‘Towton’: New Cover Art by Steve R Gagnon

A Call to Action

Towton by cover artist Steve R Gagnon calls us across the battlefield and into Pulp Literature Issue 46, Spring 2025.

With an interest in history and images that transport viewers to another time and place, Steve R Gagnon’s Towton presents us with an image from the series Battles and Aftermaths, which juxtaposes the implacable finality of war against the delicate resilience of nature. His painting Vimy, from the same series, was the cover of Pulp Literature Issue 24, Autumn 2019. 

Towton

Towton by Steve R Gagnon

 

And, here’s a look at what you will find in our spring issue …

Cover artist Steve R Gagnon’s raven calls across the Towton battlefield, summoning heroes in many guises.

In our feature story, ‘The Storm Tastes of Freedom’ by Finnian Burnett, and in ‘Chardi Kala for the Modern Dirtbag’ by Kiran K Basra, unlikely heroines fight through different realities for the lives they deserve.

Deception, skulduggery, and shifting personae abound in ‘The Suicide Mission’ by KR Segriff, and in ‘Fire at the Castello’ by Mel Anastasiou, the first instalment of a brand-new Monument Studios Mystery starring our favourite silver-screen sleuth, Frankie Ray.

Horror writers EC Dorgan and Patrick Barb, back for encore performances, continue to make us question identities and reality in ‘The Myth of the Familiar’ and ‘Playdate’, while family myths and truths loom large in ‘The Orangery’ by Mark Gallacher and Part II of ‘Their Grandfather’s Chair’ by JM Landels.

This issue is also jam-packed with contest-winning heroes, from Michael Carson, whose ‘Darth Vader vs Testicular Cancer’ kept the Jack Whyte Storyteller Award judges Diana Gabaldon and Donald Maass in stitches, to the sparkling Kingfisher poets Sandra Kasturi, Angelle McDougall, Nicole Moen, and Callista Markotich, to the Raven Contest high-flyers Shanley Kearnley and Emily Groot.

And finally, we bring you a small, silent hero who makes his way through a strange and beautiful world in Part II of The Drift, written and drawn by Jordan Bray.

Gird your loins, brave readers, and step into universes of wonder!

Get Pulp Literature Issue 46, Spring 2025 here!

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Steve R Gagnon

A graphic designer by trade, Steve R Gagnon majored in illustration and graduated from the Université de Laval in Québec in 1987. An acclaimed creative and art director in the advertising world, he is drawn more and more to his first loves: painting, drawing, and sculpture. He has a particular interest in history and images that transport the viewer to another time and place. Our cover image, Towton, showing a raven perched on a mediaeval longsword, is from the series Battles and Aftermaths, which juxtaposes the implacable finality of war against the delicate resilience of nature. His painting Vimy, from the same series, was the cover of Pulp Literature Issue 24, Autumn 2019. Find more of Steve’s work on Instagram @stevergagnon.