Transcribe
Translate
Comet, v. 1, issue 2, March-April 1941
Page 11
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
THE COMET PAGE 11 story undoubtably won the prize for its author. The tale itself concerned a professor who had been kidnapped by a certain foreign governmen t in an endever to obtain a secret formula. He found himself in what was evidently a spaceship at that moment out in space. His captor told him the reason for his being kidnapped and explained that his country had conquered gravity and with specially built space-boats could tear away any large building from earth and had, in fact, done so. Among the structures thus carried off were the Eiffel Tower of Paris and the Woolworth Building. Throwing aside a curtain covering a porthole, he proceed to show the professor the two ships in space with their stolen cargo. In the compartment was a door which supposedly led to outer space, but because of atmospheric pressure could not be opened while in flight. So saying, the Doctor's captor unbolted the door as a boast. As he did so, his captive hurled himself through it, opening it easily, and stepped, not into outer space, but into a long corridor which eventually brought im into a well-lighted street. He had taken a chance and won! But explaining it later he admitted he knew from the first that he was not in the void, because of the "Color of Space"! THE RELICS FROM THE EARTH by John Pierce was perhaps the poorest in plot of the seven winners, merely relating the tale of earth survivors who had migrated to Triton and had there built up a super-science. An expidition had been formed to return the earth and bring back structures of their ancestors as museum pieces. Among those chosen to be saved for posterity were the two shown on the cover. Except for a bit of weak action in having one break away from the grapplers on the return trip, the story was dull, and probably was chosen more for its literary style than for its idea. THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN THE DESERT by Frank J. Brueckel, Jr. This was both well written and for its age had a fair plot concerning an explorer in a desert who stumbles across a great cavern filled with the usual alien machinery. After killing a queer creature who menaced him, the explorer twirled a number of dials bringing into view a scene in space showing the disk-like ships and their captive buildings. The scene shifts to the interior of the Woolworth Building an earth man stands surounded by a group of alien beings, all dead. The building is released from the tentacles of the ship by this unknown here,but at that moment, an explosion wrecks the cavern and fatally injures the explorer within. RAIDERS FROM SPACE by Harold A. Lower. This story is the most remarkable prophecy of an event that was to happen nine years later! And although it was at the time an O. Henry yarn, the proof of it was brought out in 1938 when Orson Welles had his "Man from Mars" broadcast, creating as it did a high state of panic in parts of the nation. the only variation in Lower's story was that he had substituted television for radio, and on the screen depicted [[?]] of the destruction of New York and the carrying off of the 2 huge buildings by the space raiders. The climax was, of course, the announcer saying that what had just been shown on the screen were highspots from the new German film, "Raiders of Space" which was being shown at a near-by theater. Ten years ago this story was distinctly unusual and a novelty, but today would never be sold, due to it unfailing prophecy, strange as it may seem! - THE END - Rough facimile of the Contest Cover, November 1929 by TimJ[?] S. AVERY
Saving...
prev
next
THE COMET PAGE 11 story undoubtably won the prize for its author. The tale itself concerned a professor who had been kidnapped by a certain foreign governmen t in an endever to obtain a secret formula. He found himself in what was evidently a spaceship at that moment out in space. His captor told him the reason for his being kidnapped and explained that his country had conquered gravity and with specially built space-boats could tear away any large building from earth and had, in fact, done so. Among the structures thus carried off were the Eiffel Tower of Paris and the Woolworth Building. Throwing aside a curtain covering a porthole, he proceed to show the professor the two ships in space with their stolen cargo. In the compartment was a door which supposedly led to outer space, but because of atmospheric pressure could not be opened while in flight. So saying, the Doctor's captor unbolted the door as a boast. As he did so, his captive hurled himself through it, opening it easily, and stepped, not into outer space, but into a long corridor which eventually brought im into a well-lighted street. He had taken a chance and won! But explaining it later he admitted he knew from the first that he was not in the void, because of the "Color of Space"! THE RELICS FROM THE EARTH by John Pierce was perhaps the poorest in plot of the seven winners, merely relating the tale of earth survivors who had migrated to Triton and had there built up a super-science. An expidition had been formed to return the earth and bring back structures of their ancestors as museum pieces. Among those chosen to be saved for posterity were the two shown on the cover. Except for a bit of weak action in having one break away from the grapplers on the return trip, the story was dull, and probably was chosen more for its literary style than for its idea. THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND IN THE DESERT by Frank J. Brueckel, Jr. This was both well written and for its age had a fair plot concerning an explorer in a desert who stumbles across a great cavern filled with the usual alien machinery. After killing a queer creature who menaced him, the explorer twirled a number of dials bringing into view a scene in space showing the disk-like ships and their captive buildings. The scene shifts to the interior of the Woolworth Building an earth man stands surounded by a group of alien beings, all dead. The building is released from the tentacles of the ship by this unknown here,but at that moment, an explosion wrecks the cavern and fatally injures the explorer within. RAIDERS FROM SPACE by Harold A. Lower. This story is the most remarkable prophecy of an event that was to happen nine years later! And although it was at the time an O. Henry yarn, the proof of it was brought out in 1938 when Orson Welles had his "Man from Mars" broadcast, creating as it did a high state of panic in parts of the nation. the only variation in Lower's story was that he had substituted television for radio, and on the screen depicted [[?]] of the destruction of New York and the carrying off of the 2 huge buildings by the space raiders. The climax was, of course, the announcer saying that what had just been shown on the screen were highspots from the new German film, "Raiders of Space" which was being shown at a near-by theater. Ten years ago this story was distinctly unusual and a novelty, but today would never be sold, due to it unfailing prophecy, strange as it may seem! - THE END - Rough facimile of the Contest Cover, November 1929 by TimJ[?] S. AVERY
Hevelin Fanzines
sidebar
