GALLERY OF FRANK R. PAUL's SCIENCE FICTION ARTWORK
artwork (c) Frank R. Paul estate
Cover art by Frank R. Paul for June 1929 Amazing Stories.
Again and again, Paul plays with scale. If we look at just the left or right half of the cover, we see just (a) a bug or (b) a guy with a gun. Nothing special. Only by juxtaposing the two halves do we get the sense of awe and dread. Again and again in Paul's pieces, our mind tells us one thing (the bug's closer so it should be bigger), but our eyes tell us something else (it shouldn't be that big!). Compare this to the Summer 1928 issue of Amazing Stories Quarterly. In that piece, which splits even more clearly down the middle, he does the opposite: the foreground couple should be larger, but they're smaller. Paul is messin' with our minds, I tell ya. - F.W.
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