Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine

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The only issue; the cover art, probably by Fred Meagher,[1] depicts Dale Arden, Flash Gordon, and Dr. Zarkov.[2]

Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine was a pulp magazine which was launched in December 1936. It was published by Harold Hersey, and was an attempt to cash in on the growing comics boom, and the popularity of the Flash Gordon comic strip in particular. The magazine contained a novel about Flash Gordon and three unrelated stories; there were also eight full-page color illustrations. The quality of both the artwork and the fiction was low, and the magazine saw only a single issue. It is now extremely rare.

Publication history and contents

Although science fiction (sf) had been published before the 1920s, it did not begin to coalesce into a separately marketed genre until the appearance in 1926 of

Everett Bleiler notes that Hersey did not mention the venture in his autobiographical Pulpwood Editor, published a year later, and adds that "given Hersey's usual attempts to glorify himself and to gild his failures, this silence suggests a fiasco larger than usual".[1]

The magazine contained a lead novel and three short stories. The novel, The Master of Mars, by James Edison Northford (or Northfield; the name is spelled one way on the contents page and the other way at the head of the story), has been described by Bleiler as "moronic". Bleiler also comments that of three short stories, one is dated and another third-rate. Two of the stories were by R.R. Winterbotham; one, "The Saga of the Smokepot", was published under his own name; the other, "The Last War", was published under the pseudonym "R.R. Botham". The other story, "The Man Without a Brain", is a collaboration between R.C. Vance (or R.C. Vane; as with Northford, the magazine is inconsistent in spelling the name) and F.K. Young.[1]

Hersey's idea was to have a pulp magazine about comic strip characters; he hoped that there would be sufficient overlap between pulp readers and comics fans to make the magazine successful.[6] The presentation was like that of a typical pulp, but with eight full-page color illustrations, all by Fred Meagher, who had previously illustrated Westerns. Bleiler describes the artwork as crude and "far inferior to the sometimes elegant work" of Alex Raymond, the creator of Flash Gordon.[1]

The attempt to market pulp fiction to comics fans turned out to be the wrong approach: the comics field was on the verge of dramatic successes, but the crossover appeal for pulp magazines was not there.[6] The magazine was not widely known at the time it was issued, and has since become extremely rare.[1]

Bibliographic details

The publisher of Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine was C.J.H. Publishing Co., based in New York. The sole issue was numbered volume 1, number 1; it was in large pulp format, with 96 pages and was priced at 10 cents. Harold Hersey was the president of C.J.H. and the editor of the magazine.[1] A facsimile of the magazine was released as a book in 2005.[8]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bleiler (1998), pp. 575–577.
  2. ^ Carr (2013), pp. 87–88.
  3. ^ Edwards & Nicholls (1992), pp. 1066–1068.
  4. ^ a b "Dan Dunn Detective Magazine". Galactic Central. Phil Stephensen-Payne. Retrieved 28 December 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Tailspin Tommy". Galactic Central. Phil Stephensen-Payne. Retrieved 28 December 2014.
  6. ^ a b c Ashley (1985), pp. 273–274.
  7. ^ Ashley (2000), p. 98.
  8. ^ Ashley, Mike (21 August 2012). "Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine". SF Encyclopedia. Gollancz. Retrieved 29 December 2014.

Sources

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