Former pulp artist Gloria Stoll Karn passed away on July 23, 2022.
A resident of Pittsburgh, Gloria was born on November 13, 1923. She was our guest of honor at PulpFest 2017.
In a field dominated by men, it was highly unusual for a woman to be painting covers for pulp magazines. But at age seventeen, Gloria Stoll began contributing black and white interior illustrations to pulp magazines. In a few years, the young artist was painting covers.
It was Rafael DeSoto who inspired Gloria to become a commercial artist and introduced her to Popular Publications. A graduate of New York’s High School of Music and Art, Gloria Stoll began her career doing black and white interior illustrations for Popular. This evolved into painting covers for the publisher’s line of women’s pulps. She contributed covers to Popular’s All-Story Love, Love Book, Love Novels, Love Short Stories, New Love, Rangeland Romances, and Romance Western, as well as Standard Publications’ Thrilling Love.
Beginning in late 1943, Stoll also began painting covers for Popular’s mystery and detective pulps. Her work was featured on Black Mask, Detective Tales, Dime Mystery, and New Detective. In addition, she did interior illustrations for Argosy magazine. The artist continued working in the pulp field until 1949.
In Ms. Stoll Karn’s own words: “Pulp artists were required to come up with ideas for the magazine covers which reflected the general flavor of the stories within. Moving on to painting covers for mystery and detective magazines involved a radical conceptual switch. It was a surprise when I came up with gruesome ideas and concluded that, within the human psyche, there is a shadow side of which we are often unaware. I am grateful that my work struck a balance which uncovered the dark side within, along with the light side depicting the joys of romance.”
In 2019, WQED Pittsburgh featured Gloria in a documentary about women artists residing in the Pittsburgh region. You’ll find her segment here on YouTube.
You can find Gloria’s obituary at The Daily Cartoonist site. Memorial gifts may be made to the North Hills Art Center, 3432 Babcock Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA 15237.
One of Gloria Stoll’s pulp covers graced the December 1943 issue of Popular Publications’ Love Short Stories. Painted during the Second World War, it was one of several covers by Gloria depicting members of the United States military. Her cover for the July 1944 Dime Mystery Magazine is one of 14 covers she contributed to the Popular Publications pulp between 1943 and 1946.
Thanks to Denny Lien and Curt Phillips for drawing our attention to Gloria’s passing.
