Have an island holiday: Weird Tales style! Here are seventeen wonderful isles to visit this year. Traveling this season could be a little dangerous so these destinations are only for the most adventurous tourists. See the white beaches, the swaying palms, the many-armed monsters and their mad scientist creators, ghosts and dangers aplenty!
Your Tour Director: Farnsworth Wright
Weird Tales waited a few years before making any holiday suggestions. The first spot on our brochure is “The Little Island” by H. Thompson Rich (Weird Tales, April 1925). Jeff meets the nicest people on the small atoll after being stranded there. Janice is a lovely girl… too bad she is too dead to join him in rescue.
“The Isle of Missing Ships” by Seabury Quinn (Weird Tales, February 1926) will have you on the beach with Jules de Grandin and Dr. Trowbridge. Sun, sand and lots to eat. Too bad the host is a cannibal… and you might want to stay away from the “long pig”.
“Evolution Island” by Edmond Hamilton (Weird Tales, March 1927) will whisk you away to a remote, tropical paradise. Perfect for conducting secret experiments. Want to look younger? Well Dr. Brilling’s treatment will make you feel millennia more evolved. And make sure you check out the lovely walking trees with their deadly vines.
The Isle of Lost Souls by Joel Martin Nichols Jr. (Weird Tales, December 1928 January February 1929) is a full novel of delights for the casual traveler. Tired of tropical temperatures, then try Bakalief Island in Alaska. Treasure and several reincarnated Russians are along for the ride. And if that isn’t enough to get you to book, then you won’t want to miss a trip to the Fourth Dimension!
“Pigmy Island” by Edmond Hamilton (Weird Tales, August 1930). Missed out on the mad science of Evolution Island? Never fear. Edmond Hamilton is at it again. This time he offers you Dr. Garland’s size-changing compounds. Have fun with the giant rats and the gigantic mad man as well. Dr. X approved!
“Island of Doom” by Bassett Morgan (Weird Tales, March 1932). Come for the flesh-eating orchids but stay for the genetically altered apes. Your sweetie will find plenty of companionship here on the beach.
“The Isle of the Torturers” by Clark Ashton Smith (Weird Tales, March 1933). Tired of the same old holiday? Then try a stint on an island filled with torturing wizards. Of course, you will have to travel ahead in time to the end of the world but the Age of Zothique is worth the extra expense.
“The Accursed Isle” by Mary Elizabeth Counselman (Weird Tales, November 1933). Big fan of The Thing (1982)? Then this Murder-Mystery holiday is just for you? Someone on the atoll is a shape-shifting killer? Is it you?
“The Isle of Dark Magic” by Hugh B. Cave (Weird Tales, August 1934). Hugh Cave made a name for himself writing about the island of Haiti but this time he wants to take you to Faikana where the dead walk and Peter Mace has a house of horrors. No one will get bored here.
“The House Party at Smoky Island” by L. M. Montgomery (Weird Tales, August 1935). Forget about beaches. Go to the woods for Christmas and have a nice house party. Who could be a safer guest than the author of Anne of Green Gables? Still, someone is a ghost. Can you guess who?
“The Isle of the Undead” by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach (Weird Tales, October 1936) will give you somewhere fun to sail your yacht this holiday. Of course, you may get hijacked and turned into a zombie slave. Probably the worst lead story Weird Tales ever did but don’t let that keep you from enjoying a good hard sprint with a zombie horde at your back. If nothing else, enjoy the J. Allen St. John artwork. Now that’s how to have an Island Holiday: Weird Tales style!
“The Isle of the Sleeper” by Edmond Hamilton (Weird Tales, May 1938) is Hamilton’s last go at a fun island holiday from this Science Fiction franchiser. Should you get shipwrecked this holiday, you might like this landing spot. Myrrha is a beautiful hostess and what terrors come when the sleeper wakes?
“The Isle of Abominations” by Kadra Maysi (Weird Tales, October 1938). Love flowers? Then what better vacation spot than Chalcedyne’s island paradise. The old scientist left his many creations around for you to enjoy in the swamp. Just don’t try to log the island, because the trees have other ideas.
“The Dark Isle” by Robert Bloch (Weird Tales, May 1939) Forget about the South Seas. Go to England, or better yet, Wales and the Island of the Druids, Anglesey. Don’t fall for boring bus tours. Take Robert Bloch history-filled experience and see human victims burned alive!
“The Phantom Island” by Arlton Eadie (Weird Tales, May 1939). Go explore the South seas without ever leaving your backyard. Just buy a cabin from the old ship Euphrates and put it in your garden. The ghosts and dreams of savage Lela and her ghostly island are free of charge.
Your Tour Director: Dorothy McIlwraith
“Isle of Women” by Allison V. Harding (Weird Tales, July 1948). If you have already been to Mexico’s Isla Mujeres then try Harding’s version. An island inhabited by only women, even if they are cannibals. Sound wonderful? Remember to take the tour of the inside of the volcano while you are there. (See above.)
“The Strange Island of Dr. Nork” by Robert Bloch (Weird Tales, March 1949) has his island in the Middle-Sized Antilles (Between the Greater and Lesser). Bloch’s vacation offers horrors and laughs aplenty while you enjoy all the frights of a Dr. Moreau as you chuckle to the comic-book sized adventures.
To finish out our tour of Weird Tales holidays, “Atlantic Isle of Mystery” by Cyrus Macmillan (Weird Tales, January 1954) is a non-fiction piece in one of the last issues of the magazine. Need more suggestions for travel? Then visit the haunted and terrifying islands of the Atlantic Ocean.
Of course, these aren’t all the wonderful island locations you could choose from. Who can forget the lovely gooey atoll in H. P. Lovecraft’s “Dagon” or Conan’s visit to Xapur where he met that nice man who had an allegory to star metal? Or his lovely tour along the Black Coast with Belit and the winged ape? Weird Tales often chose islets and other remote locations to act as bottleneck to increase your fun when you have an Island Holiday: Weird Tales style.
Well, things sound a little dangerous out there. I think I’ll stay home this season and enjoy some good Pulps instead. Happy holidays and if you are traveling remember to wear your St. Christopher medal….
