Page:Weird Tales Volume 23 Number 2 (1934-02).djvu/124

"I commend you highly on your choice of M. Brundage as a cover artist," writes Robert Leonard Russell, of Mount Vernon, Illinois. "Brundage is absolutely magnificent. Your last seven covers are the best, the weirdest that have ever graced good old WT. The black backgrounds give a positively bizarre effect. However, it seems that covers ought to illustrate the lead-off story. Your December issue was one of the best you have ever published. I was delighted to see a story by E. F. Benson, who has, sadly, been missing from your pages for a long, long time. Benson is one of the modern masters of the weird tale. I like Howard's Conan stories, but I prefer good old Solomon Kane, Howard's earlier brain-child. Run more ghost stories, tales of ghouls, elementals, whimsical fantasies, and less corporeal, adventurous stories. Have more stories of the goose-pimple inducing type. And how about a few stories with settings in the past, and more 'timeless' ones like The Ox-Cart by Frank Owen? The Lady in Gray was the best story in the December number."

A letter from Guy Detrick, of Big Prairie, Ohio, says: "Weird Tales scored a breath-taking hit with me again, especially with the third installment of The Vampire Master, by Hugh Davidson. That in itself was worth the price of the magazine. It is just the kind of story I like. Davidson is certainly to be praised. Why not have another one soon by Hugh B. Cave?" [Mr. Detrick will be happy to know that the cover design in next month’s issue will be based on a story by Mr. Cave, entitled The Black Gargoyle.—The Editors.]

"Cut out the cheap sensational covers," writes Huthbert K. Greely, of Philadelphia. "This month's cover is colorful and attractive without the help of nudity. Are you proselytizing for the nudists?"

"I like Weird Tales," writes H. H. Blade, of San Francisco. "It is a grand magazine and I've read it for as long as I can remember, though I have never written a fan letter before. The best story you ever published was Revelations in Black, by Carl Jacobi, which certainly made a great impression on me. That story was different from anything I have ever read, and I am wondering why you don't have more tales by this author. By all means start an Author's Page in the back of the magazine, and let Mr. Jacobi be the first one to tell about himself." [We certainly do intend to publish more stories by Carl Jacobi. One of them is already scheduled for our April issue.—The Editors.]

A letter from J. B. Dixon, of Little Rock, Arkansas, says: "For some time I have intended writing to commend your covers by Brundage, but kept putting it off until the December cover came along and broke down even my procrastination. At last a cover worthy of the masterpieces published in Weird Tales! A cover that combines the unusual with beauty, and with that gorgeous breath-taking use of color that is Brundage's specialty. For years I saw Weird Tales wearing covers that lamentably failed to measure up to its contents. I had come to the conclusion that pictorial art was not equal to the task and that you should adopt a standard cover, plain, or with at most a symbolic decoration—and then along came Brundage. I have but one objection to this genius of weird art: the grotesque malproportions of many of his female figures. As a particular case in point, consider the inflated bust of the figure on the November cover. My first choice among your authors is Clark Ashton