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Science Fiction Fan, v. 1, no. 4, October 1936

Page 3

THE SCIENCE FICTION FAN 3

Now at this writing we have no less than six professional and semi-professional magazines of a great variety of sizes and formats, that print exclusively material that can be labeled "fantastic". We can take these magazines as we come to them and easily, I believe, find just what the fantastic future may be.
First let us consider what seems to be the foremost science fiction magazine, Astounding Stories. This magazine of course has as its first aim money making, that is, in short, catering to the readers that BUY. Thus we have about 60% of the stories in Astounding being just "common" the other 40% ranges from fair to extra good. The extra good being only about 10%.
next we have that old faithful Amazing Stories (where, oh where is the punk that thought of these magazine names") Amazing is the last stronghold of the old guard. Here we will find that type of material known as "Science Fiction", tried and true, plain and simple. Amazing runs about 98% in just plain science fiction. 2% being out of the ordinary in every way.
And the last of the science group happens to be that recent blurp Thrilling Wonder. Needless to say Thrilling W. happens to be the "other side" of stf. By the other side I mean that plain old take told so often in the days of the Dime Novel. It's just the same, only in Thrilling the heroes tote "ray gats" instead of "six-shooters", and ride "rockets" instead of that trusty "hoss". Hence Thrilling goes 100% - blood and thunder, wild and wooly.
A summing up of the science group leaves this? 42% of the readers, writers and the circulation of the 3 magazines are going up - towards pure phantasy. 60% remains in that regular present day rut, that of thought "vagrants" and "new policys". 98% remain in yesteryear, that day of the old science fiction. And 100% start off for ye old blood and thunder. It should be understood that when I say per cent I mean 300%, when referring to these magazines in this paragraph.
now in considering the magazine that is supposed to be the only weird magazine: Weird Tales, we don't have so much to do. In trying to keep up with the recent out-break of horror magazines Weird Tales has been using a lot of stuff that is decidedly not weird. But 40% remains good, going up, and 60% is very definitely going down.
Now let us take all these four magazines as one: Of the total for the four of 400%, 160 goes down, 158 remains as is and 82 goes up. Sooner or later the 158% that remains "as is" will divide with the "ups" and "downs". But in any even the ups will remain a small group.
And now we get to that soon to appear magazine Marvel Tales. When Marvel Takes was started Crawford said he was going to give good reading of the UP kind. To date he has to a good percentage, his good being about 50%, and the medium 50% also. Undoubtedly then the only conclusion to reach is that as soon as Marvel Tales hits the stands it will take the lead among the newsstand magazines. Sooner or later the readers will finally divide into three groups, those that like the blood and thunder and those that like the phantasy that is to be: Pure Phantasy. Undoubtedly each of

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THE SCIENCE FICTION FAN 3 Now at this writing we have no less than six professional and semi-professional magazines of a great variety of sizes and formats, that print exclusively material that can be labeled "fantastic". We can take these magazines as we come to them and easily, I believe, find just what the fantastic future may be. First let us consider what seems to be the foremost science fiction magazine, Astounding Stories. This magazine of course has as its first aim money making, that is, in short, catering to the readers that BUY. Thus we have about 60% of the stories in Astounding being just "common" the other 40% ranges from fair to extra good. The extra good being only about 10%. next we have that old faithful Amazing Stories (where, oh where is the punk that thought of these magazine names") Amazing is the last stronghold of the old guard. Here we will find that type of material known as "Science Fiction", tried and true, plain and simple. Amazing runs about 98% in just plain science fiction. 2% being out of the ordinary in every way. And the last of the science group happens to be that recent blurp Thrilling Wonder. Needless to say Thrilling W. happens to be the "other side" of stf. By the other side I mean that plain old take told so often in the days of the Dime Novel. It's just the same, only in Thrilling the heroes tote "ray gats" instead of "six-shooters", and ride "rockets" instead of that trusty "hoss". Hence Thrilling goes 100% - blood and thunder, wild and wooly. A summing up of the science group leaves this? 42% of the readers, writers and the circulation of the 3 magazines are going up - towards pure phantasy. 60% remains in that regular present day rut, that of thought "vagrants" and "new policys". 98% remain in yesteryear, that day of the old science fiction. And 100% start off for ye old blood and thunder. It should be understood that when I say per cent I mean 300%, when referring to these magazines in this paragraph. now in considering the magazine that is supposed to be the only weird magazine: Weird Tales, we don't have so much to do. In trying to keep up with the recent out-break of horror magazines Weird Tales has been using a lot of stuff that is decidedly not weird. But 40% remains good, going up, and 60% is very definitely going down. Now let us take all these four magazines as one: Of the total for the four of 400%, 160 goes down, 158 remains as is and 82 goes up. Sooner or later the 158% that remains "as is" will divide with the "ups" and "downs". But in any even the ups will remain a small group. And now we get to that soon to appear magazine Marvel Tales. When Marvel Takes was started Crawford said he was going to give good reading of the UP kind. To date he has to a good percentage, his good being about 50%, and the medium 50% also. Undoubtedly then the only conclusion to reach is that as soon as Marvel Tales hits the stands it will take the lead among the newsstand magazines. Sooner or later the readers will finally divide into three groups, those that like the blood and thunder and those that like the phantasy that is to be: Pure Phantasy. Undoubtedly each of