One of the artist's jobs in narrative illustration is to portray the peak moment in the tale being told. This is especially true in action genres: stories about gangsters committing crimes, battles at sea or in space, cowboys in a heap of trouble, and Indians faring even worse.

From the early days of illustrated magazines such as Harper's Monthly and Century, dramatic conflicts in the Wild West, which were current events, to the advent of mass market paperback Westerns, artists have depicted desperadoes and gunplay with myth-serving verve.

Both World Wars provided fodder for illustrated violence on a global scale - doomed and valiant warriors, flying torpedoes, thrusting guns in violent seas. The sea - mighty and tempestuous - has been the subject of much desperate action. Battles against waves and wind required skills, both by the men depicted and by the artists who convincingly drafted water, foam, and spray.

From Prohibition mobsters to blaxploitation movie posters in the 1970s, the noir underbelly of urban life has provided artists with a wide range of opportunities for going to the dark side.

Though much of genre action illustration appeared in the pulps and magazines like True and Real, and was geared to a male audience, family publications such as The Saturday Evening Post and Reader's Digest also provided their share of thrills for the general reader.