The Weird Tales website is proud to present the following rare interview with Margaret Brundage (1900-1976), the queen of Weird Tales artists and the illustrator whose work is most associated with the magazine. The interview was conducted in Chicago on August 23, 1973 by R. Alain Everts. Its initial publication was in Etchings & Odysseys #2. It appears here by the kind courtesy of Mr. Everts.

Margaret Brundage, circa 1930

Everts: Please tell me something about your background. Brundage: I was born in Chicago on 9 December, 1900 - my full name at birth was Margaret Hedda Johnson. On the one side, my mother's side, I'm Scots. On my father's side, Swedish. I went to McKinley High School, with Walt Disney. Of course, I finished; he didn't. He lied about his age to get into the Army in World War I. But we both went to art school together, to the Chicago Academy of Fine Art. I was there, I think, about 1921-1922-1923 or so, along there somewhere. I was considered one of their better students. I don't think I ever got their certificate of graduation, because I could never letter. Never! My lettering is the world's worst. Everts: Was this a four-year course? Brundage: No, it was a two-year course. After I finished the Academy, I was doing freelance -- fashion designs for various newspapers. I was married in 1927 to Slim Brundage, and had one son, born shortly thereafter [Kerlyn Byrd Brundage (1927-1972)]. Everts: You brought in some fashion designs for Weird Tales?

Brundage: No, I was trying to break away from fashion. I was trying to get out of the black & white, and if possible, into color. I looked up Weird Tales - one of the many magazines published here in Chicago with editorial offices also here in Chicago -- so I looked up Weird Tales. It was the one I hit on. I didn't know that they published Oriental Tales, but I just happened to have a drawing of an Oriental dancer in my samples, and they must have talked it over and decided to give me a job, even though they knew I knew nothing about color reproduction.

Everts: The illustration that you brought in, of the Oriental dancer, was that used as a cover illustration?

Brundage: No, it was the wrong size. It just simply gave the idea that if I could draw an Oriental dancer, I could do Oriental Tales covers. Then they changed the name of Oriental Tales to Magic Carpet. In fact, not so long after I started work with them.

Everts: So you did covers first for Oriental Tales?

Brundage: Yes, for Oriental Tales, and then for Weird Tales. Weird Tales continued throughout. Until, I think, about two years before I stopped working for them I got just about every other cover of Weird Tales to illustrate. Later, Virgil Finlay got the other ones. It was partly my fault -- you know, you get something and take it for granted. And you're not quite as careful as you might be. And I did not know that I had a competitor in the offing. And they asked me, I remember, on one occasion to make the cover extra nice. Well, it just so happened that another artist had told me that they had a different type of paper from the one I was using [which] would be better for the cover. So I went into the new paper. And it wasn't a success. After that mistake, Virgil Finlay got many of the covers. Finlay was absolutely wonderful in black-and-white, but in color, he wasn't so hot. But he was Mrs. [Farnsworth] Wright's nephew, or some close relative.

Everts: You must recall Farnsworth Wright quite well from this period. Brundage: Oh yes! Well, he was a perfectly wonderful man. Even at this period, he was very far gone with his disease -- Parkinson's Disease. He was a very tall man, six feet, three or four inches, with a boyish face. Everts: How bad was his Parkinson's Disease? Brundage: Well, he had this stumbling gait, and an extremely bad palsy. Of course, I did not know then, but one day he told me he had acquired it like sleeping sickness from the bite of a Tsetse fly. He had a wonderful sense of humor -- I saw him about once a month for many years, so came to know him well. He was very much attached to his wife and his little boy.

Farnsworth Wright

Everts: What about Bill Sprenger?

Brundage: He was short, and dark and very kind. They both knew that when Weird Tales was going to move to New York, that I would be left in a financial bind, since my husband and I were separated, and they knew he was worthless, at least for financial support - and here I was with a kid to raise. Sprenger kept in touch with me for about five years after Weird Tales moved to New York, and showed a great deal of concern about my situation.

Margaret Brundage, circa 1952

Everts: What was Farnsworth Wright like as a person? Brundage: He had a rather keen sense of humor. Well, I don't know whether you'd care to publish this, since Mrs. Wright probably wouldn't like it, but he liked risqué, even dirty stories. He saved them up for me, and I saved them up, any I'd heard, for him. I think she [Mrs. Wright] was a pretty prim woman - I don't know, I never met her. I only gathered that. Everts: I think that I'd heard that Farnsworth Wright enjoyed a risqué story at times. Brundage: At times? Any time! Everts: What about Sprenger? Was he the opposite? Brundage: No, Mr. Sprenger used to conduct the business. And frequently he would be in the room -- see, they had two rooms, the business room and the editorial room - and he would frequently stick around the editorial room.

But I can never recall Sprenger recounting a risqué story. He would laugh. He was perfectly wonderful to Mr. Wright. He had a car and used to pick him up and drive him home. At least, toward the end. I knew Farnsworth for a period of five years.

Everts: Do you recall the most controversial Weird Tales cover? Brundage: We had one issue [the September, 1933 issue] that sold out! It was the story of a very vicious female, getting a-hold of the heroine and tying her up and beating her. Well, the public apparently thought it was flagellation and the entire issue sold out. They could have used a couple of thousand extra. Everts: Did you choose that scene to illustrate? Brundage: You see, I would submit about three different pencil sketches. And they would make the selection of the one I was to do in color. Once in a while I would suggest a little color in my sketches, but most of the time [pause] well, they were very rough. And yes, they chose the scene. I didn't. Having read the story, the thought of flagellation never entered my head. I don't think it had theirs either. But it turned out that way. Everts: What models did you use for these nudes - your imagination?

Brundage: Mostly my imagination, yep. Once in a while, I would get - have a friend pose for me. But… mostly it was out of my head. And, for the male figures, I would pick my husband to pose for a while. But to hire models, no, I'm afraid I didn't. But I did give them the impression that I did hire models. But I never came right out and said, "I hired a model." But if they thought I had a live model, it would cause me less trouble with anatomical problems. Now, I knew anatomy -- I don't know whether I know it that well now -- but I taught it for a couple of years, so that I really knew my anatomy. Like all inexperienced people with art, they would find a flaw that really isn't a flaw -- you know what I mean? -- something about the picture that bothered them. And they'll pick out something -- and probably the thing they pick out is perfect, but something else is really wrong. And they make you correct the one thing, and it worsens the picture really. The artist could have told them what was wrong. Well, this happens all the time in commercial art. The person buying will find something wrong with it nine times out of ten. But that's not really what's wrong.

Everts: What size color illustration did they want?

Brundage: I usually gave it to them twice the size of the cover. Sometimes, and it depended on the cover, it would be more -- two and a half, three times the cover. There was always a reduction. And the rate of pay was always $90 per cover. Everts: How long did it take you to draw each cover? Brundage: It would be impossible to give general estimates, because some took much longer than others. A single figure, oh, I guess I could knock out in a week, if I kept right at it. But you understand that while I was doing this, I was keeping house, raising a son, taking care of a crippled mother. So that I could never sit down and draw for a week. In other words, it was come and go with it. Everts: What inspiration did you use for the exotic covers, the clothing, the monsters? Brundage: In almost every instance, just off the top of my head. Everts: What are the advantages and disadvantages of working in pastels as you exclusively did?

Brundage: For one thing, I didn't know beans about oils. And I was good in pastels. Watercolors, well, even pastels, you cannot make corrections. Oil is the best of all mediums for making corrections. You can go over and over and so on. But I liked the soft medium. I've always liked it. But they smudge terribly.

Like for Weird Tales, I had a little box-like affair made for them with cardboard backing, for taking them to the offices. I used a sandy paper for drawing on. I never worked with the engravers - never even saw them. Everts: Did Weird Tales ever tell you to touch over your nudes or any of the covers at all? Brundage: Oh yes, I made corrections. Quite a few - usually it would be on the hands or the feet. Now, I'm good on feet, but I wasn't good on hands. I'm still not good on hands. Once in a while, they would want something brought out a little more distinctly. But nine times out of ten, they accepted the cover just as it was. Everts: Were you ever asked to start covering your nudes a bit? Brundage: I was never asked to, no. One funny thing did happen. One of the authors -- well, Weird Tales asked me to make larger and larger breasts -- larger than I would have liked to -- well, one cover, one of the authors wrote in and said that things were getting a little bit out of line. And even for an old expert like him, the size of the breastwork was getting a little too large.

Margaret Brundage, circa 1973

Everts: What happened when Weird Tales moved to New York? Brundage: I lost the contract. You see, Mr. Wright no longer had complete say over Weird Tales. It was bought by a syndicate. And they had a good deal to say about it. And also there was a time limit there. Now, you see, they would send me the story. I would have to read it, get the rough sketches done, and get them back to them, and they would make their selection. Then, I would have to make the drawing. In the first place, pastels don't ship well. In other words, I would have to go into another medium. And, we tried it with one month, with a pastel that got pretty well-battered up in transit. And it had to be shipped back to me for corrections. And, well it got back to them messed up again. And by that time, the engraver was going crazy since he had a time limit as well -- see, we only worked two months in advance. In other words, from the time I drew the cover to the time it hit the stands was two months. And that was not much time. After Mr. Wright died, the new editor contacted me and I did one cover in oil -- but it wasn't as good as my best. Well, I guess they didn't like it very well. They paid me for it, but I never heard from them.

© 1973, 1981 The Strange Co. for R. Alain Everts

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