The Fantastic in the Argosy: 1935-1936

If you missed the last one…

1935 marks a change in the roster of authors. Familiar names like Otis Adelbert Kline, Ray Cummings, Murray Leinster, Ralph Milne Farley will be replaced by different writers. Otis Adelbert Kline was focused on his agent business, Ray Cummings moved onto the better paying Shudder Pulps and Ralph Milne Farley wasn’t writing a lot, and what he was, went to the SF magazines. Writers like A. Merritt, who had day jobs, were never a steady source of work. Merritt will still appear occasionally but only in reprints. Edgar Rice Burroughs still has a few more years…

A new group of writers emerge after 1935. Theodoe Roscoe becomes more frequent. Robert. E. Howard, Lester Dent, Donald Wandrei, Manly Wade Wellman  and Arthur Leo Zagat are familiar names from other magazines. Argosy has a long history but it also has much more competition. 1935 was the height of the Great Depression but it was also the boom of the Pulps.

1935

Jan in India by Otis Adelbert Kline (January 12-26, 1935) in three parts, continues Jan’s adventures but on a different continent. This would be Kline’s last appearance for a while. He would return in 1940 with Satans on Saturn with E. Hoffman Price. The majority of his fiction, when not selling other’s work, would go to Thrilling Wonder.

“The Moon Plot” by Ray Cummings (February 6, 1935) got my attention for its illustration. The SF writers in Astounding made a big deal about inventing the spacesuit. (Edmond Hamilton and Jack Williamson, if I remember right.) But here a year before that magazine premiered, is version of the space suit that is pretty accurate. That air lock too looks pretty good. War flairs up between the USA and Mars!

“The Monster of the Lagoon” by George F. Worts (February 23-March 30, 1935) , in six parts, is a Singapore Sammy story.

“Over the Dragon Wall” by Loring Brent (April 6, 1935)

“The Polar Light” by Ray Cummings (April 13, 1935) was Cummings’ last piece for Argosy. The Shudder Pulps offered three cents a word for story like “Bridegroom From Hell”. By the time the Shudder Pulp craze fizzled in 1941, Argosy would turn away from most fantastic Pulp material.

War Declared! by Theodore Roscoe (April 27-June 8, 1935) is a Science Fiction tale in the “future war” sub-genre. This dates all the way back to 1871 and George Tompkins’ “The Battle of Dorking”. Argosy would feature several of these up to the out-break of World War II.

“Goblin Trail” by J. Allan Dunn (June 15, 1935) is a strange Northern. Mounties finding the survivors of Vikings in the North is probably best-remembered today by the film Island at the Top of the World. When Ian Cameron wrote The Lost Ones in 1960 he was working in a well-worked vein.

“The Morrison Monument” by Murray Leinster (August 10, 1935) along with another story in 1935 was the last of Leinster SF in Argosy. He appeared many times after but not as a writer of the fantastic. Will F. Jenkins/Murray Leinster had appeared in many different genres over the years and Jenkins sold his SF to Astounding and the other SF magazines, and his more earthly fare to Argosy.

“The Monster from Nowhere” by Donald Wandrei (November 23, 1935) offers some Cthulhu Mythos style goodness with a shoggoth from space. The artist, of course, draws the guys who plan to shoot it. H. P. Lovecraft wrote to Donald Wandrei on November 10,1935: “Commiserations on the Argosy‘s title-monkeying – though perhaps the counter balancing advantage of having landed such a market makes congratulations really in order. Financially, I believe the house of Munsey is especially advantageous to deal with, is it not?”

“The Extra Intelligence” by Murray Leinster (November 30, 1935) is another mad scientist piece descended from Frankenstein.

1936

“The Witch-Makers” by Donald Wandrei (May 2, 1936) reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, September-October 1939 and Super Science and Fantastic Stories, October 1945.

“North of the Stars”  by Patrick Lee (July 18-August 8, 1936) in four parts

“The Devil in Hollywood”  by Ronal Kayser as by Dale Clark (August 8, 1936)

“Buccaneers International” by Arthur Hawthorne Carhart (August 15-29, 1936), in three parts.

“The Dead Remember” by Robert E. Howard (August 15, 1936) is a Weird Western that appeared two months after REH’s death. Otis Adelbert Kline was Howard’s agent. Other non-fantastic stories like “Gents on the Lynch” and “The Riot at Bucksnort” appeared as well.

“Tarzan and the Magic Men” (aka Tarzan the Magnificent) by Edgar Rice Burroughs (September 19-October 3, 1936) appeared in three parts.

“Space Station No. 1” by Manly Wade Wellman (October 10, 1936) reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, September-October 1939 and Super Science and Fantastic Stories, October 1945. Again, the illustration shows some typical spacesuits.

“The Last Crusade” by Martin McCall (November 7-21, 1936) in three parts, has a revolution in a hidden jungle valley in the Philippines.

Hades by Lester Dent (December 5-19, 1936) appeared in three parts. Dent was, of course, the real “Kenneth Robeson”, the writer who made Doc Savage so amazing. He actually searched for sunken treasure and invented a shark repellent.

Conclusion

1936 hasn’t quite abandoned the fantastic but the servings are getting farther apart. A short Tarzan, two Weird Tales alumnus, Donald Wandrei and Manly Wade Wellman and Lester Dent not pretending to be Kenneth Robeson, not bad at all. This new trend will continue on to 1940 when the Pulp essentially begins moving towards a non-fiction magazine (though we get two more Tarzans first.)

Next time 1937-1938…