If you missed the last one…
1928 and 1929 show a real improvement over the previous years for serials. This is largely in part to Ray Cummings providing several. Erle Stanley Gardner, best known for his Perry Mason novels, gives us four Science Fiction/Fantasy stories. Many do not know that ESG wrote countless short stories and novellas, even after the success of Perry Mason. We also see the first of Robert A. Graef’s distinctive covers. The combination is the beginning of a Fantasy high period that will run into the next decade. On the negative side, not much from Edgar Rice Burroughs, only one Western.
1928
Luckett of the Moon by Slater La Master (January 7-28, 1928) in four parts. The novel begins with Napoleon Bonaparte Luckett getting involved with experimental aircraft. This will lead to a trip to the Moon. The 1934 book publication retitled it Cupid Napoleon.
“Slaves of the Wire” by Garret Smith (January 1921, 1928)
Beyond the Stars by Ray Cummings (February11-25, 1928) in three parts. This one looks more Fantasy than SF. Unusual for Ray Cummings. The reprint illustrator is Boris Dolgov, who will be better known in Weird Tales. Reprinted in Future Combined with Science Fiction, February 1942
“The Ruler of Zem-Zem” by G. G. Pendarves (April 28, 1928) Pendarves is another Weird Tales regular. Weird Tales has been a rival to the Argosy since 1923, so fair’s fair. We can steal your people, too.
The Apache Devil by Edgar Rice Burroughs (May 19-June 23, 1928) in six parts. This one was the sequel to The War Chief, from a year ago. Thanks to Erbzine for some of the images.
World Brigands by Fred MacIsaac (June 30-August 4, 1928) in six parts has a scientist who can create tornadoes who tries to hold America hostage.
“’You’ve Killed Privacy!'” by Garret Smith (July 7, 1928) This one seems like a tale for today.
“Treasure Accursed—and Mescal” by Otis Adelbert Kline (August 11, 1928) has a salesman listening to a tale of treasure. Reprinted in Fantasy Fiction, May 1950
“Madman’s Buff “ by Will McMorrow (September 8, 1928)
A Brand New World by Ray Cummings (September 22-October 27, 1928) in six parts has a new planet, Xenephrene, show up and pull Earth off its axis. The Xenephrenians invade but the earthmen get help from a fairy-like alien girl named Zetta. Reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries Combined with Fantastic Novels Magazine, September 1942
“Rain Magic” by Erle Stanley Gardner (October 20, 1928) is the first of seven Argosy SF pieces. A shanghaied sailor escapes to an island where humans live with a strange monkey race. The title refers to the narrator who falls asleep whenever he smells rainy weather. He becomes a prospector in the desert to escape the curse placed on him by the island’s shaman. This story can be found in the collection The Human Zero: The Science Fiction of Erle Stanley Gardner in 1981. Reprinted in Fantastic Stories, April 1963.
“Thirty Years Late” by Garret Smith (November 3-10, 1928) in two parts
He Rules Who Can by Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur (November 24-December 26, 1928) in six parts
“The Girl in the Moon” by Garret Smith (December 1-8, 1928) in two parts
The Phantom in the Rainbow by Slater La Master (December 29, 1928-February 2, 1929) in six parts is a tale of finance, impersonation and wailing ghosts.
1929
“Man o’ Dreams” by Will McMorrow (January 5, 1929)
“Buccaneers of the Air” by Eustace L. Adams (January 12, 1929) is a tale of sky pirates.
The Sea Girl by Ray Cummings (March 2-April 6, 1929) in six parts has the world’s oceans draining into a hole in the Earth. Professor Plantet and his daughter go in a submarine to find the cause and discover an underwater race. One of the few Cummings novels not reprinted in paperback by ACE.
The Woolly Dog by J. U. Giesy and Junius B. Smith (March 23-April 13, 1929) in six parts is the thirty-second installment in the Semi-Dual occult detective series that made the name Semi-Dual more famous than Jules de Grandin (for a while).
“Menacing Shadows” by Bertrand L. Shurtleff (April 27, 1929)
“Moon Calf” by Bassett Morgan (April 27, 1929) was another Weird Tales author.
The Radio Flyers by Ralph Milne Farley (May 11-June 8, 1929) in five parts is the fourth novel in this series. Rather than set on the planet Venus, this one takes a modern man and Vikings inside the earth. Farley would continue this series in Argosy until it ran out of fantastic elements becoming an adventure franchise. That slippery slope begins here.
The Shadow Girl by Ray Cummings (June 22-July 13, 1929) in four parts is a sequel to The Man Who Mastered Time. A fugitive from the future flees into our time. The future is ruled by an evil tyrant who follows. Reprinted in Science Fiction Quarterly, Spring 1942
The Planet of Peril by Otis Adelbert Kline (July 20-August 24, 1929) in six parts is the first of Kline’s famous Edgar Rice Burroughs knock-off series set on Venus. Fans later said the two feuded over the authors’ claims to Mars and Venus, but there is no real evidence of this.
“Crowd-Horror” by Robert E. Howard (July 20, 1929) is an unusual appearance by Robert E. Howard, a very famous Weird Tales author. This story appeared a month before his ground-breaking “The Shadow Kingdom” (Weird Tales, August 1929) would cement the sub-genre of Sword & Sorcery for all time.
“Monkey Eyes” by Erle Stanley Gardner (July 27-August 3, 1929) in two parts. Don’t mess with the Temple of Hanuman, the Monkey God. This story can be found in the collection The Human Zero: The Science Fiction of Erle Stanley Gardner in 1981.
“Death’s Domain” by F. Van Wyck Mason (September 7-14, 1929) in two parts continues the tradition of the Sargasso Sea as a place of terror as William Hope Hodgson so successfully did.
Princess of the Atom by Ray Cummings (September 14-October 19, 1929) in six parts has another girl appear from nowhere to warn the Earth of giants rising from the sea. The source turns out to be an atomic kingdom in the heart of a meteor.
He’d Be His Own Son by Garret Smith (September 28-October 12, 1929) in three parts. “I’m my own Grandpa….”
The Snow Girl by Ray Cummings (November 2-23, 1929) in four parts has two flyers discover a lost kingdom in the Antarctic. Reprinted in Famous Fantastic Classics #1
“The Darkness on Fifth Avenue” by Murray Leinster (November 30, 1929) is the first of four Preston Hines stories that appeared in Argosy. A criminal creates a cloak of darkness over the city to commit a daring robbery. Reprinted in Fantastic Stories of Imagination, March 1962 and Startling Mystery Stories, Summer 1967
“The Sky’s the Limit” by Erle Stanley Gardner (December 7-14, 1929) is a two parter with a scientist, his daughter and a newspaperman in a spacecraft that heads for Venus. This story can be found in the collection The Human Zero: The Science Fiction of Erle Stanley Gardner in 1981.
Maza of the Moon by Otis Adelbert Kline (December 21, 1929-January 11, 1930) in four parts. A contest to to be the first to strike the Moon with a missile causes a space war. Kline had worked as a sub-editor at Weird Tales in the 1920s but was now an agent and freelance writer of pseudo-Edgar Rice Burroughs planetary adventures.
The Plumed Serpent serial by Richard Barry (December 28, 1929–January 18, 1930) in four parts
“The City of the Blind” by Murray Leinster (December 28, 1929) is a sequel to “The Darkness on Fifth Avenue”. It has the villain, Preston, who escaped in the last story, trying to take revenge on the two heroes. Reprinted in Startling Mystery Stories, Spring 1969
This post bridges the 1920s and 1930s at last. Now, to keep our backwards motion going, tackling the 1910s! The fantastic won’t show up as often so I may be able to several years at a go. The good news is we get the first novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, including Tarzan, John Carter and Pellucidar.
On to 1930…
