Pete Beard’s Video Channel
A great find on YouTube
This is the Rocketeer. This week I’m going to point you toward a YouTube channel that I like a great deal. I think you will like it, too. I’ll admit it, I’m a snob when it comes to inquiry. I have no time for shoddy research, plagiarists, or people who hype a lot but say very little. Therefore, I find many of the videos on YouTube, and other platforms, to be lukewarm, at best. Certainly, I have seen many good videos about pulp stories, in fact I can recommend the PulpFest channel which has a variety of excellent visual tours through the work of various pulp artists. And some folks do a good job with some things, but good videos about the art are rare, in my opinion. Unfortunately many of them say the same things—The art is so bright and colorful! Look at the half-dressed girls! People still love and collect the art! The art is exploitive to women! Sigh Some videos highlight particular stories, or writers, or artists. But the level of research is often pretty shallow if not cobbled directly from some other source. But this week I stumbled across a channel that is much better! The videos are packed with well-researched information and the presentation is delightful.
The Pete Beard Video Channel has a large selection of well- produced and well-researched videos about all sorts of illustrators, including a long series called, “Unsung Heroes of Illustration.” Right up my ally! But amongst these highly entertaining and informative videos there are a few about the pulp era. For what it’s worth, I give them my golden seal of approval Mr. Beard’s videos. I have seen no other videos concerning either Virgil Finlay or Edd Cartier that I have liked as well.
Here is compressed version of the what Mr. Beard has to say about himself:
“I decided to make some videos about a few of these almost forgotten talents. ‘The Unsung Heroes’ video series highlights illustrators born between 1850 and 1910. I’ve also created some videos about individual illustrators, personal favorites, mostly but not exclusively from the early 20th century. In other videos I cover illustrators working on children's book illustrations, advertising, art deco or certain historical periods. If it's illustration then it has my interest. And I very much hope it has yours, too.”
Here are a selection of his videos about the pulp era:
THE SENSATIONAL ART OF PULP MAGAZINES HD 1080p
THE FANTASY ILLUSTRATIONS OF VIRGIL FINLAY HD 1080p
THE PULP ILLUSTRATIONS OF EDD CARTIER HD 1080p
UNSUNG HEROES OF ILLUSTRATION 71 HD 1080p
(This video includes a section about Walter Baumhofer)
Mr. Beard told me he plans to do a video about Emmett Watson sometime soon. I’m looking forward to that one as Watson was a very talented illustrator, known for both his Argosy, Railroad Stories, and Detective Weekly Fiction covers during the 1930’s. Here are a few of Watson’s pulp covers so you can get to know him a bit beforehand.
I hope you enjoy Pete Beard’s channel and videos as much as I have.
This is the Rocketeer signing off for today.