DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 9, Winter 1945-1946

Transcribe
Translate

Fantasy Commentator, v. 1, issue 9, Winter 1945-1946

Page 207

FANTASY COMMENTATOR
207

Pamphlets: One, edited by John Atkins (no publisher specified; no date; 48pp; 21 1/2 x 14cm; 1/6) contains an editorial contribution called "The Apoplectic Revolution" which concerns a new disease that strikes down everyone who gives away to ungoverned fury of expression. The Call of the Hand and Other Stories by Louis Golding (Wineham: Poynings Press, Ltd., 1944; 32pp; 21 x 14cm; 1/-) includes some ghost stories. A pseudonymous "Edward" has authored The Laboratory Medium (London: E. Biddle, no date; 12pp; 13 x 9 cm; no price given) bears the legend "Yiffway Stories" on its cover. It concerns an apparatus for communicating with the dead, and is described as an episode from a novel called The Supernormal Woman. Two booklets published in Devon have a rather dubious claim for inclusion in this list. They are True Ghost Stories, collected and edited by George C. Bachelor (Lowe Chelston: Gulliver Books Ltd., no date; 49pp; 14 x 11cm; 6d.) and Thrilling Tales by Michael Hervey (Lower Chelston: Gulliver Books Ltd., no date; 48pp; 14 x 11cm; 6d.). The cover of the first shows a white figure flitting under a blue-gray arch; the stories themselves consist of rather unreliable accounts of well-known "authentic" ghostly episodes, such as the Cock Lane spectre. The Hervey booklet sports a cover which is apparently unrelated to its contents; one of its stories concerns the Devil's Hoofmarks at Topsham, and another describes the accomplishment of one M. Bottineau, who could allegedly detect the approach of ships three or four hundred miles away. Then there is Death of the Vampire Baroness by Violet Van der Elst (London: Van der Elst Press, Ltd., 1945; 80pp; 12 x 19cm; 1/6). The stories to be found here are crudely written, and have a peculiarly adolescent flavor. There is a brief account of the authoress, whose "appreciations of life's whims, its kindness and its cruelties, and...understanding of the psychology of Humanity are incomparable, and no finer proof of this can be found than in these stories," etc., etc. This is the lady who stages demonstrations outside jails whenever there is to be a hanging. According to the back cover of this booklet she is also concerned in manufacturing "shavex: a revolution in shaving."

Finally, I mention a few juvenile fantasies. A series of "Mighty Midgets" sell at 2 1/2d. each, and are published by W. Barton of London; they are all the same size (9 1/2 x 6 1/2cm) and pagination (32pp), and are undated: Runaway Robot by S. Sandforde (#5), The Thought Reader by Cameron Carr (#8), Anti-Gas! by D.G. B. Simpson (#31), Terror above the Stratosphere by Nixon Kinson (#36), and Moon Monster (#51) by Charles Ambrose. In spite of a certain carelessness in the use of pseudonyms, #51 is actually a sequel to #36, both being, incidentally, inter-planetaries. a series of modern fairy tales sell variously at 2d. and 2 1/2d., are all undated, and are published by two London firms, sometimes by Popular Fiction Ltd. and at others by the Phoenix Press; they are 18 x 12 1/2cm in size. Bernard Buley, who will be remembered as having contributed to the defunct British science-fiction magazine Scoops, has written them all. There are two series, one involving a "Wizard" and the other a little girl called June, who is "in league with the fairies." The first of these is very badly done, but the second series, built up on an ingeniously constructed mythology, is, allowing for hasty writing, surprisingly good. Two titles are of science-fictional interest: The Wizard in Space (#66; 18pp), which describes two Moon trips, one made by rocket-ship, and another via a magic carpet; and The Boy Who Played with Giants (#72; 16pp), which concerns itself with robots, an anti-gravity ship (whose principle I suspect has been lifted from Strang's A Thousand Miles an Hour) and a "Science City." Elizabeth Portwin's Boy in the Moon (no publisher specified; no date; 15pp; 17 1/2 x 24cm; 2/-) contains colored illustrations by Ern Shaw, some of which depict the interior of a space ship. Like so much fiction intended for children, the style of writing encountered here is very arch and patronizing. The idea of a small boy inadvertently making off with a space ship is doubtless borrowed from H. G. Wells; it seems to me not to have improved during its change of hands. The Moon

Saving...

FANTASY COMMENTATOR 207 Pamphlets: One, edited by John Atkins (no publisher specified; no date; 48pp; 21 1/2 x 14cm; 1/6) contains an editorial contribution called "The Apoplectic Revolution" which concerns a new disease that strikes down everyone who gives away to ungoverned fury of expression. The Call of the Hand and Other Stories by Louis Golding (Wineham: Poynings Press, Ltd., 1944; 32pp; 21 x 14cm; 1/-) includes some ghost stories. A pseudonymous "Edward" has authored The Laboratory Medium (London: E. Biddle, no date; 12pp; 13 x 9 cm; no price given) bears the legend "Yiffway Stories" on its cover. It concerns an apparatus for communicating with the dead, and is described as an episode from a novel called The Supernormal Woman. Two booklets published in Devon have a rather dubious claim for inclusion in this list. They are True Ghost Stories, collected and edited by George C. Bachelor (Lowe Chelston: Gulliver Books Ltd., no date; 49pp; 14 x 11cm; 6d.) and Thrilling Tales by Michael Hervey (Lower Chelston: Gulliver Books Ltd., no date; 48pp; 14 x 11cm; 6d.). The cover of the first shows a white figure flitting under a blue-gray arch; the stories themselves consist of rather unreliable accounts of well-known "authentic" ghostly episodes, such as the Cock Lane spectre. The Hervey booklet sports a cover which is apparently unrelated to its contents; one of its stories concerns the Devil's Hoofmarks at Topsham, and another describes the accomplishment of one M. Bottineau, who could allegedly detect the approach of ships three or four hundred miles away. Then there is Death of the Vampire Baroness by Violet Van der Elst (London: Van der Elst Press, Ltd., 1945; 80pp; 12 x 19cm; 1/6). The stories to be found here are crudely written, and have a peculiarly adolescent flavor. There is a brief account of the authoress, whose "appreciations of life's whims, its kindness and its cruelties, and...understanding of the psychology of Humanity are incomparable, and no finer proof of this can be found than in these stories," etc., etc. This is the lady who stages demonstrations outside jails whenever there is to be a hanging. According to the back cover of this booklet she is also concerned in manufacturing "shavex: a revolution in shaving." Finally, I mention a few juvenile fantasies. A series of "Mighty Midgets" sell at 2 1/2d. each, and are published by W. Barton of London; they are all the same size (9 1/2 x 6 1/2cm) and pagination (32pp), and are undated: Runaway Robot by S. Sandforde (#5), The Thought Reader by Cameron Carr (#8), Anti-Gas! by D.G. B. Simpson (#31), Terror above the Stratosphere by Nixon Kinson (#36), and Moon Monster (#51) by Charles Ambrose. In spite of a certain carelessness in the use of pseudonyms, #51 is actually a sequel to #36, both being, incidentally, inter-planetaries. a series of modern fairy tales sell variously at 2d. and 2 1/2d., are all undated, and are published by two London firms, sometimes by Popular Fiction Ltd. and at others by the Phoenix Press; they are 18 x 12 1/2cm in size. Bernard Buley, who will be remembered as having contributed to the defunct British science-fiction magazine Scoops, has written them all. There are two series, one involving a "Wizard" and the other a little girl called June, who is "in league with the fairies." The first of these is very badly done, but the second series, built up on an ingeniously constructed mythology, is, allowing for hasty writing, surprisingly good. Two titles are of science-fictional interest: The Wizard in Space (#66; 18pp), which describes two Moon trips, one made by rocket-ship, and another via a magic carpet; and The Boy Who Played with Giants (#72; 16pp), which concerns itself with robots, an anti-gravity ship (whose principle I suspect has been lifted from Strang's A Thousand Miles an Hour) and a "Science City." Elizabeth Portwin's Boy in the Moon (no publisher specified; no date; 15pp; 17 1/2 x 24cm; 2/-) contains colored illustrations by Ern Shaw, some of which depict the interior of a space ship. Like so much fiction intended for children, the style of writing encountered here is very arch and patronizing. The idea of a small boy inadvertently making off with a space ship is doubtless borrowed from H. G. Wells; it seems to me not to have improved during its change of hands. The Moon