Futuristic Stories 1 - N. Wesley Firth, Earl Ellison & Rice Ackerman (Hamiltons UK, 1947)

Contents

The Lords of Zorm By N. Wesley Firth

Laughter of The Gods By Earl Ellison

The Timeless Dimension By Rice Ackerman

Managed to track down the first issue of this UK Pulp (I believe it lasted two issues?) Contains the three short stories above, is it worth a read? yes because it's a pretty thin book and it's very childlike in it's nature.

The main area of interest for me is the cover artwork, another stunning piece by H.W. Perl who was one of the major cover artists of the 1940's/50's. Here he takes the tin man from The Wizard of Oz, adds a couple of old broomsticks for legs and KAPOW! you have cool spacey looking robots.

I love Perl's artwork because of it's primitive nature. His slight subversion of everyday items to create his Sci-Fi universe. On The cover it looks like a typical 1940's fireman/woman plonked on a red fire engine, zapping the robot with stage lights.

Sublime interior artwork, could be Perl? and a vintage add for Joan The Wad, a Cornish piksey lucky charm.  The add appeared in just about every pulp book from the Mushroom era. The third image is Hamilton's book crest that appears on the reverse.