Oddly Strange

This illustration was recently found in a private collection of disgarded commercial art. It was intended for the cover of the first issue of Strange Ventriloquy magazine, which was to be published in the fall of 1916 (the final magazine version would have had the price, month and mention of the highlights of the issue).

Though unsigned, it is most certainly the work of Lamuel Stongo. Stongo's work can be found on quite a few of the cheap magazines of the time; he'd find work with budget conscious editors who knew where to find him: The Hyderlinc Insane Asylum. Stongo worked cheap, accepting the payment of one cat's eye marble for a magazine cover.

Strange Ventriloquy, which pomised "The Best In Strange Ventriloquy Fiction" never actually found it's way onto the news stands (there being an apparent dearth of authors specializing in strange ventriloquy stories), but it does have the distinction of being the first TeleNet Magazine. The TeleNet was an early 20th Century precurser to our modern Internet. Not much is known about TeleNet Magazines, except that the process involved the use of the Telegraph and very fast sketch artists.

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Pics from 4/8/09