If you missed 1932…
1933 promised some good novels (not as good as 1932) with plenty of sequels. For the Pulp writer, getting a successful series in Argosy was a big win. It meant you had a meal ticket (for a while anyway). For the publisher it also spelled sales. If they bought Zorro once, why would they not buy him again? Authors like Max Brand, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Ray Cummings, Johnston McCulley, Fred MacIsaac, etc. knew where their next novel was going. (If rejected, they had to sell to lesser markets like Weird Tales. Famously Argosy lost its exclusive on ERB’s Tarzan by rejecting The Return of Tarzan. After that, Argosy had to auction for new Tarzans along with their rivals, Blue Book, Liberty, etc.)
The Swordsman of Mars by Otis Adelbert Kline (January 7-February 11, 1933) in six parts, was the first volume in Otis Adelbert Kline’s Martian series. The second book would appear at the end the same year with Outlaws of Mars in November. After 1933, Kline would move away from writing and become an agent for writers like Robert E. Howard. Only Jan in India (1935) remains of his ERB clones. He didn’t give up writing altogether but his output was mostly short stories.
“The Master Magician” by Loring Brent (February 25, 1933)
Lost on Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs (March 4-April 15, 1933) in seven parts, featured a cover with the name Tarzan as big as that of Venus. This sequel was always my favorite part of the Venus series with its Room of Seven Doors. The novel was reprinted in The Passing Show (March 4-April 15, 1933)
“The Tyrant of Technology” by Fred MacIsaac (March11-18, 1933), in two parts.
The Earth-Shaker by Murray Leinster (April 15-May 6, 1933) in four parts, was a pretty standard mad scientist yarn. It reminds me of Doc Savage novels, The Man Who Shook the Earth (February 1934) and The Roar Devil (June 1935) both by Lester Dent.
The Golden City by Ralph Milne Farley (May 13-June 17, 1933) in six parts, is the seventh novel in the Radio Planet series. You wouldn’t know it was related to the earlier novels from the look of it. The Golden City is the last to appear in Argosy. The two remaining pieces, “The Radio Man Returns” and “The Radio Minds of Mars” will appear elsewhere. It was reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December 1942 with illos by Virgil Finlay.
“The Sapphire Death” by Loring Brent (June 10-July 15, 1933), in six parts, is a Peter the Brazen story.
“The Finger of Doom” by Garret Smith (June 24, 1933)
“World’s End” by Victor Rousseau (July 8-22, 1933) appeared in three parts. Victor Rousseau Emanuel (1879-1960) was a writer of big Northerns and occasional Science Fiction. His earlier work includes The Messiah of the Cylinder (1917) and The Beetle Horde that opened Astounding Stories of Super-Science for Harry Bates in January-February 1930. “World’s End” was his last big piece for Argosy before he shifted to writing for the Spicy Pulps.
The Lost Land of Atzlan by Fred MacIsaac (August 12-Sepember 23, 1933) in six parts, is a lost world tale of the Aztecs. Stories of this kind were more common in Egypt or the Andes but some Argosy writers tried their hand at a Meso-American setting. Argosy published the classic novel, The Citadel of Fear by Francis Stevens (September 14-October 26, 1918), set first in Mexico. “The Quest of Tarzan” (Argosy, August 23-September 6, 1941) by Edgar Rice Burroughs is better known as “Tarzan and the Castaways” featured an island of the lost Mayans.
“The Iron Maiden” by William Merriam Rouse (August 12, 1933) is another Rouse piece with a tint of horror.
“Isle of the Meteor” by George F. Worts (August 19, 1933) is the first Singapore Sammy story.
The Fire Planet by Ray Cummings (September 23-October 7, 1933) was published in three parts. From the title you would think it was a sequel to The Fire People (Argosy All-Story, October 21-November 18, 1922) but it is not. Another space explorers falling in love with winged women armed with ray weapons. Not really a departure for Cummings.
“Terror of the Unseen” by Ray Cummings (November 4, 1933)
The Outlaws of Mars by Otis Adelbert Kline (November 25, 1933-January 6, 1934) in seven parts, was OAK’s final interplanetary novel. Some fans thought Kline had been miffed when Edgar Rice Burroughs used Venus for a setting with his Carson Napier novels. They thought Kline had used Mars in retaliation. This feud is not supported by evidence. As far as I can tell, ERB felt mostly pleased by imitators.
Thanks to Erbzine for the images.
Conclusion
The Fantastic in the Argosy of 1933 was later reprinted, though not so much in Famous Fantastic Mysteries this time around. The paperbacks of the 1960s brought back Kline’s ERB clones with covers guaranteed to catch the eye of Burroughs’ fans. Ballantine Books (Tarzan and John Carter) and ACE Books (The Rest) divied the works of ERB and sold millions of new copies of these old serials. Wanting more they looked to the Burroughs-esque writers like Kline to add to this bonanza. They would publish new ERB-like material as well such as John Norman’s Gor novels and Michael Moorcock’s Walter Bradbury books when these ran out.
1932 was one of the last good years for Argosy’s Science Fiction and Fantasy. The big novels will soon be gone and replaced by far less spectacular stories.
Next time 1934 and the last of the Merritt novels…
Do you plan to look back on 1920s Argosy?
Yes I want to work my way back to at least 1912.
Sounds promising!