand, November 1898)
The First Men in the Moon (The Strand, November 1900-August 1901)
“The Inexperienced Ghost” (The Strand, March 1902)
“The Valley of the Spiders” (Pearson’s Magazine, March 1903)
The Food of the Gods (Pearson’s Magazine, December 1903-June 1904)
“The Country of the Blind” (The Strand, April 1904)
“The Empire of the Ants” (The Strand, December 1905)
What strikes me most about all these images is how wonderful the Victorian magazine artists were. Not to slight Frank R. Paul, but wow! what a difference. I don’t understand why the book publishers who collected Wells afterward were willing to let these images be forgotten in the magazines they appeared in. Fortunately, they have not been lost to us for long.
