From Rochester, New York, Virgil Finlay has been described as "the most popular interior illustrator ever to work in science fiction and fantasy magazines." (170). This reputation grew from the late 1930s.

Finlay's method, influenced by the art of Gustave Dore, was to use a lithographic pen and ink to produce stipple art to create precise groupings of black dots that created a photographic effect. For each one of these interior illustrations, he earned about ten dollars and about one-hundred dollars for cover art.

During the Depression years of the early 1930s, he attended art school at night, studying portraiture and figurative painting. To earn money, he worked as a house painter, rad...