The Supplement: Frank R. Paul

... and suddenly Chris Foss's 'tropical fish meets sci-fi' aesthetic doesn't seem quite so startling! Introducing the wonderful illustrations and cover art of Frank R. Paul.

"Frank R. Paul was born in Vienna, Austria on April 18, 1884. He died on June 29, 1963 in Teaneck, New Jersey. Known as the "Dean of Science Fiction" he illustrated hundreds of pulp magazine covers & interior illustrations. Born in Austria he studied art in Vienna, Paris & then New York City. He began working for Gernsback Publications doing covers & technical drawings for Gernsback's Electrical Experimenter (later Science & Invention), Radio News & others. He was the natural choice for the covers of Amazing Stories in 1926 & became known as the pre-imminent sf artist of the time, igniting the imagination of many including Al Feldstein who would go on to write, illustrate & edit Weird Science & Weird Fantasy in the 1950's. Paul painted all of the covers for Amazing Stories during Gernsback's ownership of the magazine. When Gernsback was forced to sell in 1929 Paul followed Gernsback to his new company where he painted numerous covers for Science Wonder Stories, Air Wonder Stories, Wonder Stories Quarterly & Wonder Stories. When Gernsback left the pulp field, Paul did covers for other publishers, as well as back covers for Amazing Stories & Fantastic. He did not do much more for the pulps until Gernsback's short lived Science Fiction Plus series in 1954. He appeared sporadically in other sf publications until his death. An interesting note is that sf illustration was just a side job to him. He illustrated many technical books through out his career & it was from them he derived the large part of his income."

From pulpworld.com

For more of Frank R. Paul's cover art go here