Perhaps Hugh Rankin liked this sort of thing

Some tropical menace
Most ominous Weird Tales story title

Here we have a rare pre-Brundage Weird Tales cover, this one done by Hugh Rankin, a pulp artist we’ve discussed here recently. Our discussion got picked up in a post at BondageBlog, who liked the languid girl chained up in a cave Rankin drew before. Thanks for taking note, Rope Guy!

The interior illustration, also done by Rankin for Seabury Quinn’s story “The House of the Golden Masks,” suggests that perhaps Hugh Rankin liked ’em tied up. (This image is a cross-page composite I put together to try to show the whole thing. I admit it’s not perfect.)

The original, which you can click through to see, shows more detail that can be included in the space available to this blog.

This edition of Weird Tales is