Page:Amazing Stories Volume 15 Number 12.djvu/9

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AMAZING STORIES
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mystery, and science, and action, and human situation. In short, Repp can still burn up the spacelanes for our money!

OLD favorite Ray Cummings is back once more with a fascinating time-travel yarn. We all like this kind of story, and this is one you'll enjoy for its romantic, refreshing treatment so expected from the old master.

JOHN YORK CABOT'S latest effort to come from his effortless typewriter is another Sergeant Shane story, based on the character that made such an unexpected hit in a recent issue. This big palooka of the Space Marines has an uncanny faculty for getting into trouble, and getting out of it by his wit, used in a rather witless fashion. You'll like his clever (?) managing of an important race between members of the crews of the two biggest warships in the fleet! But you'll have to forgive him for pulling a few fast ones—a sailor has to have some fun, doesn't he?

ESPECIALLY do we want to point out the latest space story by Duncan Farnsworth. Your editors think this one is something for the books. We can't exactly tell you what it has that makes it "sing," but you'll understand what we mean when you read it.

Scientist L. TayLOR HANSEN does our Scientific Mystery this month, and if you remember his story "Lords of the Underworld," you'll be mighty interested in what he has to say about those ancient cities he described in his story, because they do exist, and are probably South America's crowning mystery.

ONCE again we put in a call for gags for our very popular cartoons. We can't understand why a country as cartoon-conscious as this can't produce science fiction cartoonists who can ring the bell more than once in not-very-often. Come on, you smart readers, earn yourselves some easy money. We pay for cartoon gags and ideas, and we assign 'em to cartoonists to finish.

OUR recent "blasts" at the fans and the fan magazines have created quite a stir. The August issue of one of these magazines, circulated to a small reader group, has several comments we would like to pass on. We quote, in the next paragraph, exactly as we read it in Lynn Brieves' column:


"After accusing our mag of gross inaccuracies in reporting, Amazing's editor proceeds to misquote us . . . When we said the stories in AS and FA stink, we definitely did not use the words "without exception." What we meant, of course, was that the stories, almost without exception, produce an unpleasant aroma. In general, the stories in Amazing and Fantastic are pure adventure, with just a touch of science or fantasy, the more illogical the better. And the editor's habit of "improving" on the author's work by rewriting the ending (and, we have reason to believe, sometimes the beginning and the middle) of a story, certainly doesn't make for good science fiction. A prize example of editorial "improvement" was the recent "The Lost Race Comes Back." That story, right up until almost the end, was very good, then the editor stepped in and rewrote the finish, making it into something not even fit for comic magazines. . . . We don't like the stories in the Ziff-Davis mags, nor apparently, does fandom in general. The Widner pro mag poll doesn't tell exactly where AS and FA stand in the eyes of the fans, since Art lists only the ten favorites."


ANOTHER brief quote from the column by Artiste reads as follows: "Krupa changes to Johnson in the latest Amazing."

A NSWERING the latter we admire Artiste's imagination. For it is sheer imagination. Ralph Johnson is not Krupa. Who told you he was? Your editor received no letter from any columnist asking if this "news" was true, yet it is definitely stated as true, and artist Johnson is wronged with no chance to defend himself. Why not check these facts before you publish them?

We will ask Mr. Wilcox to write us a few words for publication in this column, as to what he honestly thinks about what editors do to him.

The Widner poll interests us. But since it is the opinion, even though it were unanimous, of only a few dozen people, it isn't logical to accept its results. We keep a close poll, and checked by circulation figures, we have an accurate guide. Several hundred thousand fans read our magazines, and when we conduct a poll, we get results from all walks of life and all over the world.

(Concluded on page 61)