A wall calendar indicates the time to come – and simultaneously looks back to the past. Our new calendar picks up on this interdependency: With the images of Frank R. Paul, we go on a stylistic journey through time, back to the first half of the 20th century – and at the same time cast an adventurous glance ahead. From today’s point of view, Paul’s striking visuals mirror both past and future, so a calender is the ideal medium for presenting his illustrations.

Frank R. Paul (1884-1963) is known as the “Father of Science-Fiction Art” and as the first illustrator to depict a space station and a flying saucer. Born in Vienna and educated as an architect, he became famous for the visuals he created for nascent science fiction pulps. His dramatic style, rich in detail of impressive cities of the future, robots, spaceships, and aliens, have been major influences on an entire genre. His oevre includes some 100 artworks for cover and interior pages but is mostly known only to experts and collectors.

With a small selection in this calendar, we make Paul’s colorful utopias visible again. (His work is known for its bright, basic colors, especially reds and yellows. This was partly the product of a cost-savings measure imposed by Gernsback, which often used three-color printing instead of a four-color press. We followed this principle and produced each calendar page with only three printing inks: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow but no Key.) 

Each back side provides a summary of the story, being depicted by the illustration. The calendarium indicates important dates of international SciFi conferences. And all sheets can be detached thanks to a micro-perforation on top of each calender page and used as poster – a great decoration idea for vintage fans!

The calendar is an exclusive gift for our business partners and not for sale. It became part of the collection of the German Calendar Museum in Stuttgart.