Here is the content of a letter, attributed to Standard Magazines editor Leo Margulies, sent to science fiction fanzine editors in 1939. This text is from Bob Tucker's classic fanzine Le Zombie (vol. 2, No. 4, Oct 28, 1939) "Dear Mr. Tucker, Can there be anything new in scientifiction? We say yes -- and offer CAPTAIN FUTURE. Fellows, CAPTAIN FUTURE is tops in scientifantasy! A brand new book-length magazine novel devoted exclusively to a star-studded quartet of the most glamorous characters in the Universe. And the most colorful planeteer in the Solar System to lead them -- CAPTAIN FUTURE. You'll find Captain Future the man of Tomorrow! His adventures will appear in each & every issue of the magazine that bears his name. He ought to be good. We spent months planning the character, breathing the fire of life into him. For we feel that the man who controls the destinies of nine planets has to be good. But don't take our word for it -- get your first copy of CAPTAIN FUTURE the day it hits the newstands and marvel at the wizard of science as he does his stuff on every thrilling page. You'll find Captain Future the most dynamic space-farer the cosmos has ever seen. A super-man who uses the forces of super-science so that you will believe in them. You'll see Captain Future's space craft, the Comet spurting thru the ether with such hurricane fury you'll think Edmond Hamilton, the author, has hurled you on a comet's tail. And you'll agree that Captain Future's inhuman cavalcade -- the Futuremen -- supplement the world's seven wonders. There's Grag, the metal robot; Otho, the synthetic android; and Simon Wright, the living brain. A galaxy of the ultimate immortal forces! So come on....give the most scintillating magazine ever to appear on the scientifiction horizon the once over. You'll be telling us, as we tell you now, that CAPTAIN FUTURE represents fantasy at it's unbeatable best. CAPTAIN FUTURE will appear at all newsstands in a few weeks. Price, 15 cents. First issue features Edmond Hamilton's novel, CAPTAIN FUTURE AND THE SPACE EMPEROR. Cover by Rozen. Illustrations by Wesso. Short stories by Eric Frank Russell and O. Sarri. Brand new departments -- THE WORLDS OF TOMORROW, THE FUTUREMEN, UNDER OBSERVATION, and THE MARCH OF SCIENCE. That's all. --Leo Margulies" Table of Contents Introduction by Richard A. Lupoff Original Magazine Editorial "Captain Future and the Space Emperor" (Captain Future, Win 40) "Calling Captain Future" (Captain Future, Spr 40) "Captain Future's Challenge" (Captain Future, Sum 40) "The Triumph of Captain Future" (Captain Future, Fll 40) "The Future of Captain Future" Artwork Gallery
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About the Author
EDMOND HAMILTON (October 21, 1904 - February 1, 1977) A popular author of science fiction stories and novels during the mid-twentieth century. Born in Youngstown, Ohio, he was raised there and in nearby New Castle, Pennsylvania. Something of a child prodigy, he graduated high school and started college (Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania) at the age of 14 but washed out at 17. His career as a science fiction writer began with the publication of the story, "The Monster God of Mamurth," which appeared in the August 1926 issue of the classic magazine of alternative fiction, Weird Tales. Hamilton quickly became a central member of the remarkable group of Weird Tales writers assembled by editor Farnsworth Wright, that included H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. Hamilton would publish 79 works of fiction in Weird Tales between 1926 and 1948, making him one of the most prolific of the magazine's contributors (only Seabury Quinn and August Derleth appeared more frequently). Hamilton became a friend and associate of several Weird Tales veterans, including E. Hoffmann Price and Otis Adelbert Kline; most notably, he struck up a 40-year friendship with close contemporary Jack Williamson, as Williamson records in his 1984 autobiography Wonder's Child. In the late 1930s Weird Tales printed several striking fantasy tales by Hamilton, most notably "He That Hath Wings" (July 1938), one of his most popular and frequently-reprinted pieces. Through the late 1920s and early '30s Hamilton wrote for all of the SF pulp magazines then publishing, and contributed horror-thriller stories to various other magazines as well. He was very popular as an author of space opera, a sub-genre he created along with E.E. "Doc" Smith. His story "The Island of Unreason" (Wonder Stories, May 1933) won the first Jules Verne Prize as the best SF story of the year (this was the first SF prize awarded by the votes of fans, a precursor of the later Hugo Awards). In the later 1930s, in response to the economic strictures of the Great Depression, he also wrote detective and crime stories. In the 1940s, Hamilton was the primary force behind the "Captain Future" franchise, an SF pulp designed for juvenile readers that won him many fans, but diminished his reputation in later years when science fiction moved away from its space-opera roots. Hamilton was always associated with an extravagant, romantic, high-adventure style of SF, perhaps best represented by his 1947 novel The Star Kings. As the SF field grew more sophisticated, his brand of extreme adventure seemed ever more quaint, corny, and dated. In 1946 Hamilton began writing for DC Comics, specializing in stories for their characters Superman and Batman. One of his best known Superman stories was "Superman Under the Red Sun" which appeared in Action Comics #300 in 1963 and which has numerous elements in common with his novel City At World's End (1951). He wrote other works for DC Comics, including the short-lived science fiction series Chris KL-99 (in Strange Adventures), which was loosely based on his Captain Future character. He retired from comics in 1966. On December 31, 1946, Hamilton married fellow science fiction author and screen writer Leigh Brackett. Afterward he would produce some of his best work, including his novels The Star of Life (1947), The Valley of Creation (1948), City at World's End, and The Haunted Stars (1960). In this more mature phase of his career, Hamilton moved away from the romantic and fantastic elements of his earlier fiction to create some unsentimental and realistic stories, such as "What's It Like Out There?" (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Dec. 1952), his single most frequently-reprinted and anthologized work. adapted from the Wikipedia entry on Edmond Hamilton
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Now all those wonderful science fiction adventures of yesteryear are available in a single 776-page volume,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Collected Captain Future, Volume One (Hardcover)
Edmond Hamilton (1926-1977) was a pioneer of American science fiction who began his writing career during the 'Golden Age' of pulp magazines. He sold his first story, 'The Monster-God of Mamorth" to Weird Tales magazine in 1926 and became a prolific contributor to the science fiction pulp magazines of the 30s and 40s. He was writing and getting published through the 1960s, even as the popularity of science fiction action/adventure tales of the kind he specialized in was fading. Now under the deft and expert editorship of Stephen Haffner, Haffner Press is bringing out deluxe editions comprising all of the Edmond Hamilton stories, beginning with "Captain Future", a quintessential science fiction hero who, along with his three companions (a sentient robot, a synthetic android, and a disembodied brain kept alive in a serum-case) protected the solar system against all manner of villains and menaces. Captain Future was such a popular character that it became the title of one of the many science fiction pulp magazines of the day. Now all those wonderful science fiction adventures of yesteryear are available in a single 776-page volume.
Also very highly recommended for dedicated science fiction fans and made available by Haffner Press is a collection of Edmond Hamilton stories originally published in the pages of Weird Tales magazine (along with two that were published in Amazing Stories Quarterly and one printed in Science Wonder Quarterly): "The Collected Edmond Hamilton: Volume One: The Metal Giants And Others" and "The Collected Edmond Hamilton: Volume Two: The Star-Stealers: The Complete Tales of the Interstellar Patrol".
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
NOT complete in one volume, but don't let that stop you from purchasing,
By
This review is from: The Collected Captain Future, Volume One (Hardcover)
Just a note to comment on the previous review, which might lead you to believe that ALL of the Captain Future adventures are collected in this volume. To the contrary, this volume collects only the first four (of twenty) novel-length Captain Future stories (there were also an additional seven shorter "novelette"-length stories in the series). Haffner Press plans to collect all of the stories eventually (which, by my math, would eventually make this series of books run to six volumes - or perhaps five, if the page count increases in future volumes).
Nevertheless, don't let that stop you. These are wonderful, FUN stories of a retro-future that never was, and never will be -- a perfect fusion of Golden Age sci-fi pulp space opera and DOC SAVAGE-style pulp hero adventures. CAPTAIN FUTURE was the only sci-fi pulp hero to have his own eponymously-named pulp magazine, and certainly one of the greatest. In the tradition of E.E. 'Doc' Smith's LENSMAN series and Jack Williamson's LEGION OF SPACE stories, these are space operas of the first order, and the inspiration for modern space-adventure series like STAR TREK, STAR WARS, and innumerable comic book sci-fi heroes from Marvel and DC. Long Live the Futuremen!
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
1940's YA space adventure, vol 1 of 6,
By
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This review is from: The Collected Captain Future, Volume One (Hardcover)
Later in the 1940's, Edmond Hamilton wrote for superhero comics, including Superman and Batman. This shows what qualified him to do that: writing a sci-fi superhero with an offsider or three (the "Futuremen", coincidentally also the name of the fan club). Captain Future is a "great hero", "scourge of evil" etc, physically and mentally outstanding in every way, due to training from his boyhood onwards from a disembodied scientist brain, an incredibly strong robot and an super-fast and agile android. Its pretty clearly written at a YA market, but is still a very effective series of detective-adventure tales in space. You are never too old to read this stuff, really, and the wonder of being a young reader again comes flooding back pretty fast.
The first 4 novel-length stories are here, together with the old pulp illustrations and editorial and reader correspondence. The series was reader driven: you'd be asked if you wanted to see certain things, and if so, there was every chance it would pop up in a future story. You have to feel a little sorry for Hamilton - a lot of the letters were saying a 3-montly publication schedule was too slow; they wanted their 150-page Captain Future hit monthly! The stories may be a little bit formulaic, but still that would be a bridge too far even for someone as prolific as Hamilton. Captain Future - or Curt Newton - is here vanquishing evil attempts to control the planetary system at every turn. There are secret agents (and a pretty female one, at that!) grizzled old lawmen, and a host of other bit-part players both friendly and sinister. Some of it is remarkably effective: there is a scene in "Calling Captain Future" where our hero is trapped in a space sargasso with a host of old dead ships that have also been trapped there over the years, including a strange alien ship from outside the solar system containing hibernating vampiric octopus-men. The whole sequence seemed familiar (except for the vampiric octopus-men), but I had never read it before, which meant I had either read (or seen on TV, more likely) a rip-off/homage to it. Its easy to forget that this was written 70 years ago! This book may be 700 pages long, but the print is large and you can read it quickly without ever getting bogged down. Well done to Haffner Press for making a truly beautiful book, and for bringing back Captain Future. This volume is the embodiment of "good clean fun".
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