Lee Brown Coye (1907-1981) made his debut on the covers of anthologies like Arkham House’s Sleep No More (1944) before moving onto the pages of Weird Tales. His first illustrations from March 1945 was for “Please Go Way and Let Me Sleep” by Helen Kasson. His last was Joseph Payne Brennan’s “The Green Parrot” (July 1952). In eight years he did images for such authors as Fritz Leiber, Manly Wade Wellman, August Derleth, Seabury Quinn, Ray Bradbury, Edmond Hamilton, Clark Ashton Smith, H. Russell Wakefield, William Hope Hodgson and Theodore Sturgeon. His weird, cartoony style became associated with the very best in horror fiction.
After the mid-1950s and the death of the Pulps, Coye continued doing covers for August Derleth at Arkham House but his return to magazine art came in 1962 when Cele Goldsmith brought him back to do stories for Fantastic. Goldsmith was a wonderful editor with a better grasp of what Fantasy fiction could be than most. She brought Fritz Leiber out of retirement to do new Fafhrd & Gray Mouser stories (and other types of stories). She was one of the few to embrace Lovecraft’s legacy outside of small fan publishing. She also promoted new writers like Roger Zelazny, Ursula K. Le Guin and John Jakes. And Lee Brown Coye was perfect to illustrate the stuff she published in Fantastic, giving the magazine a Weird Tales flavor that was sadly missing in the early 1960s.
Lee illustrated:
December 1962
“Heritage” by E. J. Derringer, a reprint from the January 1935 issue of Top-Notch.
January 1963
“The Forelife Myth” by Albert Teichner
“Third Sister” by Arthur Porges
February 1963
“The Titan in the Crypt” by J. G. Warner
March 1963
“An Appartition” by Guy de Maupassant
“His Natal Star” by Austyn Granville
April 1963
Cele Goldsmith also published Amazing Stories and one illustration found its way into that SF magazine. “For Services Rendered” by J. F. Bone (Amazing Stories, April 1963)
“The Malatesta Collection” by Roger Zelazny
“The Casket Demon” by Fritz Leiber
June 1963
Lee Brown Coye did the cover for Robert Arthur’s “The Mirror of Cagliostro”
August 1963
“The Devil in Hollywood” by Dale Clarke (Ronal Kayser) reprinted from Argosy, August 8, 1936
October 1963
“A Night With Hecate” by Edward W. Ludwig
November 1963
“The Aftertime” by Jack Sharkey
December 1963
“The Soul Buyer” by Keith Laumer
January 1964
“The Word of Unbinding” by Ursula K. Le Guin
April 1964
“The Dunstable Horror” by Arthur Pendragon
Coye left Fantastic in 1964. The magazine, perhaps the truest revival of the spirit of Weird Tales to date, was given a sudden and terrible fate. The publishers wanted a cheaper alternative and Goldsmith (now Laili) left with June 1965’s issue. The new editor, Joseph Ross, filled the magazine with reprints, the few good stories leftovers from Goldsmith’s reign. Not until Ted White took over in 1969 would the pages of Fantastic be a haven for Sword & Sorcery, Lovecraftian horror or modern fantasy again.
It should be no surprise that Lee Brown Coye’s talent matured since the days of Weird Tales. These images are some of his best work. But he was far from done. In 1973 he would collaborate with Karl Edward Wagner and Carcosa Press, getting to illustrate Manly Wade Wellman’s stories in Worse Things Waiting (1973). Lee’s frequent use of bound sticks got Karl curious about the motif. Lee explained these were strange sculptures that he found in the woods. This lead to Karl writing his classic tale, “Sticks” (Whispers #3, March 1974). Those odd sticks show up here in the Fantastic illustrations too.
