Listen now | Episode 2: My Journey as a Pulp Illustrator — and Why You Should Keep Creating. In this episode, I share how I create vintage-style pulp art from scratch—and why staying true to your creative journey matters more than ever in an age of endless social media perfection.
A big part of the appeal of pulp era art for me is that blockiness. I love the raw energy that jumps out the art from that era. It matches the speed the artist had to work to meet fight publication deadlines, and the party had to have drama and pizazz because it was the first thing the reader saw. It had to hook them immediate!
Exactly right! There were many magazines on the newsstands and each one had to stand out to its readers. In bookstores today we tend to look at a gestalt of colors and they seem quite harmonious across the shelves. And online, all we really see are the covers and those covers tend to look relatively similar in terms of color and design. This is deliberate, of course, for contemporary readers want the security of knowing they'll like the book at a glance. A woman tied to the side of a running horse which is also carrying explosives (an actual cover, btw) would be a shock, an affront and, if not cartoony, would feel unsafe. Ignoring those facts and exploring the art for myself is a fascinating journey of discovery not only for the skills, but as a mirror for modern society.
I remember seeing a video not too long ago about how books have no identity. Because of the reasons you mention, and the path of least resistance that tech encourages, covers tend to not have the same general look, but very few have a striking and creative design of feel to them.
Yes, and now with AI homogeneity will win the day. Unless us artists are vigilant and don't give up our identities to despair and ease of AI. We must not give up.
That's true. AI mixes from 1000s of resources and sometimes jams things in a non-harmonius way. It's not looking for a way to connect influences, just looking to fulfill a command. Perhaps one way forward is to use AI in combination with traditional methods and create something that makes peace with both methods.
Perhaps. We will see... At the end of the day though it depends upon people. Not just artists but the people who want the art/writing. I mean, who in their right mind would want to take credit for an AI-written story? I can't imagine it, unless the person has no desire but a cheap road to "success," whatever that means to them. Fame for free. Makes me laugh, actually.
Then you're going to love this. I don't know if you remember last summer. This briefly trended about a dude in Scotland who not only staged a sad amusement show that was an outright ripoff of the Roald Dahl Charlie and the Chocolate Factory universe, but he's put out a dozen novels that are AI written and the cover art is a AI generated.
I can't even articulate the multiple levels of plagiarism this man casually commits with no issues. But this YouTuber looks it over in a hilarious way.
A big part of the appeal of pulp era art for me is that blockiness. I love the raw energy that jumps out the art from that era. It matches the speed the artist had to work to meet fight publication deadlines, and the party had to have drama and pizazz because it was the first thing the reader saw. It had to hook them immediate!
Exactly right! There were many magazines on the newsstands and each one had to stand out to its readers. In bookstores today we tend to look at a gestalt of colors and they seem quite harmonious across the shelves. And online, all we really see are the covers and those covers tend to look relatively similar in terms of color and design. This is deliberate, of course, for contemporary readers want the security of knowing they'll like the book at a glance. A woman tied to the side of a running horse which is also carrying explosives (an actual cover, btw) would be a shock, an affront and, if not cartoony, would feel unsafe. Ignoring those facts and exploring the art for myself is a fascinating journey of discovery not only for the skills, but as a mirror for modern society.
I remember seeing a video not too long ago about how books have no identity. Because of the reasons you mention, and the path of least resistance that tech encourages, covers tend to not have the same general look, but very few have a striking and creative design of feel to them.
Yes, and now with AI homogeneity will win the day. Unless us artists are vigilant and don't give up our identities to despair and ease of AI. We must not give up.
That's true. AI mixes from 1000s of resources and sometimes jams things in a non-harmonius way. It's not looking for a way to connect influences, just looking to fulfill a command. Perhaps one way forward is to use AI in combination with traditional methods and create something that makes peace with both methods.
Perhaps. We will see... At the end of the day though it depends upon people. Not just artists but the people who want the art/writing. I mean, who in their right mind would want to take credit for an AI-written story? I can't imagine it, unless the person has no desire but a cheap road to "success," whatever that means to them. Fame for free. Makes me laugh, actually.
Then you're going to love this. I don't know if you remember last summer. This briefly trended about a dude in Scotland who not only staged a sad amusement show that was an outright ripoff of the Roald Dahl Charlie and the Chocolate Factory universe, but he's put out a dozen novels that are AI written and the cover art is a AI generated.
I can't even articulate the multiple levels of plagiarism this man casually commits with no issues. But this YouTuber looks it over in a hilarious way.
https://youtu.be/heDU9f5x_dg?si=O3lvoATmDrBgzKm8