THE FANTASY FAN

THE FANS' OWN MAGAZINE

Editor: Charles D. Hornig

(Managing Editor: Wonder Stories)

137 West Grand Street, Elizabeth, New Jersey

IT'S UP TO YOU!

The time has come when we must ask you a very important question. Do you want The Fantasy Fan to remain a monthly, or would you rather have a bi-monthly or a quarterly instead? Now, don't answer this question by sending in a written reply. The only way you can answer it is by mailing to us a dollar for a year's subscription. Since the inception of The Fantasy Fan it has been running at a great loss. The cost of having the magazine printed is not small and the subscriptions do not pay for one quarter of the total cost. This fact may astound you, but it is the truth. The Fantasy Fan is young and not many of the fans know of its existence, chiefly because of the lack of a good advertising mediums for the most part, and the refusal of Weird Tales, the only really good medium for advertising such a fan magazine, to accept our ad for the second time. Perhaps you do not find our magazine worth a dollar a year, and that weird fiction would get along just as well without a fan magazine. In this case, you need pay no attention to this editorial. But there are those of us who really like our magazine and would not like to see it go bi-monthly or quarterly and yet have not subscribed. Of course, those of our readers who have, have all done their part and are under no obligation. The editor has created a considerable sinking fund for the cost of publication, and although the sinking fund is practically exhausted, we are not sunk! As long as he has an income, the editor is willing to sacrifice a portion of it to keep The Fantasy Fan alive—but he alone cannot keep it a monthly. You cannot lose by the deal. You will get full value for your money. Our magazine will not fail, but if it did, every subscriber on our list would get back his money for those numbers he would not receive. So if the success of our magazine means anything to you, subscribe at once—each dollar sent in will insure a shorter period between issues. If you have already subscribed, try to get some of your friends interested. Give subscriptions for your fantasy fan friends. If your subscription runs out in a month or two, renew it now, ahead of time. Please send only dollar bills or money orders—no checks or stamps. Are you faithful to fantasy fiction?—then let's see action. I'm doing my part—are you doing yours? The February number will be the regular monthly issue, and probably March, but future numbers will be bi-monthly unless you who have not sent in your subscriptions do so at once! If you could foresee the many rare treats we have in store for you, you would not hesitate a moment.

Here's hoping we have many faithful readers.

—The Editor

INFORMATION

Through the courtesy of Ralph Milne Farley, Donald A. Wollheim, David Stolaroff, Ted Lutwin, and several other of our readers, we are able to present this additional list of stories written by Edgar Rice Burroughs as an addenda to the list presented last month:

• The Outlaw of Torm
• The War Chief
• The Mad King
• The Girl From Hollywood
• The Tarzan Twins
• The Girl From Farris's
• The Mucker
• The Man Without a Soul
• The Pirates of Venus
• Lost on Venus
• Tarzan and the Lion Man
• Tarzan and the City of Gold
• The Apache Devil
• The Bandit of Hell's Bend
• The Moon Men
• The Red Hawk
• HRH the Rider
• Efficiency Expert

All of the above stories are not fantasy fiction.

Come over to 'The Boiling Point' and join in the argument.

SCIENCE FICTION IN ENGLISH MAGAZINES

by Bob Tucker

(Series Four)

This month, the column is devoted entirely to a small English publication knows as "Boy's Magazine." The particular issue in discussion is one of late November, 1933.

One of the two fantasy stories in this issue is "The Menace of the Monsters." The monsters, which are prehistoric nightmares of the past, invade England and proceed to raise everything they come upon, including a train, a couple of autos, etc. The story carried three pen and ink sketches which were very well executed. One portrayed a huge stegosaurus uprooting a train of cars, tossing it into the air, and spilling people out of it right and left.

Another illustration showed a tyrannosaurus in a death battle with a giant sabre-tooth tiger … 'tis something to gaze upon, take my word for it!

The other science fiction story in the issue is named "The Ocean Crater" and resembles Astounding's "Telegraph Plateau" somewhat, in the fact that a deep crater opens in the ocean and ships drop down into it. This story has two illustrations, one showing a ship falling into the "ocean-pit" and the other portraying the destruction of an airplane carrier via "electric-arrow" rays from an overhead enemy plane.

Another story in the issue, "Chin Ling's Ghost" was supposed to be a supernatural tale.

(We hope to be able to present another article in this series in an early issue.)

THE BOILING POINT

After five months, the Smith–Ackerman debate is still waxing hot. We open this month's column with another rebuttal from Ackerman:

"Since the pros and cons on my Boiling Point article have changed around to discussions of character, I wish to state that I do not like H. P. Lovecraft's attitude. I was interested in his closing sentence in the second issue, and also in Mr. Derleth's. They were both interesting to analyze. But I resent Mr. Lovecraft's further uncalled for remarks. If I am not qualified to judge any weird tales, he is not qualified to call names. It seems to me of late that his palsy-walsy Clark Ashton Smith has been turning out an over-abundant amount of literature—but goodness! I don't think the man egotistic and attempting to draw attention to himself! The man likes to write, and so do I. Yet Mr. Lovecraft says of me 'peculiarly ridiculous', because I make absurd comments to focus people's eyes on me; and write voluminously for the same reason, I take it. But I don't keep a scrap-book. That's not vary consistent with the nature described, is it? And ask Mr. Hornig what my answer was when he proposed a 'Forrest J. Ackerman' issue of The Fantasy Fan. What a puffing up I should have gotten had I been that sort of person: You tell 'em Charles—what I said: 'No!' Not that I see what difference it makes who writes articles and how many of them there are in one issue, as long as they're good—which I hope mine are. But people will talk. And so I am not obliging with an autobiography of myself for the 'Famous Fantasy Fans' feature either.

"Furthermore, Mr. Lovecraft, you seem to have forgotten something. I keep my letters from famous writers. You say I once wrote you a very childish attack on your work. But your answer to that letter was: 'I was very pleased to get your bright and candid letter this morning.' That is a different story.

"I write these paragraphs in my behalf, because, being more of a weird fans' magazine, I can't expect many voices on my side from