The following Christmas Cards were hand-drawn and colored by Rankin and sent to E. Hoffmann Price during the decade of the 40s, and into the early years of the fifties. These examples are reproduced from black and white photo copies made by Price (who, in addition to being one of the top pulp writers, was a professional photographer) and given to Jerry Burge for publication in the fan-journal Flashback. As far as we know, they've never before been published.Hugh Rankin (1878 - 1956)
illustrated for Weird Tales magazine during the period when it was edited by the legendary Farnsworth Wright, the twenties and thirrties. That was the period that saw the best work of H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, Seabury Quinn, Edmond Hamilton, Otis Adelbert Kline, E. Hoffmann Price and dozens of other great fantasy writers. There is a chapter devoted to Rankin in E. Hoffmann Price's book of reminiscences, Book of the Dead (Arkham House, 2001).