Giant Spiders in the Pulps (Not Weird Tales)

Giant Spiders in the Pulps (Not Weird Tales) means we begin by saying what this piece is not about. Like the word “non-fiction”, we are concerned with what we are not. In this case, stories published in Weird Tales, that great depository of spidery Science, Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. (For that, go here.)

Perhaps the wellspring of the giant spider in Science Fiction is H. G. Wells’s “The Valley of the Spiders” (Pearson’s, March 1903), a fantasy about a couple who flee pursuers by entering a valley filled with giant spiders. (I have to wonder if an eleven year-old J. R. R. Tolkien read the story and put those same nasty beasties in The Hobbit?) No elves in Wells but the bad guys get eaten and the couple happily survive.This technically isn’t a Pulp magazine but it certainly inspired John Wyndham‘s last novel Web (1979).

While “The Unique Magazine” can claim such spider classics as “Spider Bite” by Robert S. Carr, the tower spider in the Conan adventure “The Tower of the Elephant” and Fritz Leiber’s Pulpy classic “Spider Mansion”, the very first famous Pulp spider belongs to Murray Leinster.  He wrote “The Mad Planet” (Argosy, June 12, 1920) for Argosy that proposed a planet that humans seeded with life then forgot. (This the collected fix-up novel is called The Forgotten Planet.)

Burl is one of the scared little humans who dwell on this planet (survivors of a crashed spaceship who no longer remember their origins). Burl’s biggest foe is the giant spider he must face down:

There was sweat on Burl’s face as he raised his spear. The bare idea of attacking a spider was horrifying. But actually he was in no danger whatever before the instant of the spear-thrust, because web-spiders never, never, leave their webs to hunt. So Burl sweated, and grasped his spear with agonized firmness—and thrust it into the bulge that was the spider’s body in its nest. He thrust with hysterical fury. And then he ran as if the devil were after him.

There were two sequels to this tale, “The Red Dust” (Argosy All-Story, April 2, 1921) and “Nightmare Planet” (Science Fiction Plus, June 1953). These stories inspired many who followed.

“The Tragedy of Spider Island” (Wonder Stories, September 1930) by Capt. S. P. Meek fits the bill for editor, Hugo Gernsback, who modeled his magazines on the fiction of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells.

T. O’Connor Sloane took over Hugo Gernsback’s Amazing Stories in 1929. Fans and critics (like Lester Del Rey) bemoan O’Connor’s editing but often forget that he published some great series as well as some crap. Neil R. Jones’s Zoromes come to mind as does the stories of Tumithak, hero of humanity who faced down the alien spider race known as the Shelks. The majority of Charles Tanner’s Science Fiction is dated and forgettable except for Tumithak. This heroic saga of four stories is worthy of being remembered.

The stories are “Tumithak of the Corridors” (Amazing Stories, January 1932), “Tumithak in Shawm” (Amazing Stories, June 1933) and “Tumithak and the Towers of Fire” (Super Science Stories, November 1941) There was a fourth story, “Tumithak and the Ancient Word” that appeared decades later in Black Gate, Summer 2008. Isaac Asimov picked the first two to include in his Before the Golden Age (1975). That was where I read them first.

Tumithak is one of the primitive humans who skulk in the tunnels avoiding the conquering Shelks. The aliens from Venus invaded, took over, then began breeding humans to suit their needs. Tumithak is an unlikely hero who rises up from slavery to battle the usurpers. The Shelks are a very spidery race:

Standing about four feet high, they were indeed spider-like, just as tradition said. But a close look showed that this was only a superficial resemblance. For these creatures were hairless, and possessed ten legs, rather than the eight that belong to a true spider. The legs were long and triple-jointed and on the tip of each was a short rudimentary claw much like a finger nail. There were two bunches of these legs, five on each side, and they joined the creature at a point midway between the head and the body. The body was shaped much like the abdomen of a wasp, and was about the same size as the head, which was certainly the strangest part of the entire creature.

For the head was the head of a man: The same eyes, the same broad brow, a mouth with tight, thin lips, and a chin—all these gave the head of the creature a startling resemblance to that of a man. The nose and hair alone were missing, to make the face perfectly human.

“The Canyon of the Spiders” (The Skipper #125-134, January 21 – March 25, 1933) was written by an unknown British author. A ten parter featuring a valley filled with giant spiders that not dead yet not alive either. Ancient Romans will become involved before the finale with a horde of giant spiders being corraled and burnt to death.

“Spider Island” (Thrilling Mystery, April 1937) by Jack Williamson

“The Spider Woman” (Strange Stories, April 1940) by Maria Moravsky is a tale that belonged in Weird Tales (to which Moravsky sold six pieces). It appears in WT’s competitor, Strange Stories, edited by Mort Weisinger. Moravsky may have chosen the magazine because of faster pay rates. As a Russian born writer, Moravsky chooses a villain from that country in Madam Remizova.

“The Lost Race Comes Back” (Amazing Stories, May 1941) by Don Wilcox easily demonstrates the new vigor Ray A. Palmer brought to the magazine.

“Shadow of the Spider” (Amazing Stories, March 1943) by Leroy Yerxa

“The Spider Men of Gharr” (Planet Stories, May 1945) by Wilbur S. Peacock

“The Spectre Spiders” (Famous Fantastic Mysteries, February 1947) by W. J. Wintle is a bit of a cheat. It was actually written in 1921 for a collection of ghost stories called Ghost Gleams. Mary Gnaedinger chose it for FFM and gave it a great Pulp illo by Lawrence Sterne Stevens.

“The Monster From Mars” (Amazing Stories, April 1948) by Alexander Blade (Richard S. Shaver)

“Spiders of Saturn” (Amazing Stories, February 1950) by V. E. Thiessen

“And the Truth Shall Make You Free…” (Future Science Fiction, March 1953)  by Clifford D. Simak

“More Spinned Against”  (Fantasy Fiction, June 1953) by John Wyndham

“Legacy of Terror” (Amazing Stories, November 1958) by Henry Slesar

“The Mind Spider” (Fantastic, November 1959) by Fritz Leiber

Conclusion

The concept of giant ants, spiders and insects faded with the Pulps. The Science behind it was just too silly for the later Science Fiction writers (not the Horror writers though with great ones by John Wyndham, Richard Lewis, Sarah Pinborough, John Everson, and of course, Stephen King. Or the Fantasy franchises that sprang from Tolkien and Howard.) The comic books also suffer from no need to be scientifically accurate.

I would be remiss if I didn’t finish with David Bowie. The idea of spiders from Mars was pretty old hat by the 1972. But it still shows up in the stage iconography of rock ‘n roll. Glam rock never got into gigantic spiders on stage or anything that Hollywood but it still has a nice Pulp feel to it all.