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Sunspots, v. 6, issue 6, whole no. 26, Fall 1945
Page 9
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Fall, 1945 SUN SPOTS Page 0 * * * * * * * * * * PAUL, WESSO, MOREY AND DOLD By Harry Warner, Jr. The passing of a few years, and the receding interest in the collecting of the prozines, have thrown up an intangible but very real air of the prehistoric over the science fiction magazines beore 1938, or thereabouts. That was the beginning of the end of the old days, when two or three magazines -- never more -- made up the entire field, and fans who wanted build a complete collection of the prozines had a reasonable chance of doing just that. Paul, Wesso, Morey and Dold. Those were four names to conjure with just a few years back. They were the Bach, Beethoven and Brahms of the stf illustrators. They were not alone in the field, but their work adorned the vast majority of the prozine stories between 1926 and 1938. Yet today, it is perfectly possible to find active fans who never saw the work of at least two of those four. An article discussing in full detail the relation of the prozine illustrations to the stories is badly needed. This makes no pretentions to being the desideratum, or any real effort in that direction. But these few remarks might get the ball rolling for sincere thought on the matter by those who are better equipped to make the proper study. It is perfectly obvious that a relationship exists between the trends in stories and trends in the illustrations for those stories. It is not possible to determine the type of story by the picture, nor vice versa; nor is it possible to forecast with certainty what the day's news will do to the stock market or to find out what has happened all over the world by reading the stock quotations; yet the tie-up is very obviously present. The important thing to remember is that Paul, Wesso, Morey and Dold belonged to older sience fiction. It was a science fiction that was never deliberately aimed at the lower mentalities like much of that being published today. Yet it never realized one-tenth of the potentialities of the field, and seems archaic beside the stories in today's "Astounding." It was a science fiction in which the science was very self-assured, very naive, always expounded with textbook detail by one of the principal characters or even the author. It was a science fiction in which the fiction made comparatively few concessions to plotto, yet lacked in the first considerations of really good writing. The illustrations of those days reflect all this -- those of Paul and Dold, in particular. The Paul illustration always made an effort at a photographic inclusion of all the details. It usually jibed with the story in the important details, aside from such minor idiosyncracies as the open mouths the humans usually affected (someone once remarked that all Paul's men and women must have had gills) and the puffed knickerbockers.
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Fall, 1945 SUN SPOTS Page 0 * * * * * * * * * * PAUL, WESSO, MOREY AND DOLD By Harry Warner, Jr. The passing of a few years, and the receding interest in the collecting of the prozines, have thrown up an intangible but very real air of the prehistoric over the science fiction magazines beore 1938, or thereabouts. That was the beginning of the end of the old days, when two or three magazines -- never more -- made up the entire field, and fans who wanted build a complete collection of the prozines had a reasonable chance of doing just that. Paul, Wesso, Morey and Dold. Those were four names to conjure with just a few years back. They were the Bach, Beethoven and Brahms of the stf illustrators. They were not alone in the field, but their work adorned the vast majority of the prozine stories between 1926 and 1938. Yet today, it is perfectly possible to find active fans who never saw the work of at least two of those four. An article discussing in full detail the relation of the prozine illustrations to the stories is badly needed. This makes no pretentions to being the desideratum, or any real effort in that direction. But these few remarks might get the ball rolling for sincere thought on the matter by those who are better equipped to make the proper study. It is perfectly obvious that a relationship exists between the trends in stories and trends in the illustrations for those stories. It is not possible to determine the type of story by the picture, nor vice versa; nor is it possible to forecast with certainty what the day's news will do to the stock market or to find out what has happened all over the world by reading the stock quotations; yet the tie-up is very obviously present. The important thing to remember is that Paul, Wesso, Morey and Dold belonged to older sience fiction. It was a science fiction that was never deliberately aimed at the lower mentalities like much of that being published today. Yet it never realized one-tenth of the potentialities of the field, and seems archaic beside the stories in today's "Astounding." It was a science fiction in which the science was very self-assured, very naive, always expounded with textbook detail by one of the principal characters or even the author. It was a science fiction in which the fiction made comparatively few concessions to plotto, yet lacked in the first considerations of really good writing. The illustrations of those days reflect all this -- those of Paul and Dold, in particular. The Paul illustration always made an effort at a photographic inclusion of all the details. It usually jibed with the story in the important details, aside from such minor idiosyncracies as the open mouths the humans usually affected (someone once remarked that all Paul's men and women must have had gills) and the puffed knickerbockers.
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