Of late, quite a number of English 'penny dreadfuls,' or known to others as 'blood and thunders' are finding their way into this country, from London.
These small magazines have very lurid covers. Almost every one of these publications run science fiction, or what could be termed science fiction by a very broadminded person. The plots are scientific, even though some of the tales contain very little science.
The Wizard Magazine is running a serial named "The End of the World," and in the same issue, another story, "Vengeance of the Incas," tells of the Incas overcoming their enemies with a huge Sunray, which burns up everything in its path. Another mag by name of Boys' Magazine is running a thriller "The 1933 Dragon Killer" and two others, "The House of Mocking Shadows," and "Tiger Boy," which, you may guess, is on the same plot as Tarzan, Kaspa, Tam, and Jan. Still another pub., The Skipper, is running "The Moon Men," and is about those gentlemen visiting the Earth, intent on its capture, as usual. One of the weird type is in this issue; "The Ice Pirates."
A fourth mag, The Rover, is running a serial that is amazingly like a story that was in an American mag last spring. The story is "The Flaming Avenger," and the author has his hero do the very same thing the American did, and copied the idea completely, even down to the invention the hero made, and used the invention to do the same work with, that the American did. Of course, locale, names, and situations are different, but outside of that, the two plots are similar. Plagiarism?
In some cases, the authors do put some good science into their stories, although, for the most part, they write the stf stories, and forget to explain the method of science used. Others put some science in, but make it as brief as possible. And in no case, is the author's name given in the magazines. Evidently they believe in playing safe, because there ARE copyright laws in that country!
MY SCIENCE FICTION COLLECTION
by Forrest J. Ackerman
(It is well-known that Mr. Ackerman is the most active science fiction fan. His collection is the most unique, if not the largest in the world. You will be surprised to learn of the various things beside the stories themselves that can be collected.)
My files of the stf publications edited by Gernsback, Bates, Dr. Sloane, and Rose Bolton (Miracle Stories) are complete. I think that covers in a breath the 230 copies of standard stf. magazines.
In the line of further written material I have: the Amazing Stories booklet, "Vanguard of Venus"; Gernsback's 18 stf. booklets, and the one Science Fiction Classic; "Guests of the Earth," the first Fantastic Fiction Library publication; all of the Science Fiction Library's releases; thirty-two booklets, mostly English, including such titles as "A Round Trip to the Year 2000, The Robot Man, Invaders from Mars," etc; the illustrated Buck Rogers book of the 25th century; 164 bound amazing stories from Argosy, Weird Tales, Popular, Excitement, etc, with a quarter of a hundred more in the process of being made into books—including such stories of outstanding interest as "The Blind Spot, Men from Space, The Girl in the Golden Atom, Return of George Washington, Snake Mother," and other tales of considerable value and popularity; the science fiction from Science and Invention bound from as far back as 1921, the stories being, besides the thirty or more Dr. Hackensaw's Secrets, Ray Cummings' "Around the Universe," and a number of short stf tales. The special science fiction edition of this publication is also included. Copies of the futuristic cartoon strip, Buck Rogers, and such other newspaper stf. as the illustrated interplanetaryarn "Rocketing thru the Universe," another called "Into the Deeps of Space," Clinton Constantinescu's "The Martian Menace" and other miscellaneous works finish up that part of my collection.