The Aliens of Gerry Carlyle, Interplanetary Huntress

Gerry Carlyle is a famous SF character created by Arthur K. Barnes. In the best “Bring’em Back Alive” tradition, she is the Interplanetary Huntress who goes to the far planets to capture strange creatures for the zoos of Earth. She is beautiful and daring. And she doesn’t work alone. She has Tommy Strike to help her on her expeditions.

Gerry was based on the real animal collector Frank Buck (1884-1950) whose Bring’Em Back Alive (1930) was a bestseller. Between 1932 to 1943 he starred in seven motion pictures. He would later become the director of the San Diego Zoo. It was this fame that made him perfect for a cameo in Abbott & Costello’s Africa Screams (1949). It is easy to assume the average Pulp reader of 1937 had some familiarity with Buck and his motto.

When Tommy meets “Mr. Carlyle”, he is in for a surprise. Gerry Carlyle is a woman, of course:

The trader stared, thunderstruck. In those days of advanced plastic surgery, feminine beauty wasn’t rare but even Strike’s unpracticed eye knew that here was the real thing. No synthetic blonde baby-doll here but a natural beauty untouched by the surgeon’s knife-spungold hair, intelligence lighting dark eyes, a hint of passion and temper in the curve of mouth and arch of nostrils. In short, a woman.

This was to a lot of readers’ surprise too, as Gerry was the first female lead in Science Fiction. In fantasy, C. L. Moore had invented the swordswoman, Jirel of Joiry at Weird Tales. But in the SF Pulps, predominantly read by young men, the lead character was always a man. The editors took a gamble and it paid off.

In the first stories all of Gerry’s adventures take place on Venus, the mist-shrouded planet filled with a thousand dangers and many intriguing animals and plants. Edgar Rice Burroughs and the authors of Planet Stories would build on Venus as a cloudy hell planet. Barnes wrote several stories about Venus that didn’t include Gerry and Tommy, some before and some after the series. The very first of these was “Green Hell” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1937) about two men working the illegal Greenie trade. We will see many of the critters mentioned in this story again later.

The Whizband Beetles

Thirty seconds later the air was filled with the thin screams and bangings of dozens of the fabulous whiz-bang beetles as they hurtled their armored bodies blindly against the metal walls of the station, attracted by the odor of tobacco. Strike flinched and hurriedly doused the pipe. A man couldn’t even have the solace of a smoke on this damned planet. His life would be endangered by the terrific speed of those whiz-bangs.

The Whiz-Bang Beetle travels at such velocity that to be hit by one is like being shot with a bullet. They travel faster than the speed of sound so by the time you hear them they have already passed.

The Chloro-Men of Venus (“Greenies”)

These were the chloro-Men of Venus. Through some unfathomable quirk of nature, this nearly extinct species represented a curious link between plant and animal worlds. Averaging about five feet in height, they were only semi-invertebrate in structure, having tough cables of cartilage supporting their bodies instead of bones. Their skin was a porous, bark-like substance, at once flexible and unbelievably tough. About seventy percent of their “blood stream” was a compound almost identical with chlorophyll…The presence of this chlorophyl in their veins gave the chloro-men a greenish tinge–hence the colloquial reference to them as “greenies.

The chloro-men are sought as illegal slaves because their upkeep is almost nothing. Since they do not eat or sleep like animals, they make the perfect slaves. They are caught by the Venusians and sold to offworlders.

The Bat-Men of Jupiter

The bat-men of Jupiter! Strange form of intelligent life from the largest of the planets. These creatures are not of Venus, but obviously visitors from Jupiter. They are used as shock troops by human marauders who plan to steal the Greenie slaves from their original slavers. Their six prehensile legs were now being used to manipulate a weapon of destruction. Built with sturdy frames to withstand Jovian gravity, but with thing, membranous skins and numerous air-pockets to make them a sort of semi-lighter-than-air creature, they were at home in the furious gales that rage eternally on Jupiter. Twin sheets of skin extending from front to rear, enabled to glide with “wings” outstretched like the flying squirrel.

In a note provided by the editor, we learn that the lesser gravity of planets like Venus allow the creature to fly. These terrors are used as shock troops by the slavers.

“The Hothouse World” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1937)

The Whip

Fully fifty feet the monster towered into the mist, standing upright on two massive legs reminiscent of the extinct terrestrial Tyrannosaurus rex. A set of short forelegs were equipped with hideously lethal claws. The head was long and narrow resembling a wolf’s snout, with large ears and slavering fangs. Everything about the nightmare creature was constructed for efficient annihilation, particularly of those animals who mistakenly sought safety in the tops of the tall trees…The rest of the bearers darted alertly away in all directions, seeking the shelter of the fog. But the man who was burdened with the heavy equipment paused momentarily to shed himself of it. It cost him his life. Straight and sure that incredible tongue snaked out to wind itself around the man’s twisting form. Instantly he shot into the air toward the gaping fanged jaws. The fellow struggled, screaming. In vain. One arm was pinioned. He hadn’t a chance to defend himself. Before his surprised companions could bring their guns to bear on the whip, there was a swift crunch, a hideous splattering of crimson stuff bright and horrible against the drab background, and it was all over. The expeditionary force was reduced by one.

The Whip resembles a large dinosaur with a razor-whip tongue. Not germane to the story. it is still the best monster and received the cover illustration. The artist, Howard V. Brown, made the creature bigger than in the story.

The Shovel-Mouth

Fifty feet long and nearly twenty feet wide, it had three pairs of squat powerful legs ending in enormously spatulate discs. Its hide was a thick, tough gray stuff that gleamed dully with a wet slickness in the half light. But the most surprising feature was the creature’s head which, instead of tapering to a point, broadened into a mammoth snout extending several feet horizontally from mouth-corner to mouth-corner. Flattened against the ground it had a ludicrous similarity to a fan-tail vacuum cleaner attachment. The shovel-mouth stared at the party disinterestedly out of muddy eyes, then lowered his head and waddled across the clearing. Its mouth plowed up a wide shallow furrow as it ate indiscriminately the numerous fungi, low-lying bushes, sticks and mud.

The Shovel-Mouth is herbivorous, using its shovel-shaped nose to till the ground in search of fungi. To see the ground after a shovel-mouth as been there is to see what looks like a field tilled by a drunk farmer.

The Venusians

“Natives. Those scaly, fish-faced things that skulk around just out of sight in the fog? …“That’s no joke,” Strike said with a touch of bitterness. “It’s a fact. Ever since Murray made his first trip to Venus the natives have gone for gold teeth in a big way. They took Murray for a god, you know, and emulated him in many ways. “He had several gold teeth, relics of childhood dentistry, so the natives promptly scraped up some of the cheaply impure gold that’s found around here and made caps for their teeth.”

The Venusians first appeared in “Green Hell” as the suppliers of the Greenies. These childlike creatures were payed with candy and geegaws. They are not well-seen in “Hothouse Planet” either but they can be detected by their gold teeth which show up on sensors. The Venusians worship the Murri. They also attack the animal-hunters with nerve gas and poison darts.

“The Dual World” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1938)

The Dualites

The four creatures led them only a short way, stopping soon before a structure with the appearance of a giant bee-hive punctured by numerous entrances. It seemed to be a sort of community igloo built of several individual mud huts joined in a cluster. There were perhaps a score of doorways, and before each opening sat the amazing counterparts of the six-legged morons. They were counterparts in physical structure, that is, but not in mental capacity. For their enormous brain cases and haggard expressions indicated obviously that here were beings whose sole aim in life was to cerebrate.

The Dualites of Venus are humanoids that are born in pairs like all the creatures of the Dual World. One twin will be emotional while the other is intelligent. Barnes gets to play with the duality of human nature in this story. The Jekyll and Hyde psychology of the Dualites is explained as an evolutionary tactic.

The DunceRabbit

Strike turned to see a horde of tiny creatures scurrying from out of the fog-hidden forest. They were fuzzy gray things, about the size of terrestrial rabbits; the resemblance was heightened by the way they hopped, and by the presence of a tuft of white tail. But head and shoulders they looked more like naked monkeys, with wrinkled faces like little old men.

The duncerabbit is a particularly stupid creature but it does have two uses on Venus. One, it can be used like a homing device which is useful on the cloudy planet. Two, they also scare the native population of the Lost Continent, the Dualites.

The Electric Plant or Circe Plant

By the nose of the plane was a curious plant growth, the sole living thing in the entire clearing. It had three parts: there were two upright stems of tough, leathery stuff, one rising on each side of the plane; in between was a large, flat cup oozing a sticky substance from its walls. As Strike watched, the two stems moved slowly about as if seeking a more vulnerable spot. Again the dazzling bolt crashed from one stem to the other, apparently straight through the motor.

“By Jupiter!” Strike exclaimed. “It’s an electric plant! The two stems act as poles. It generates juice galvanically, like an electric eel, and shoots its bolt from one pole to the other! Anything it hits naturally drops into the nasty looking cup to be digested forthwith!”…“Get a load of that smell!” It was a heavy musklike odor-spiced with mint. “Lures things with the smell, probably has a network of sensitive rootlets to register the approach of a victim, then gives ’em the hot seat! Good name for this jigger would be the Circe plant, eh?” “Very apt name, sir.”

“Though you’d think, the plant being grounded, that its charge would all leak away. Must have some way of sealing off its cells before generating the electricity.”

The Electric Plant is native to the Lost Continent of Venus. It is usually found in a clearing, having killed all things in close proximity. The electrical charge of the plant can stall or damage spacecraft.

Barnes is having fun with the pun in this creature’s name. Despite this, he has thought the idea all the way through, coming up with a way for the creature to generate electricity, attract victims and detect their approach.

The Murri

Perhaps half of the colony was in constant motion, scrambling round and round the huge bole of the tree, up and down, popping in and out of their holes out along the mighty frondlike branches and back frantically. The others simply sat watching in solemn indifference, occasionally opening their pouting lips to ask sorrowfully—“Murri? Murri? Murri?” They were well named. Though soft and grayish-brown, with scanty hair growth on their backs, their size and antics did resemble terrestrial simians. With their tremendous nasal development, they looked much like the Proboscis monkey…The first was the presence of short, prehensile tail equipped with a vicious-appearing sting near the tip. “Only a weak defensive mechanism,” Strike explained, “a Murris live almost exclusively on the datelike fruits of the tree they live in. The sting’s no worse than a bee sting.” He extended one knotty forearm, showing a small pockmark where he had once been stung.

The second was the large brown eyes possessed by the Murri which stared at the intruders unblinkingly with a heart-wringing hypnotic expression of sorrow. “They look as if they’d seen all the trouble and woe in the Universe,” Barrows said. “Makes me feel like a louse to take them away from their home!” The third was a heap of strangely incongruous junk piled at the base of the big tree. There were cheap clocks, gewgaws, matches, children’s fireworks, odds and ends.

The Murri resemble space explorer Sidney Murray, who also has a large nose. Murray named the creatures after himself. The Venusian natives worship Murray as a god and thus also the Murri. They leave offerings at the base of the Murris’ trees. Attempts to remove the Murri from their colony always results in the captives killing themselves, either with their stingers or by starvation.

The Sea Squirrel

Almost hourly the hunting parties returned with magnificent specimens — everything from the incredible Atlas crab to the sea squirrel, the little rodent with feet like sea-sleds, which ran about agilely over the surface of the ocean, and whose body contained so much oil that the stuff squeezed out of its eyes and splashed from its opened mouth.

A creature mentioned in passing.

The Slingshot Tree

“As we’ve stood here talking, Barrows, one of those trees wrapped about the top of the other and pulled its mate back. Like a slingshot.” He detected a stealthy movement in the skimpy foliage, and suddenly grabbed Barrows’ arm. and dragged him back out of danger. There was a creaking, a sharp rustle, and a vicious whip-crack as the rubbery trunk lashed out at them like a catapult. The two men were out of harm’s way, but the duncerabbit Hear-No-Evil was struck squarely across the back. Nearly every bone in his little body was broken, and he collapsed like an empty sack on the ground’. The sling-shot tree moved very deliberately toward its victim, turning like a sunflower, touched the shattered creature delicately like a cat sniffing garbage, then slowly withdrew.”

Most creatures in the Lost Continent of Venus are twins. The Slingshot tree has evolved to take advantage of this by having one half use the other as a weapon.

The Triplet

It was easily one of the strangest animals he had ever seen in five years expeditionary work with Gerry Carlyle. The thing had a perfectly round body some four feet high, and it ran on four legs. But amazingly, it carried eight spare legs. One set of four protruded from the left side of its back at a forty-five degree angle; the other set protruded from the right side at a similar angle. In the center of its head was a mouth surrounded by three eyes forming the points of a triangle. The thing was triplets! No matter how it rolled, or which side was undermost, it would always be upright!…It was very brief, over in a few seconds, this contest between the twelve-legged monster and another of the deadly sling-shot trees. As the animal trotted slowly along a dimly marked game trail, there sounded a swish and crack as the tree attacked. But the dodecaped simply allowed himself to be knocked rolling off to one side, came up on another set of legs, and trotted serenely on just beyond the baffled grasp of the tree.

Most of the creatures on the Lost Continent of Venus are twins but the Triplet is actually three animals that live together in a triangular arrangement. Capturing the beast is difficult because each third must be tranquilized separately. If one third is injured or incapacitated, the Triplet simply rolls over onto a different third and flees.

Barnes has a lot of fun with this creature. Since the idea of capturing alien creatures can get samey, he has to come up with new gimmicks to keep his hunters on their toes. This was a good one.

The Bola Bird

They even had one of the rare and famous bolas-birds, the only flying creature of any size native to Venus, with infra-red-sensitive eyes to pierce the mists. It carried three bony structures dangling from its body on tough strings of cartilage; these were used as a weapon much like the ancient Argentine bolas, to ensnare victims. The bolas-bird was its own worst enemy, frequently strangling itself in the excitement of a chase.

This creature is mentioned in passing.

“Satellite Five” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1938)

The Cacus

Gerry Carlyle is brought to Satellite Five to save Tommy Strike but also deal with a species of giant worm.

Gerry, too, stopped to examine the thing stretched out on the rocky ground. It was something beyond even Gerry’s vast experience in extra-terrestrial life. From tip to tip it might have measured as much as twenty feet, and its ugly, warty gray hide was divided into armored sections along its entire length with soft spots between the plates. It was oval-shaped in lateral cross-section, something like a gigantic cut-worm that has been stepped upon but not quite squashed. Duval was for leaving the nauseous horror strictly alone.

Gerry’s clinical instinct, however, prompted her to turn it over with her foot. About a fourth of the way along the under side were six short legs, arranged with no particular symmetry, just stuck here and there. Sprouting about the front end of the thing was a forest of what looked like dead gloved fingers-sensory organs of some kind. The mouth parts resembled a funnel, much like the proboscis of the common house-fly. Two eyes set on either side of the head were glazed in death. While the entire lower half of the abdomen was slit wide open; inside was nothing but a sickening mess of half-devoured vitals.

The Cacus are hermaphrodites and can reproduce by themselves. They also have the ability to transfer knowledge and adaptations to their unborn young. When the mother is attacked by heat guns, the offspring is born impervious to the weapons.

Enter Henry Kuttner

In 1939, Arthur K. Barnes decided to collaborate with his friend, Henry Kuttner for two stories. Tommy Strike had to take a back seat to Anthony Quade, Kuttner’s creation for his Hollywood on the Moon series. Quade is a special effects man for the pictures. He appeared in three stories before “The Energy Eaters” including “Hollywood on the Moon” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1938). Mort Weisinger, the editor of Thrilling Wonder, probably initiated the idea of TWS two top characters sharing a few stories, essentially dovetailing the two story cycles into a common galaxy.

Unlike the previous Gerry Carlyle stories, “The Energy-Eaters” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1939) takes place not on Venus but the Moon.

The Prometheans

These cute creatures are from the Hotside of Mercury:

… Between cupped hands he held what appeared, at first glance, to be a large ball of fur, perhaps a trifle larger than a porcupine. It was amorphous, settling itself constantly into new positions like a jellyfish.

The Prometheans are energy-eaters, taking a short cut between plant photosynthesis and eating food, they absorb electrical energy directly. Touching one will give you a mild electrical buzz. The crisis comes when a fad for owning the animals has many f them on the Moon. The creatures get lose and eat all the power that keeps everyone alive. Gerry defeats them by short circuiting them.

“The Seven Sleepers” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, May 1940) with Henry Kuttner

The Proteans

It promised to be a dull journey. But that was only at first. Strike was the one who first caught sight of the blue sphere. It rested on top of a dune, motionless, resembling some strange form of plant life. Warily they approached it. It was a ten-foot globe of translucent membrane, with a black nucleus inside that floated in some liquid.

Gerry and both men, Tommy Strike and Tony Quade, go to Almussen’s Comet to film a movie. They discover the seven sleeping Proteans there. These creatures can reproduce anything in the form of a phantom. This is their form of communication. They are telepathic so they can pull images from your mind. Gerry surmises the Proteans are a decadent race, once possessing bodies but changing over the eons. Their rough, limited world on the comet killed off all but seven.

The Hyclops

The Hyclops, native to Ganymede, stands more than twelve feet high, is terrifyingly covered with hair, and has four arms. Its three one-eyed heads bear murderous fangs that protrude from a slobbering, loose-lipped mouth. “Get the eyes,” Gerry yelped, scurrying to one side. “We haven’t any super-explosive bullets, but—aim at the eyes.”

The Hyclops in this story is not real, but Barnes and Kuttner do give us a glimpse at yet another creature on a far moon.

“Trouble on Titan” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1941)

The Blue Plate Special Plant

The Saturnian plant went the carnauba one better, however. Its leaves made a tasty salad when mixed with its fruit, and a delicious drink could be distilled from its sap. To top it off, a fragrant spice might be shaken from its pinkish blossoms. Hence its name-the Blue Plate Special plant. Gerry stripped the bush eagerly, dropping her prizes into a specimen bag.

This plant is minor detail while hunting for more interesting fauna.

The Kite

Gerry nodded. The Saturnian kite was an eight-legged creature with folds of membrane between its limbs, much like those of the Terrestrial flying squirrel. It also spun a filament resembling a spider’s web, though its thread was infinitely more powerful. Thinner than piano wire, yet its tensile strength was almost twice the wires.

The creature was insectivorous. During each of the periodical winds, it allowed itself to be swooped into the air, maintaining contact with the ground by spinning its lengthy filament. One end of the thread was firmly attached to a rock by some organic adhesive manufactured within its glands. In the teeth of a gale, it spread itself wide imitating a parachute net, to trap the millions of insects being dashed about by the wind. At any time, the kite could descend by “reeling in” on the practically indestructible strand.

Another brief encounter.

The Dermaphos

It appeared to be merely a ten-foot, crested lizard with a thick, warty hide. There were peculiarities, of course. Its six feet had only two toes apiece, indicating that evolution on Saturn had taken cognizance of the futility of scratching at that dense, rocky soil. More strangely, despite the pictures in Murray’s tests which showed rows of phosphorescent lights like those that decorate deep-sea fishes, this dermaphos did not glow. For the most part, though, it was an ordinary creature, considering what important matters hinged upon its capture.

The author goes out of his way to point out how dull this creature is compared to most of the dangerous ones Gerry captures. Tommy assumes since it is large, it is slow. He finds out otherwise. The Dermaphos smacks him to the ground and displays its big set of teeth:

Since he was involuntarily in a position to do so, he made observations. The beast had sharp teeth in front as well as grinders in the rear. That showed that he was probably omnivorous, though none of the hunting party had seen him eat anything but vegetation. Besides, at least four of the fangs appeared to be backed by glands of some sort. The acid secretion drooled slowly onto the breast of Strike’s pressure suit, and it was so powerful that the metal became pitted.

The Dermaphos’s favorite food is something called a belligerent cabbage. The Dermaphos’s diet, that includes uranium, gives it its phosphorescent lights.

The Rotary Mole

On Titan, Gerry stops for repairs and encounters this strange creature.

At the rear came a sudden flurry of rock dust, and a remarkable creature burst into view. It was about the size of a woodchuck, but quite round. Its mouth was set precisely in the center of its head, perfectly circular, and was armed with a formidable set of teeth. Two tiny eyes glittered deep in their furry sockets.

Balancing upright like a weighted doll, it stared solemnly at Gerry Carlyle.

The woman moved forward quietly, hoping to capture it by the scruff of the neck. Immediately the animal turned to face the wall of the cave. A number of little flippers, placed at haphazard spots all over its body, sprang into view. The creature began to spin in a clockwise motion at a furious rate, literally boring into the ground with its terrific teeth. In ten seconds the strange creature had vanished.

The mole family proves a pest. Gerry hates to kill wantonly. One of her crew figures out that the creatures can be lured away with fruit juice.

The Chameleon

“It must be a sort of chameleonlike thing,” he concluded. “First it imitated the wires. Now it’s imitating the sticks of wood. Probably generates a current within itself like an electric eel. Maybe if we wait around, it’ll move again.”

Tommy encounters this energy-eating chameleon that tries to gain access to the ship’s energy supply. It has a mental breakdown when it sees its own reflection and isn’t sure what to imitate.

The Titanians

Gerry agreed dubiously, so the trio moved back toward the city to be met at its edge by a group of four Titanians. As Strike had said, they were frail, uniform in height to the last millimeter, and entirely hairless.

They were dressed in metallic cloth wound around them like mummies’ wrappings. It is obvious that they dressed for modesty rather than comfort, for their flesh was tough and hard.

Their features were generally human. But instead of cars, each possessed four filaments sprouting from each side of the head, and shaped like a lyre.

The Titanians are city-builders of about five feet height and slender builds. They were originally discovered by Sidney Murray. Gerry builds a thought helmet to allow the Earthmen to talk with them. The Titanians are very polite, being another decadent race. They are not original to Titan but came there from a forgotten home world.

The Gora

It was a hideously malformed little devil that stared around with bright, beady eyes at the intruders, then popped out into the room. It stood about three feet high, in appearance much like a seahorse. At the base of the nauseous, scaly body there were four short legs, ending in hoofs giving the creature a top-heavy appearance. Just as the Titanians were the epitome of kindliness, something in its stance and eyes said this thing was stark evil…The hoofs made a faintly disturbing clop-clop as it crossed the room to bend over one of the sleeping Titanians. From its snout protruded a long, thin extension that was almost needlelike.

The Gora use their needle tongues to drain fluid from the Titanians’ neck gland. Once the gland was used in creating buildings and art but since the Titanians have given these up, the glandular essence is of no value. When the Titanians originally came, they fought terrible wars with the Gora. Eventually they formed a symbiotic relationship with them. Barnes has borrowed a little from H. G. Wells’s Eloi and Morlocks here. Tommy puts their cultural decline down to this weird relationship.

“Fog Over Venus” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Winter 1945) signaled a return to the misty planet. Not a Gerry Carlyle story, it does allow us to see one of its birds in action. In “The Dual World”, there is the Bola Bird. “Fog on Venus” offers something bigger.

The Blunder Bird

Then, dropping out of the gloom like a black angel from hell, swooped the blunderbird– a creature having twenty-five feet of leathery wingspan, ten savage claws on each wing, and a beak like a devil’s own scissors. With a weird clasping gesture, it caught up one of the parachutes and ripped it to shreds…In senseless fury the monster flopped about seeking more blood to spill.

The workers on Venus kill the beast with a laser gun, disintegrating its head.

Compass Bugs

…A double handful of gray insects, with two inch bodies and hammer-shaped heads, spilled free…

The Compass Bug is useful to miners on Venus. The animal will not deviate from a course going directly North. Using these insects, those who are lost in the Venusian jungle can get home.

The Silk-Fang Bat

…Buckmaster laved his cheek and hand where inflammation marked the venomous caress of the silk-fang bat.

One of the many hazards of the Venusian jungle. A man armed with blaster is safe. One without is in a perpetual battle with such creatures.

“Siren Satellite” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Winter 1946) has Gerry stranded on the frozen moon of Triton.

The Shaggie

In the discussion, they had taken their eyes from the newcomer, and it had seized the opportunity to move in. The center of its head opened to reveal an enormous mouth, filled with hideous, slavering, black fangs. Emitting an eerie whistling note, the Thing rushed savagely upon the group, in a horridly blind fury.

Everyone scattered like flushed quail and the hairy enemy, unable to make quick turns, charged harmlessly through like a bull. Abandoning all pretense, it turned and came sliding back in another silent, deadly rush. Again, the castaways dodged aside.

The creature’s skin is paper-thin, though covered in shaggy hair. It has no circulatory system. Its blood is like anti-freeze.

The Gerry Carlyle stories were collected in Interplanetary Huntress (1956) with art by Emsh.

Conclusion

Monster-hunting Science Fiction never really became its own sub-genre. Despite that, many SF writers created intriguing creatures in their stories (without the “Bring’em Back Alive” plot.) Those who excel at it use logically deduced evolution that propose questions in the best H. G. Wells manner. The tradition begins with The War of the Worlds then comes to the Pulps with Stanley G. Weinbaum. Some of my favorites are those created by Frank Herbert (sand worms, the hooded dashers, for example). Robert Silverberg, A. E. van Vogt, Jack Williamson, Manly Wade Wellman, Jack Vance, Robert A. Heinlein, Ursula K. Le Guin and many others. Most of these can be found in Wayne Barlowe’s excellent, Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials (1979).