Charles Schneeman (SHNAY-man) was born in New York in 1912. He got a degree in art from the Pratt
Institute in Brooklyn in 1933. By that time, he was already interested in science fiction.
"A friend showed me an early copy of Amazing Stories in 1927 and it was my undoing. The world
lost a chemist as I went down the science fiction drain", he wrote. He started drawing for
Wonder Stories in 1934 and for Astounding in 1935. In 1938 he had his first cover,
for "The Legion of Time" by Jack Williamson, and at that time he met John Campbell.
In World War II he illustrated Army Air Corps technical manuals and discussed doing a comic
strip with Isaac Asimov. (The sample I saw is very much on the Milton Caniff line.) After
the war, he worked for the New York Journal-American and the Denver Post and then moved to
Los Angeles. He asked to show his work to 20th Century Fox and got a snotty rejection letter.
Schneeman died in Pasadena in 1972.
Between 1938 and 1952 he had illustrated a LOT of Astounding issues.
Copyright estate of Charles
Schneeman
"Gray Lensman" by E.E. Smith, Kimball Kinneson, Tregonsee, and a crocodilian Worsel, who doesn't look right at all!
Copyright estate of Charles
Schneeman
October 1939, "Gray Lensman" by E.E.Smith, Helmuth and Lan of the Eich.
Copyright estate of Charles
Schneeman
1940, "The Red Death of Mars" by Robert Moore Williams.
Copyright estate of Charles
Schneeman
April 1941, "The Mutineers" by L. Ron Hubbard. I'm assured that the spaceship is only
banged up, and is not changing into monsters, so I guess they're subliminals.
Schneeman's work influenced a lot of how we picture science fiction now in art and movies. I got to see an exhibit of his art, and I loved it.
