The original idea of something or someone being unseeable, usually because of a scientific discovery or a rare color in nature, dates back before H. G. Wells who gave us the seminal The Invisible Man (1897). Fitz-James O’Brien wrote “What Was It?” in Harper’s Magazine, March 1859. Ambrose Bierce followed with “The Damned Thing” in Town Topics, Dec 7, 1893. After Wells’s novel, there was Wells’s own story “The New Accelerator” (The Strand Magazine, December 1901) in which humans move so fast they become invisible. Jack London wrote of two inventors who found a way to become invisible (then fought it out to the death) in “The Shadow and the Flash” (The Bookman, June 1903). There were others.
The Pulps were sure to pick up the idea. Many of the invisible stories from the 1920s appeared in Weird Tales. Many of these are supernatural in nature, rather than scientific. For those, go here. This series of post looks at Science Fiction versions of the invisible idea. Not surprising for the 1920s, almost all of them come from Hugo Gernsback’s magazines, Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories. Not a lot of competition until 1930, when the invisible will explode in various publications.
“The Flying Legion” (All-Story Weekly, November 15-December 29, 1920) by George Allan England has mercenaries equipped with flying machines attack Mecca. One of the amazing adaptations of their planes is a cloaking device. A melodramatic novels but one that really sets the 1920s (even though Gernsback reprinted in the 1930). Reprinted in Air Wonder Stories, January February March April 1930 and Fantastic Novels, January 1950.
“The Thing From –Outside” (Science and Invention, April 1923) by George Allan England is a classic Horror piece with a Wendigo-like creature from beyond our reality. It is invisible, leaving strange marks in the snow. Gernsback used this one before Amazing Stories, the re-used it for the very first issue. Reprinted in Amazing Stories, April 1926 and The Magazine of Horror, January 1965
“The Invisible Girl” (Amazing Stories, July 1926) by Clement Fezandie has Hackensack and his assistant, Keene, discover an invisible girl in Africa. They capture her and take back to the States. They call her Aura. She can’t take the climate and dies.
“The Man Who Could Vanish” (Amazing Stories, January 1927) by A. Hyatt Verrill has the narrator visit his friend, Professor Unsinn, who has invented invisibility. The two debate whether humanity will embrace or reject the gift. Unsinn finally decides to give it to the US government, who will most likely lose it.
The Invisible Man by H. G. Wells (Pearson’s Weekly, June 12-August 7, 1897) reprinted in Amazing Stories, June July 1928 Hugo Gernsback started Amazing Stories entirely with reprints, many from Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. So it is no surprise this novel should appear in the magazine. What is a little odd is that he used the next story in the same issue.
“The Golden Girl of Munan” (Amazing Stories, June 1928) by Harl Vincent has ten thousand rebels exiled to an island in the Pacific. They hide their land behind an invisibility screen. Years later they create a fleet of bombing planes protected by invisibility to take revenge on the outside world. A small band within the rebel group join up with our heroes to save the world. E. F. Bleiler in Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years (1998) writes this story off as bad Ray Cummings pastiche. He does acknowledge that Vincent got better later on.
“The War of the Planets” (Amazing Stories, January 1929) by Harl Vincent is a sequel to “The Golden Girl of Munan”. Mador, an evil scientist from Munan, has fled to Venus. He returns with a space fleet. The old gang has to get back together, along with their invisible plane, to stop the invasion.
“The Beast-Men of Ceres” (Amazing Stories Quarterly, January 1929) by Aladra Septama (Judson W. Reeves) has Inspector Masonsby looking for the answer to multiple disappearances. Invisibility is involved. The trail leads him to Ceres and race a apemen who have been taking captives. “A Cry From the Ether” is one of three sequels that don’t focus on invisibility.
“The Terror of the Streets” (Amazing Stories, April 1929) by George McLociard has a disenfranchised scientist create a giant invisible tank to punish the world.
“The Invisible Finite” (Amazing Stories, May 1929) by Robert A. Wait has a scientist and two assistants discuss two types of invisibility. A machine accidentally turns Professor Moore invisible. One of his helpers destroys the machine in a fit of rage, dooming him to another realm of existence.
“The Invisible Raiders” (Air Wonder Stories, October 1929) by Ed Earl Repp has invisible space pirates with ships painted in infra-red paint. “Beyond the Aura” (Air Wonder Stories, December 1929) is a sequel but doesn’t feature invisibility.
Conclusion
The 1920s of Hugo Gernsback are early examples of what Pulp writers could do. Many of these attempts are simple, undeveloped, even a mere element in larger types of stories. It would take the 1930s to really explode the theme into full Pulpy excitement. The first indication of this is the sheer number of selections. There are about a dozen from the Twenties. In the Thirties, there are over fifty. We will see some familiar names. Harl Vincent will try again.
Next time…1930-1931…
The pictures are all blurry and lack all detail. Even the captions are unreadable. Perhaps someone can help you with the illustrations. Andy T.
I’ll see what I can do about that. It can be challenging to get enough resolution but keep the post easy to download. I guess I didn’t keep that balance this time.
GW