PAUL, Frank R(udolph)

(1884-1963)

   Austrian-born US illustrator. FRP is the best candidate for "Father of Modern SF ILLUSTRATION", at least in the form it took in the PULP MAGAZINES. He received much of his education in Vienna, and studied also in Paris and New York. Trained as an architect, he was discovered by Hugo GERNSBACK in 1914 while working for a rural newspaper. Their nameshave been virtually inseparable ever since the days of The Electrical Experimenter (SCIENCE AND INVENTION). For \#1 of AMAZING STORIES in Apr1926 FRP not only painted the cover illustration but did all the interior black-and-white artwork as well, and continued to do both until Gernsback lost control of the magazine in 1929. When Gernsback started publishing again later that year, FRP was once more his primary illustrator, on SCIENCE WONDER STORIES, AIR WONDER STORIES and then WONDER STORIES;indeed, his association with Gernsback lasted until the short-lived Science Fiction Plus in 1953; he painted more than 150 covers forGernsback in all. He worked elsewhere, too, with a further 28 front covers for various non-Gernsback SF MAGAZINES, including all 12 for Charles D. HORNIG's SCIENCE FICTION, and also a series of full colour back-coverpaintings for the ZIFF-DAVIS Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures (1939-46). He also did all the illustration for Superworld Comics, aGernsback experiment of 1939.FRP's style shows his architectural training; his CITIES and TECHNOLOGY are lovingly detailed, his ALIENS well thought out and plausible, but his human figures stiff and simplistic. His colours were bright (almost garish, even for the period) and flat, and he liked pure reds and yellows, particularly as backgrounds (though this was partly due to Gernsback's meanness in using three- rather than four-colour printing). It seems odd to associate primitive art with sf, but FRP was in his technological way, just as much a primitive as Grandma Moses (1860-1961) and, like her, had an authentic naive poetry to his work. Thebrightness of colour throughout the PULP-MAGAZINE era of sf was a direct result of FRP's influence. FRP was guest of honour at the first World SF CONVENTION in 1939.

   JG/PN

   See also: SPACESHIPS.