If you missed the Plant Monsters of Astounding…
The Plant Monsters of Amazing Stories (from 1929-1939) give us the story of two editors: T. O’Conor Sloane and Ray A. Palmer. Hugo Gernsback started Amazing Stories in 1926 but lost the magazine in early 1929. His last issue was April 1929. The Pulp was bought by the Teck chain and published it until April 1938. By June 1938, the magazine would be purchased again, this time by Ziff-Davis. Ray A. Palmer was made editor and another chapter in SF history begins.
T. O’Conor Sloane had been Hugo Gernsback’s assistant editor. (His son John was Thomas Edison’s son-in-law.) When the Pulp changed owners, Sloane became editor. His decade of Amazing Stories is considered the poor cousin by critics like Lester Del Rey: “The stories he published were mostly mediocre at best, and some caused considerable complaint.” (The Worlds of Science Fiction, 1979) Now this is a matter of opinion, of course. I find occasional gems in the Sloane Amazing like the Zorome stories of Neil R. Jones. Del Rey is a Campbell Golden Age writer, who like Isaac Asimov, never thought much of other publications.
Sloane, like Harry Bates, F. Orlin Tremaine and Hugo Gernsback, used plant monster stories throughout the 1930s. Many of the authors are the same writers who appeared in Wonder Stories and Astounding Stories.
T. O’Connor Sloane
“The Gas-Weed” by Stanton A. Coblentz (Amazing Stories, May 1929) has a world war interrupted by the appearance of a space plant from a meteorite (Shades of H. P. Lovecraft! The Blob won’t be made for twenty-nine years.). The gas-weed can kill with its poisonous vapors as well as a spear-like branches. The plant almost takes over the world until it is discovered to be a silicon-based life form. It is destroyed using cancer cells.
“The Vampires of the Desert” by A. Hyatt Verrill (Amazing Stories, December 1929) begins with Barry, a geologist in search of oil, working in Peru. People keep dying, their bodies found in the desert with all their blood missing. The locals cry “Vampires!” The answer proves to be blood-sucking plants, not the undead. For more on A. Hyatt Verril, go here.
“The Green Girl” by Jack Williamson (Amazing Stories, March April 1930)Â has Melvin Dane discover a strange world in the South Pacific where flying plant monsters rule. He also finds the green girl of his dreams, Xenora. Of course, there are two rival cities warring in this strange land and Dane sides with the good guys against the The Lord of the Flame. Another A. Merritt style adventure from the early work of this SF master. For more on Jack Williamson and A. Merritt , go here.
“The Ivy War” by David H. Keller (Amazing Stories, May 1930)Â has an intelligent weed in a swamp near Yeastville, PA. take over the town and then almost the country until a scientist kills it with a poisonous injection. For more on the Plant Monsters of David H. Keller, go here.
“The Globoid Terror” by R. F. Starzl (Amazing Stories, November 1930) has Heywood Crombie of the Interplanetary Flying Police investigating the disappearance of gray diamonds. A Venusian tries to kill him with a deadly fungus from that planet. For more on R. F. Stazl, go here.
“Via the Time Accelerator” by Frank J. Bridge (Frank Brueckel Jr.) starts when Brockhurst goes way into the future with a time machine to find the Earth barren and populated by vampire, floating plants. He digs into the records left behind to figure out what happened. The plants are from Mars. After sucking that planet dry they came to Earth and did the same here. (Amazing Stories, January 1931) For more on Brueckel, go here.
“The Menace From Andromeda” by Nat Schachner & Arthur Leo Zagat (Amazing Stories, April 1931) is one of the middle collaborations of this team before they split up and began their solos careers later that year. A giant protoplasmic space monster finishes devouring its planet so it sends spores out into space. Some of these land in the Atlantic Ocean where they spread, destroying many ships. It is cancer cells to the rescue again! For more Schachner & Zagat, go here.
“A Voice From the Ether” by Lloyd A. Eshbach (Amazing Stories, May 1931) has a Martian scientist talking to Earthmen via radio. He tells how he was a scientist and the other Martians spurned his research. In revenge, he uses his discovery, a microscopic fungus. He enlarges it to devour everything on his planet. That’ll show them!
“The Giant Puffball” by Eugene Stowell (Amazing Stories Quarterly, Summer 1931) has Dr. Hoff grow a giant mushroom in his greenhouse. It smashes its way out and is poised to become a menace when it dies. It simply runs out of food.
“The Pent House” by David H. Keller (Amazing Stories, February 1932) is an odd story about a scientist who sets up a haven against a coming disaster, spores from outer space. After five years, they emerge to find the invasion never happened. During their hiatus, a cancer treatment was discovered that also rendered the spores harmless.
“Crusaders of Space” by Paul Chadwick (Amazing Stories Quarterly, Fall-Winter 1932) has secret agent Travers go to Venus where carnivorous plants and man-apes await. Chadwick was better known in the Detective Pulps with ham-fisted Wade Hammond. He also created Secret Agent X so I suppose a space agent isn’t that far out of his wheelhouse.
“Moss Island” by Carl Jacobi (Amazing Stories Quarterly, Winter 1932) gives us a naturalist on a remote island near New Brunswick. There he finds a substance that springs into gigantic moss. He flees the island while the moss grows and grows. For more on the plant monsters of Carl Jacobi, go here.
“Flame-Worms of Yokku” by Hal K. Wells (Amazing Stories, March 1933) has spacers stranded on Uranus where carnivorous plants are only some of the dangers. For more on Hal K. Wells, go here.
“The Tree Terror” by David H. Keller (Amazing Stories, October 1933) has a scientist invent fast-growing super-moss. These tree-like plants escape and are posed to crowd out farmland and homes. Fortunately the scientist also invented a machine that turns wood into food. Anybody hungry?
“A Vision of Venus” by Otis Adelbert Kline (Amazing Stories, December 1933) offers a view of Kline’s Venus that is filled with fungi. This story is part of his novel series that were written for Argosy. For more on Otis Adelbert Kline, go here.
“The Thing in the Woods” by Fletcher Pratt & B. F. Ruby (Amazing Stories, February 1935) has a giant puffball mushroom that rolls after prey including humans.
Ray A. Palmer
Ray A. Palmer’s editorship in 1939 saw the return of the classic plant monster. By 1935 the green terrors became rarer as audience found the idea of giant plants unscientific. Palmer wanted excitement and strangeness. He was less worried about scientific accuracy. So we see the big man-eaters return. I have included one story here that wasn’t in Amazing but its sister magazine, Fantastic Adventures, to show Palmer’s more adventurous bent. Harl Vincent, the author, was no stranger to plant monsters.
“The Devil Flower” by Harl Vincent (Fantastic Adventures, May 1939) has something eating the patients in Dr. Martin Gregory’s hospital. Whatever it is, it sucks the blood completely from its victims. An evil botanist is to blame…
“The Deadly Slime” by Frederic Arnold Kummer Jr. (Amazing Stories, June 1939) has another doctor, Robert Halwell, releasing slime monsters on the unsuspecting public. We get to hear Halwell get eaten by his creation via radio.
Conclusion
The Plant Monsters of Amazing Stories are pretty standard examples of the sub-genre. The idea of green stalking trees and gooey slime was fading by 1936. Ray A. Palmer brought the killer flowers and trees back in 1939. Palmer would edit Amazing Stories for the next ten years. During that time he would do many things that raised eyebrows including driving the profits of the Pulp to their highest level. Occasionally he would use a plant monster here and there but the 1940s was not the decade of the plant. That was the 1930s.
Next time.. Thrilling Wonder!
