Tag Archives: Russell Gray

Test tube Frankenstein

Women in tubes turning into mermaids under the direction of a mad scientist. Cover of May 1940 Terror Tales by Rafael DeSoto.

By May 1940 Terror Tales was nearing the end of its run (as were most shudder pulps), but it still had a great issue that begins with this cover by Rafael DeSoto and included some pretty classic pulp stories with some pretty classic pulp interior art, for example Russell Gray’s “Mistress of the Dark Pool.”

Opening pages of Russell Gray's "Mistress of the Dark Pool" with unattributed cover art from the May 1940 issue of Terror Tales.

But most mad-sciency of all is “Test-Tube Frankenstein” by Wayne Robbins (1914-1958), a pretty good yarn about biological mimicry (and probably what inspired DeSoto’s cover, even if that latter isn’t really what’s going on there).

Opening pages of Wayne Robbins's "Test-Tub Frankenstein" in the May 1940 issue of Terror Tales, with unattributed interior art.

This issue of Terror Tales is available to read or download from the Internet Archive.