The Fantastic in The Argosy began long before 1930. Science Fiction appeared as early as November 16, 1889 with The Conquest of the Moon in seventeen parts by Andre Laurie. Argosy‘s sister magazine All-Story began publishing Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912. The two magazines were combined in the 1920s. So why start at 1930? The answer to this is simply I had to start somewhere. I wanted the magazine when it included illustrations for the earlier issues don’t always.
Argosy was a Pulp magazine but a very important one. Think of all the great characters that came from this publisher. Icons like Zorro, Lassie, Doctor Kildare, Tarzan, John Carter, Semi-Dual, Hopalong Cassidy, Madame Storey, and the works of seminal authors like John Buchan, Max Brand, A. Merritt and Homer Eon Flint. Argosy offered a place for “off-trail” authors to experiment with Science Fiction before Hugo Gernsback created the first SF Pulp, Amazing Stories in 1926. In 1930 it offered SF writers a place to get paid a decent amount for their work since Gernsback and the SF Pulps were miserly at best.
1930 began by finishing off serials from the previous year. The first new story was The Man Who Was Two Men by Ray Cummings (February 8-15, 1930) in two parts. Cummings wrote detective and Science Fiction works for Argosy, sometimes combining the two. Quite prolific, he sold to Argosy as well as Harry Bates’ new Astounding Stories of Super-Science as well. (Clayton’s Astounding paid two cents a word and was considered the best magazine to sell to.)
“The Sapphire Smile” by Loring Brent (February 8, 1930) was one of the Peter the Brazen series of weird mystery stories. Loring Brent was a pseudonym of George F. Worts.
“John Solomon’s Biggest Game” by H. Bedford-Jones (February 15-March 22, 1930) in six parts was seventeenth episode in his John Solomon series. The earlier stories were the fantastic ones with lost worlds and invention stories. These later ones less so.
The Radio Gun-Runners by Ralph Milne Farley (February 22-March 29, 1930 ) in six parts was a continuation of the Radio Man series that began in “The Radio Man” 1924. This tale was the fifth in the series. It was not the last.
“The Storm That Could Not Be Stopped” by Murray Leinster (March 1, 1930) is the third tale in the Preston & Hines series. The two previous tales appeared in Argosy like the fourth tale. (see below) Leinster was Will F. Jenkins, writer and inventor. Jenkins sold all kinds of stories, not just SF, under his Leinster pseudonym as well as under his real name. The story was reprinted in Startling Mystery Stories, March 1971.
“Sky Madness” by Garret Smith (April 12, 1930)
“The Man in the Jade Mask” by Loring Brent (April 26, 1930)
Voodoo’d by Kenneth Perkins (May 10-June 14, 1930) in six parts was a horror themed serial. Later in the 1930s Perkins would write for the Shudder Pulps under the name of J.O. Quinliven. The pseudonym was necessary because Perkins had graduated from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1885 and had missionary parents. Voodoo’d appeared in hard cover in 1931 by the same publisher of Hulbert Footner (see below).
The Radio Menace by Ralph Milne Farley (June 7-July 12, 1930) in six parts was the followup to Gun-Runners.
“The Man Who Put Out the Sun” by Murray Leinster (June 14, 1930) is the last Preston & Hines story.
“That Cargo of Opium” by Loring Brent (June21-28, 1930), in two parts is another Peter the Brazen tale.
“A Year in a Day” by Erle Stanley Gardner (July 19, 1930) was one of a bunch of Science Fiction tales written by the creator of Perry Mason. These tales were collected in The Human Zero: The Science Fiction of Erle Stanley Gardner in 1981.
The Man of Gold by Fred MacIsaac (July 26-August 30, 1931) in six parts was the sixth serials MacIsaac did for Argosy.
“The Beast Plants” by H. Thompson Rich (July 26, 1930) is a plant monster story that I wrote about before. Read about it at length here.
The Prince of Peril by Otis Adelbert Kline (August 2-September 6, 1930) in six parts is set on the planet Venus. Burroughsian stuff doth happen there. Kline’s Venus novels are probably his most famous works though he will later write Jan of the Jungle.
“The Red Germ of Courage” by R. F. Starzl (September 13, 1930) was the Pulpster’s one sale to Argosy. It was reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, January 1940.
“Spawn of the Comet” by Otis Adelbert Kline (September 27, 1930) is a standard mad scientist tale. It was reprinted in Fantastic Novels, June 1951) (Not to be confused with H. Thompson Rich’s “Spawn of the Comet” from Astounding Stories, November 1931.)
“Diamonds in the Rough” by Allan K. Echols (October 4, 1930)
The Snake Mother by A. Merritt (October 25-November 6, 1930) in six parts was the concluding second half of The Face in the Abyss. This novel is a lost world story where the Snake Mother is the good side in a battle with the evil god, Nimir. It was reprinted many times including Famous Fantastic Mysteries, November 1940.
“The Hand of Ung” by Loring Brent (November 22-29, 1930), in two parts, is another Peter the Brazen story.
“The Walking Shack” by Howard Ellis Davis (November 29, 1930)
Tama of the Light Country by Ray Cummings (December 13- 27, 1930) in three parts supplies more Burroughsiana set on Mercury. The winged human motif is an old one, predating Cummings by at least thirty years.
“The Death Notice” by Hulbert Footner (December 27, 1930) is a tale in the Madame Storey detective series. This series had hints of the occult but is ultimately an earthly one. It was one of the first successful female detective characters. Footner was a Canadian writer of Northerns who moved to London then New York and switched to detective stories. “The Death Notice” was collected in The Almost Perfect Murder (1937).
Conclusion
1930 proved to be a wonderful year for the fantastic in Argosy. Though Edgar Rice Burroughs did not appear (he will later) his imitators certainly did. A. Merritt was not a prolific author, having a day job in publishing, so when one of his stories appear it is a treat. Writing a series after a successful tale was in full practice with Kline, Farley, Footner and Leinster producing sequels. Many of these serials became books, either right after publication or in paperback decades later. This is a testament to their entertainment value. Good thrilling tales will always have an audience.
Spawn of the Comet? Nope!