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The Fantasy Fan (1933-1935) Full Run

Started by Theagenes,

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Theagenes

Theagenes

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I just picked up a collection of very rare fanzines from the 1930's that I'm really excited about and had to share. The Fantasy Fan was the first fanzine devoted to weird fiction and fantasy. It was sort of the weird fiction version of The Time Traveler. The publisher was a young fan named Charles Hornig who collaborated with Forrest Ackerman, Mort Weisinger, Julie Schwartz, and a couple of other guys to produce the first issue. In addition to contributions from these pioneers of fandom, several pros contributed stories and verse as well, including H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, August Derleth, Robert Bloch, Eando Binder and others.

 

The most notable contributions included the first appearance of an unsold Conan story by REH, "Gods of the North" (better known as "The Frost Giant's Daughter"), the first appearances of the HPL's "The Other Gods" and "From Beyond", and CAS's "The Kingdom of the Worm." TFF also included a letter column in the first few issues call "The Boiling Point" but it was discontinued after it devolved into an internet-style flame war between Ackerman, HPL, and CAS.

 

After receiving a copy of the first issue of TFF in September 1933, publisher Hugo Gernsback hired the 17 year old Hornig as the new editor of Wonder Stories. Horning continued his fan publication, however, which lasted for eighteen issues until it finally folded in 1935. The circulation of TFF was never large--only around sixty copies--and very few of those survive, much less full runs, so I am incredibly excited to own this amazing slice of fandom history.

 

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Theagenes

Theagenes

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This is the issue with the unsold Conan story, "The Frost Giant's Daughter." It was the second Conan story to be written, but was rejected by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright. Howard retitled it "The Frost King's Daughter" and changed Conan's name to "Amra." SInce "Amra" was one of Conan's nicknames, the readers of TFF would have understood who it was supposed to be. Hornig changed the name to "Gods of the North." The story would not be published again for two decades.

 

 

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