Ace of Pulp: Rudolph Belarski

Rudolph Belarski (born 27 May 1900 in Dupont, Pennsylvania - died 24 December 1983) was a renowned artist of pulp magazine, paperback and men's adventure magazine covers.

Belarski’s professional career started with a simple illustration on a whitewashed wall at a Dupont, Pennsylvania coal processing plant. Once the artwork was discovered his bosses set him to painting safety posters while still in his teens. At the age of 21 he enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York to fine tune his enormous talents. The management at Pratt Institute was so impressed with his talents, in 1929, several years after he had graduated, Belarski was invited back to teach commercial art.

It was in the late 20’s that pulp magazines beckoned while he was still instructing at the Pratt. Pulpwood magazines had a voracious appetite for artwork, as newsstands were filled monthly with their provocative four-color covers. His first covers were destined for the air pulps being published by Dell. Aviation covers dominated Belarski’s easel with only a few exceptions until the mid-30’s when he started doing covers for Ned Pines and the Thrilling Group of titles. The number of titles being produced by Thrilling far exceeded those being produced by Dell, and Rudolph Belarski was one of the main illustrators for the publisher.

Early in 1937 Frank A. Munsey Company, publisher of Argosy and several detective titles, commissioned Belarski for their magazines, while still hard at work on covers for Thrilling. It was during busy times that Belarski would split his time between New York and cabins in Maine or Canada. Painting covers in the light of day while camping. Sometimes polishing off a canvas and shipping it out in a cardboard box overnight.