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Fan, whole no. 4, September 1945

Page 4

WEIRD AND FANTASY PROZINES. --Francis T. Laney

At the present time, professional mediums for the publication of weird or fantasy fiction are virtually non-existent. An occasional piece of this nature crops up in mundane magazines as Argosy, Blue Book, Speed Detective, Speed Adventure, Jungle Stories, etc.; to say nothing of the steady dribble of fantasy in the slicks, children's magazines, and the like. The only all weird and fantasy magazine which manages today to sink into new depths with every issue. 

In the past, however, the greatest writing the popular fiction fields has ever seen crowded the pages of a group of terrific magazines. These publications are all gone(or else degenerated beyond recognition), but the back issues which may still occasionally be picked up in second hand magazine stores are well worth the investigation. 

Weird Tales is beyond question the greatest of these periodicals. Found in 1923, WT has been published uninterruptedly to the present day. Under the aegis of the late Farnsworth Wright, editor from 1924 to 1939, there grew up a coterie of writers of the supernatural whose better work has continually been reprinted in book form--in omnibuses of the supernatural, and in collections published by Arkham House. H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, E. Hoffman Price, August Derleth, Donald Wandrei, Henry S. Whitehead, Seabury Quinn, C.L. Moore...names to reckon with; stories to read, reread and treasure. During the past few years, the magazine has deteriorated frightfully; nevertheless, many fine stories still find their way into its pages: An occasional resurrected bit of Lovecraft, a new story by August Derleth or Frank Owen or Robert Bloch, or the worthwhile efforts of a compartively new writer, Ray Bradbury. 

Unknown Worlds was of a much different nature, containing less of weird horror and more of a vaguely cockeyed, subtly disturbing sort of tale. It was founded in March 1939 to accommodate a novel by Eric Frank Russell, SINISTER BARRIER, which was of such a "different"cast that no then existing magazine could accommodate it. This was followed by a host of distinguished stories by such men as L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber Jr., L. Ron Hubbard, Cleve Cartmill, Anthony Boucher, Jane Rice, Robert Heinlein and others. The magazine was discontinued October 1943. 

Strange Tales was a short-lived companion to the old Clayton Astounding, which published seven issues in 1932-1933. The lineup was similar to that of Weird Tales, and the stories of approximately equal quality. Issues of Strange Tales are today excessively rare. 

Strange Stories, a companion to TWS, was such poor quality that it is mentioned here only in the interests of completeness. Its 13 issues appeared in 1939 and 1940 , and with very few exceptions contained nothing but cheaply sensational trash. 

Thrill Book published a couple of dozen bi-weekly issues back in 1919, and is without question the rarest of all pulp magazines. Not even its publishers, Street and Smith, possess a complete file of it; and the most complete private collections seldom have more than one or two copies. The material was pretty much in the groove later exploited

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WEIRD AND FANTASY PROZINES. --Francis T. Laney At the present time, professional mediums for the publication of weird or fantasy fiction are virtually non-existent. An occasional piece of this nature crops up in mundane magazines as Argosy, Blue Book, Speed Detective, Speed Adventure, Jungle Stories, etc.; to say nothing of the steady dribble of fantasy in the slicks, children's magazines, and the like. The only all weird and fantasy magazine which manages today to sink into new depths with every issue. In the past, however, the greatest writing the popular fiction fields has ever seen crowded the pages of a group of terrific magazines. These publications are all gone(or else degenerated beyond recognition), but the back issues which may still occasionally be picked up in second hand magazine stores are well worth the investigation. Weird Tales is beyond question the greatest of these periodicals. Found in 1923, WT has been published uninterruptedly to the present day. Under the aegis of the late Farnsworth Wright, editor from 1924 to 1939, there grew up a coterie of writers of the supernatural whose better work has continually been reprinted in book form--in omnibuses of the supernatural, and in collections published by Arkham House. H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, Robert E. Howard, E. Hoffman Price, August Derleth, Donald Wandrei, Henry S. Whitehead, Seabury Quinn, C.L. Moore...names to reckon with; stories to read, reread and treasure. During the past few years, the magazine has deteriorated frightfully; nevertheless, many fine stories still find their way into its pages: An occasional resurrected bit of Lovecraft, a new story by August Derleth or Frank Owen or Robert Bloch, or the worthwhile efforts of a compartively new writer, Ray Bradbury. Unknown Worlds was of a much different nature, containing less of weird horror and more of a vaguely cockeyed, subtly disturbing sort of tale. It was founded in March 1939 to accommodate a novel by Eric Frank Russell, SINISTER BARRIER, which was of such a "different"cast that no then existing magazine could accommodate it. This was followed by a host of distinguished stories by such men as L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber Jr., L. Ron Hubbard, Cleve Cartmill, Anthony Boucher, Jane Rice, Robert Heinlein and others. The magazine was discontinued October 1943. Strange Tales was a short-lived companion to the old Clayton Astounding, which published seven issues in 1932-1933. The lineup was similar to that of Weird Tales, and the stories of approximately equal quality. Issues of Strange Tales are today excessively rare. Strange Stories, a companion to TWS, was such poor quality that it is mentioned here only in the interests of completeness. Its 13 issues appeared in 1939 and 1940 , and with very few exceptions contained nothing but cheaply sensational trash. Thrill Book published a couple of dozen bi-weekly issues back in 1919, and is without question the rarest of all pulp magazines. Not even its publishers, Street and Smith, possess a complete file of it; and the most complete private collections seldom have more than one or two copies. The material was pretty much in the groove later exploited