Combat Gallery Sunday: Some of the Best Pulp Fiction Covers..from Mort
Mort Künstler is one of the most respected military art masters in modern US history. Odds are if you have ever stopped and admired a Civil War painting, it may have come from Mort.
You may recognize his art from this painting of the CSS Hunley just before its last mission
You can almost feel the tension in the air for those brave submariners on this human powered submersible
Or in his more modern works such as this one of the Alaska Air National Guard
Guarding for polar bears while your C130 on skies unloads supplies. I’m cold just looking at this…
But what you may not know is that he cut his teeth on a whole ‘nother category of military art.
Born in 1931, he started off doing covers for men’s adventure magazines (aka pulp fiction type books) in the 1950s and 60s. Although he often used pen names, some of his better works he signed his own to and they are just really great stuff.
Nothing like a M1 Garand, a M1918 BAR, pineapple grenades, and belts of 30.06 LMG food to put some swagger on your cigar
With that in mind, what follows is a few of his works from back in the pulp days. You see a lot of Tommy Guns, and a good bit of guest appearances from BARs, M1s, M3 Grease guns, Short Magazine Lee Enfields, and of course, Luger P08s.
Enjoy!
