Robert Fuqua
(January 30, 1905–September 1, 1959)
“Robert Fuqua” was the penname of Joseph Wirt Tillotson, a prominent sf illustrator of the 1930s and ’40s, known for his work for the Chicago-based pulp magazine publisher, Ziff-Davis Publications. He painted covers and drew interior illos for such prozines as Fantastic Adventures and Amazing Stories. From 1938 to 1951, he painted 25 Amazing color covers.
Forry Ackerman remembered originals of Fuqua’s work being auctioned at Chicon in 1940, donated by Amazing editor Ray Palmer.
Born in Greenville, Mississippi, Tillotson studied at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago in a two-year program, then worked in Chicago at an advertising agency. He opened his own small ad agency, and to earn extra income, sold freelance illustrations. Concerned with jeopardizing his reputation in the advertising world, he used the Fuqua pseudonym, his maternal grandfather's name, for his pulp work.
He married Marian Tillotson, a sociology professor at the University of Chicago.
When in 1949, Ziff-Davis having moved to New York, Ray Palmer launched Other Worlds and Imagination in Chicago, Tillotson did their black-and-white interior illustrations and signed them with his real name, “Tillotson.”
He died of cancer at just 54 years old.
| Person | 1905—1959 |
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