Tag Archives: C. Barker Petrie Jr.

The Woman of the Wood would appear to be in trouble

A diaphanously-clad blond woman is menaced by various figures on this C. Barker Petrie, Jr. cover of Weird Tales for August 1926.

This is a very early cover of Weird Tales, dating from August 1926. This early experiment in getting away with as scantily-clad a woman on the cover as the postal inspectors might tolerate is the work of one C. Barker Petrie, Jr., an artist about whom I have been able to find out very little, save that he was active as a pulp illustrator between the years of 1926 and 1931.

Petrie may have been obscure, but he didn’t lack for work on these illustrations of A. Merritt’ story “The Woman of the Wood.” The interior illustrations to the story are also by Petrie, including the header illustration, whose costumed female figure seems to be wearing barely anything concealing at all.

Interior illustration to A. Merritt's "The Woman of the Wood" by C. Barker Petrie, Jr.
“Before him was the woman of the strange eyes and the face of unearthly beauty.”

There is also what would seem to be an obligatory forest orgy scene.

A forest orgy scene illustrated by C. Barker Petrie, Jr.
“‘Sing sisters,’ the girl cried shrilly. ‘Dance for me, sisters!'”

This issue of Weird Tales is available to read and download at the Internet Archive.