Tag Archives: Jim Mooney

Beyond the Phoenix

A cover by Margaret Brundage for Weird Tales, October 1938.

Another Margaret Brundage cover for Weird Tales, this one all light and air for Henry Kuttner’s story “Beyond the Phoneix.” It appeared in October 1938. Kuttner’s story itself had some unusual art by Jim Mooney (1919-2018), who would later make it big in comics, being one of the principal artists behind Supergirl and also working as an inker on Spiderman.

Illustration by Jim Mooney for Henry Kuttner's story "Beyond the Phoneix," which appeared in Weird Tales in October 1938.
“The two figures moved in a grotesque sarabande to the tune of the evil drumming and the pipes.”

Perhaps there was an unusual tang in the air that autumn, because the Weird Tales editors seem to have been willing to go a touch more erotic than usual in their choice of illustrations. Right inside the front cover we find this somewhat atypical creation by Virgil Finlay:

An inside-the-front cover illustration by Virgil Finlay that appeared in October 1938.
“O sweet and far, from cliff and scar,/ The horns of Elfland faintly blowing. — Tennyson”

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