Roger Dard
Old Bill Shakespeare really said a mouthful when he made his crack that "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Recently I got to thinking about some of the magazines which consistently published fantasy and science fiction -- or what their editors fondly regarded as fantasy and science fiction -- but which have never been accepted by fandom as legitimate fantasy magazines. What was there about these wretched prozines which denied them a place in the exclusive checklists and indices of fandom? Was it because their titles were not fantastic enough? And immediately I thought of the Bard and his saying. I decided to investigate several of these pariah publications and see for myself, if they had any clains to be regarded as fantasy, despite their non-fantasy titled. This article then is a brief (mercifully brief perhaps you will say) evaluation of three different magazines which should, perhaps, merit some consideration as fantasy publications.
The first of these friendless prozines I delved into was one called CAPTAIN ZERO? and subtitled Master of Midnight. When this magazine first appeared upon the stands late in 1949, there was nothing about the cover blurb to indicate that this was anything but an addition to the canon of detective story magazines published by Popular Pubs of New York. The fan who takes the trouble to delve within it's pages however, will find to his surprise that CAPTAIN ZERO has strong claims to being accepted as a fantasy magazine.
The main character in the stories, Lee Allyn, alias Captain Zero, followed the pattern established by other crime-busters of the Doc Savage, Black Bat, Shadow, et al. school. In one respect, howere, Zero differed radically from his contemporaries - for Zero possessed the power of invisibility! Unfortunately for Zero he had no power over his strange affliction (for affliction he regarded it as) and he could not turn his invisibility on and off at will in the accepted tradition of most pulp invisible men. At the stroke of midnight, Zero's body would begin to glow, become transparent, and finally fade into invisibility. There was nothing supernatural about this phenomenon; it came about because Zero had once been subjected to what author G. Fleming Roberts described as "a terrific jolt of radioactive arsenic". Ever since, the radioactive rays emenating from Zero's body caused him to fade at midnight and to remain invisible until dawn. ((Wasn't that hard on his nite-life?))
A pleasing feature of the Captain Zero stories is the painstaking care the writer takes with minor details often overlooked by other writers. When Zero felt his metamorphosis about to take place he stripped - a refreshing change from the invisible men who have blithely turned their invisibility on and off while fully clothed. Fleming Robert's attention to even the most minor details is evidenced by an incident in "The City of Dreadful Sleep". Zero, invisible in a room full of people wished to pick up a note book of vital importance, but dared not; "He (Zero) smiled at the irony of the situation. A normal man could have slipped the note book into his pocket and walked off with it, but Zero could not hide anything."
Zero could not perform the simple task of opening and closing a door for obviously a door miraculously opening of it's own accord would announce his presence to the enemy. In "The City of Dreadful Sleep" Zero was forced to stand helplessly by and watch a man being murdered because he dared not open the door between himself and the killers, it being imperative that his presence be unknown. Zero dreaded to enter a plushly carpeted room, for the impressions of his footsteps would show in the carpet. Fleming Robert's scrupulous attention to minute detail of this nature made his incredible character a little more believable.
The Captain Zero stories are smoothly written, completely enjoyable, and in the opinion of this writer can be regarded as legitimate fantasy. That Zero during his brief career (the magazine folded with the third issue) battled 20th century gangsters rather than invaders from outer space or bug-eyed monsters does not disqualify him from being regarded as a fantasy character. If it did it would also disqualify a number of other fantasy characters whose bona-fides have never been challenged; Eando Binder's "Invisible Robin Hood" for example.
Fourteen years before Zero, the same publishers came out with a magazine entitled THE MYSTERIOUS WU FANG. Issue No. 1 appeared dated Sept. 1935, but the length of life this publication enjoyed is unknown to me, as I only possess a couple of issues in my collection.
Wu Fang's status as a fantasy character is more suspect than that of Captain Zero but some sort of case can be made for the sinister Chinese crime lord. The stories were closely modeled upon Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu series tho much more crudely written. The stories differed too from the Sax Rohmer originals in the motives of the principal character for Fu Wang possessed none of the idealism which characterized Fu Manchu. To those fans who have never read any of the Fu Manchu series, it may come as a surprise to learn that he was idealistic, for the popular fallacy is that the Chinese Doctor was an unmitigated scoundrel. Indeed, the blurb on the cover of the Avon comic book version refers to "The Chinese Devil Man ... who wanted to rule the world". This is hardly an accurate description of Sax Rohmer's character. True, Fu Manchu was the villain of the series and he did not hesitate to kill ruthlessly when the need arose, but his actions were all motivated by the desire to bring about world peace. Fu Manchu killed only those working toward plunging the world into war and there are times in the stories when the detective-hero wishes that he were fighting with Fu instead of against him.
No such sloppy sentiment inhibited the mysterious Wu Fang. The ambition of the Chinese crime lord was, according to the blurbs "to own the world". The Dragon Lord had complete disregard for human life and in his more playful moments was pat to experiment with deadly new weapons on human guinea pigs. In "The Case of Six Coffins" Wu Fang, uncertain of the effects of a deadly new gas his agents had stolen, drops a vial of the stuff on an English town, wiping out the entire population. Expressing complete satisfaction with the stuff, Wu Fang, at the story's climax attempts to wipe out New York ((where else?)) with the weapon, only to be foiled by the two heroes, Val Kildare of the F.B.I. and newspaper reporter, Jerry Hazard.
The final magazine I wish to comment upon has the distinction of still being current. This publication is Fiction House's JUNGLE STORIES. While most of the short stories in this publication are simply African-adventure stuff, the lead novel in each issue features the adventures of a Tarzan-like character named Ki-Gor, White Lord of the Jungle. In fact, the stories are very similar to those of ERB, while of course, lacking the touch of the Master. I feel that a precedent has been established in accepting the Tarzan stories as fantasy. Since we have done so, we must accept Ki-Gor as fantasy also.
Most of Ki-Gor's adventures are with hostile natives and evil white men but occasionally the White Lord is dropped smack into the middle of a one hundred percent fantasy. Typical of these is "Beast Gods of Atlantis". Ki-Gor, his res-headed mate (the drool provoking Helene) and the two native chiefs, Ngeeso and Tembu George, stumble upon the lost city of Atlantis in the midst of the Congo jungle. They find descendents of the original Atlanteans living there completely unaware of the outside world. The Atlanteans are ruled by a beautiful Queen (natch) but the real power behind the throne is the evil priest Sha-Topat. Ki-Gor and his buddies help to overthrow the priest and secure the throne for the Queen. She however, proves treacherous and orders their death. Ki-Gor and his companions destroy the city and its evil people and flee back to the jungle. Corny? Sure, but nobody can deny it is fantasy, if not fantasy of a very high order.
There have been, of course, other publications which consistently printed fantasy without ever having their magazines accepted as fantasy by fandom. Perhaps at a future date I will deal with some of these others. But just now, I'd like to say that the trio of prozines reviewed here are entitled to be accepted as legitimate fantasy publications. What do you think?
-- Roger Dard
Data entry by Judy Bemis
Updated June 17, 2001. If you have a comment about these web pages please send a note to the Fanac Webmaster. Thank you.