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Inspiration, v. 4, issue 1, April 1946

Page 25

INSPIRATION     25

CAPTAIN
FUTURE
WIZARD OF SCIENCE
SUPERMAN IN PROSE

     I've always felt that it would be possible to present an intelligent s-f mag based upon one character, or better yet, one particular future civilization. CAPTAIN FUTURE was such an attempt, but was far from being the successful answer. Quite rightly, it has been condemned by fans.
     It wasn't too bad at the start. Altho the character, Captain Future, was nothing special or different from a hundred other s-f characters, author Hamilton did have a pair of good characterizations in Grag, the robot, and Otho, the synthetic man. The writing was passable, for science-adventure, and I managed to read the first few CFs. I was reading everything in those days.
     CAPTAIN FUTURE was a quarterly, which about right for frequency of appearance. The first issue was the Winter 1940. However, I'm not going to mention any particular story, or do much of any discussing of the stories. This is one magazine which it would be best to forget, and is just the type of stuff a non-reader invariably associates with s-f.
     CAPTAIN FUTURE suffered from one incurable fault which it has in common with many of the series of stories based upon one character which have appeared in many s-f mags. Each story tries to outdo its predeccessor in scope of action, until the whole thing gets out of hand. According to the author's reasoning, after his character had saved the world in one story, he can't possibly go back to a more prosaic task in the next. Eventually, he winds up saving the universe, leaving the puzzled author to wonder what happens next.
     In addition to the lead Captain Future novel, CF printed shorts, most of them quite poor. It also printed, serially, s-f reprints of longer stories, starting with Keller's "The Human Termites". Obviously, a quarterly is not the ideal place to publish serials, and the first one took a year to finish.
     In the Winter 1941 issue, CAPTAIN FUTURE started another serial, Edward's "Mutiny in Space", and this one was finished in only two installments. The two shorts in this issue are also of merit, Brown's "Not Yet the End", and a better type space opera by Vincent, "Grave of the Achilles". In the Spring number I liked Binder's "Ice, F. O. B., Mars". Binder had another good short in Summer, "Memos on Mercury", and this issue started the reprinting of Manning's "The Man Who Awoke".
     In the fall, 1941, issue, F. B. Long had what was probably the best original story printed by CAPTAIN FUTURE during its first two years. Title was "Long, Long Ago", it's a slightly different space opera, and might be worth looking into if you're one of those who just filed away his CFs without reading anything in them. I almost missed this story myself.

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INSPIRATION 25 CAPTAIN FUTURE WIZARD OF SCIENCE SUPERMAN IN PROSE I've always felt that it would be possible to present an intelligent s-f mag based upon one character, or better yet, one particular future civilization. CAPTAIN FUTURE was such an attempt, but was far from being the successful answer. Quite rightly, it has been condemned by fans. It wasn't too bad at the start. Altho the character, Captain Future, was nothing special or different from a hundred other s-f characters, author Hamilton did have a pair of good characterizations in Grag, the robot, and Otho, the synthetic man. The writing was passable, for science-adventure, and I managed to read the first few CFs. I was reading everything in those days. CAPTAIN FUTURE was a quarterly, which about right for frequency of appearance. The first issue was the Winter 1940. However, I'm not going to mention any particular story, or do much of any discussing of the stories. This is one magazine which it would be best to forget, and is just the type of stuff a non-reader invariably associates with s-f. CAPTAIN FUTURE suffered from one incurable fault which it has in common with many of the series of stories based upon one character which have appeared in many s-f mags. Each story tries to outdo its predeccessor in scope of action, until the whole thing gets out of hand. According to the author's reasoning, after his character had saved the world in one story, he can't possibly go back to a more prosaic task in the next. Eventually, he winds up saving the universe, leaving the puzzled author to wonder what happens next. In addition to the lead Captain Future novel, CF printed shorts, most of them quite poor. It also printed, serially, s-f reprints of longer stories, starting with Keller's "The Human Termites". Obviously, a quarterly is not the ideal place to publish serials, and the first one took a year to finish. In the Winter 1941 issue, CAPTAIN FUTURE started another serial, Edward's "Mutiny in Space", and this one was finished in only two installments. The two shorts in this issue are also of merit, Brown's "Not Yet the End", and a better type space opera by Vincent, "Grave of the Achilles". In the Spring number I liked Binder's "Ice, F. O. B., Mars". Binder had another good short in Summer, "Memos on Mercury", and this issue started the reprinting of Manning's "The Man Who Awoke". In the fall, 1941, issue, F. B. Long had what was probably the best original story printed by CAPTAIN FUTURE during its first two years. Title was "Long, Long Ago", it's a slightly different space opera, and might be worth looking into if you're one of those who just filed away his CFs without reading anything in them. I almost missed this story myself.