the Weird Art of Lee Brown Coye - Part 3

A few of my friends have asked me to post more Lee Brown Coye art. At first I feared for not having enough top shelf material, but digging through my paper goods at home has proven to be quite fruitful; and I have two full posts of Mr. Coye's art that I have yet to deliver: his best art for Whispers and his astounding cover art for Arkham House. Below is the Lee Brown Coye art for the entire "Sleep No More" book, edited by Arkham House's own Mr. August Derleth (he did a few like this for other publishers, sometimes with Coye art as well). Coye did art specifically for each story and the results are superb. Each story is listed with author after its respective illustration. Enjoy!

Now this is the kind of page I like to see when I open a book!




From August Derleth's forward.


M.R. James' "Count Magnus"

Henry S. Whitehead's "Cassius"

Algernon Blackwood's "The Occupant of the Room"

Clark Ashton Smith's "the Return of the Sorcerer"

Thomas Burke's "Johnson Looked Back"

Howard Wandrei's "the Hand of the O'Mecca"

H.R. Wakefield's "He Cometh and He Passeth By"

John Collier's "Thus I Refute Beelzy"

Robert Bloch's "the Mannikin"

Wilfred Blanch Talman's "Two Black Bottles"
M.P. Shiel's "the House of Sounds"

Carl Jacobi's "the Cane"

Hazel Heald's "the Horror in the Burying Ground"

Maurice Level's "the Kennel"



Both from Robert W. Chambers' "the Yellow Sign"

Robert E. Howard's "the Black Stone"

Alfred Noyes' "Midnight Express"

Stephen Grendon's "A Gentleman from Prague"


Frank Belknap Long's " the Black Druid"



Both from H.P. Lovecraft's "Rats in the Walls"

"Weird Gold", or "Antique Sideshow"

My friend Miriam has a philosophy (in the form of a question) - "How can anyone really think that everything's been done, seen and heard?" And it's true - the internet will never catch up, try as it might. The antithesis of her philosophy exists of course because there's people out there who'd rather be in control and keep a status quo even in the underground. The very moment one gives into this insidious closed-mindedness he or she dis-invites the possibility to discover all the the incredible shit that IS out there in the world. It's never-ending, and that's a damn fact - but you have to look for it!

Click on all of these (as well as everything on my blog here) to see a super huge (nearly perverse!) version of the scan.


I love this sheet music illustration, wonderfully representing a tone that Richard Sala seems to have no problem tapping into.

A Monster-clad Halloween give-away bag. I missed out on the "2 Monsters 1 Super Toy Plus Candy" though.




These are spectacular iron-ons and hang in Craig's and my apartment right under the original Mike Diana cover art for "Pray for Scars". They were in new condition because the guy I bought them off of had store stock! Talk about a score.


I've seen a whole mess of different sets of those eyes, which were give-aways with Butter-Nut Bread. The three eyed madman at the bottom there is one of a set of collectible circular cards from 1960's Japan. I'm fairly ignorant of that world so I don't have any other info, but if anyone does it would be quite welcome.


All too rare is the meeting of the Gothic and the Psychedelic; but there's decent tinges in the Corman/Poe/Price masterpieces. Lancer published these book "adaptations" in the 60's and really gave them a gloriously cheesy and bright psych feel. I need the other titles!



This slightly sinister wizard is the other side of the Witch mask that started us off. Wonderful art on both of them, I have a feeling it could've been a known comic artist doing some commercial work but no hunch who. Mr. Bhob Stewart, any leads?

The Weird Art of Milton Luros

I picked up this SF pulp not too long ago for the excellent cover illustration. It's by Milton Luros, whom I'd never heard of. Further investigation reveals that Luros became a huge figure in the porn industry starting in the 60's and is even comes up in the book "The Other Hollywood". I'll have to look at that index when I get home! Sorry about the awful condition of the book, by the way ...

More Weird Art from Lee Brown Coye

In fact, it looks like I'm going to have to post a whole third entry on the genius Mr. Coye. At least. This first batch is more from the essential fanzine Whispers, who did a special issue on Coye that I'll scan in it's near entirety for LBC Ch. III.







The scans below are from Weird Tales (Nov. 1949, the issue pictured in the Matt Fox post). He kept on doing Weirdisms all throughout the years, you can A/B his 70's ones against his 40's ones yourself now!