Not a Miss But a Myth

Three people, two clearly mammalian
One creepy thing, near to an alien
No red on that blade --
Not dead but unmade?
Asleep, till appears her Pygmalion.

Donald B. Benson

Out of This World Adventures #2, December 1950. Cover art by James Bama. A pulp magazine which also featured a comics section, with stories by Joe Kubert, Gardner Fox, and John Giunta.

Guy, Robot

To their rocket this robot will scamper
Without knocking, he'll probe him, and clamp her
Seems this thing made of cans
Is a swinger with plans
A mad doc with his program did tamper.

Out of This World #1, 1950. Cover art by Gene Fawcette. It's OUT OF THIS WORLD WEEK!

Heavenly Body Heat

Her spacesuit is highly impractical.
And yet, it is totally tactical.
Though decent and pure
More readers she'll lure
When drawn to imply she's sex-actable.

Donald B. Benson

Sci-Fi Thighs

On planet where dresses are short
Anne Francis is man's fav'rite sport
When astronauts land
Anne's more than they planned
and soon they begin to cavort


As the lovely Altaira Morbius in Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956), actress Anne Francis looked straight out of a painted Planet Stories pulp cover, or an EC science fiction comics story drawn by Wally Wood. Also pictured is the not-unattractive Leslie Nielsen. Image source: Fantastic Flashbacks.

Acid Testing, One, Two...

In dungeon a fiend starts to pour
hot acid on gal chained to floor
The bars slowly bend
it looks like the end...
Don't make 'em like this anymore

Pleasant Under Glass

The Pulps would imprison a lassie
in cells that were see-through and glassy
And through them reveal
transparent appeal
of scantily clad cutie’s chassis

Edd Cartier, R.I.P.

An artist of humor and grace
at home in a swamp or in space
The great Cartier
alas, passed away
A master fantastic, an ace

Edward Daniel Cartier passed away
on Christmas Day.

According to pulp historian Anthony Tollin,
“Edd was one of the all-time greatest pulp
illustrators, legendary for his whimsical work
on John W. Campbell's Unknown and Astounding
Science Fiction and 800 illustrations for The
Shadow Magazine. He also drew stories for
Street & Smith's Red Dragon and Super-Magician
Comics.

“The favorite artist of Astounding editor John
W. Campbell and writer L. Ron Hubbard, Cartier
also illustrated the beloved Hoka tales by Poul
Anderson and Gordon R. Dickson, and stories by
John D. MacDonald, Isaac Asimov, Henry Kuttner,
L. Sprague de Camp, Clifford D. Simak, Walter B.
Gibson, Lester Dent and many others."