Weird Tales volume 28 number 02 (25 page)

of eyelashes, such meaning a mischievous nature; an arching pair—or a pair that swing in a curve from the temples and drop back; anything but those poor, fluttery lines Brundage favors always. Brundage must have such eyebrows—and the general contour of the faces of her bright-eyed heroines ■—for almost invariably an artist favors his or her type to depict. And why not put more life and horror into the faces—a shrinking type—a staring type—a fascinated type—a shadowed full-face type—a fainting type with half-closed eyes. The hands might be bettered, too. Advise her, Editor, to watch people's hands and catch their personality—their grace."

The Two Ranking Authors

H. W. Morlan, of Fort Knox, Kentucky, writes: "I feel a bit timid, since this is my first letter to the readers' forum. I have followed the magazine since its inception and have at last worked up courage enough to write. Since you ask your readers* opinions on the stories appearing in our magazine, let me say that the two ranking authors, in my opinion, are H. P. Lovecraft and Dark Ashton Smith. Lovecraft has no equal for horror build-up. His climaxes hit you like Schmeling's right-hand punch. Howard's creations, Kull and Conan, are superb. Your other authors are too numerous to enumerate, but the majority turn in the high quality of work typical of our magazine. . . . Whether or not this is printed I remain an enthusiastic booster of the best magazine on the market."

Is This Sarcasm?

Marshall Lemer, of New York Oty, 1 writes: "Occasionally, in the tumult and the shouting over the latest exquisite little tale featuring Jules de Grandin, one still comes upon a reader that feels impelled to bring up the subject of nudes on the covers, a question that I thought had been settled long ago. De gnstibus non est d'tsputandum; thus one young man writes that he 'didn't expect the stories to match the covers', while another earnest critic sadly notes that 'a reader is ashamed to buy a copy (because of the cover) on the news stands.' But let the discussion turn out as it will, I must say that I admire the artistic sense that prompts Brundage to select invariably what is frequently the one nude in the entire issue for the cover illustration. Indubitably she adopts

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this policy in order to attract new lovers of the weird and unusual to our ever-widening circle of readers. And to add to the confusion of the old guard, when they finally persuade Brundage to cover her naked women, she does so in such a manner that more readers write in to ask that such indecent pictures be stopped, And so, when I say that I like nudes, since they seem to arouse a certain eery thrill (in admiration of the weird elements that Brundage portrays so well, of course), 1 seem to be concurring with the general opinion. True, occasionally I receive a curious glance from the gentleman that presides over the local news stand when I ask for Weird Tales, and once I received a copy of Spice and Ginger Srories in pardonable error, but I am no Milquetoast, and can bear the bitter with the sweet as well as the rest."

He Wants Lovecraft's Stories Ivan Funderburgh, R. R. 5, Huntington, Indiana, writes: "The best story of the May issue is The Faceless God. That is one of the best stories I have ever read. I intend to xe-read it many times. The history of Nyar-larhotep is interesting. Bloch is approaching Lovecraft. Finlay's illustration is wonderful. I enjoyed Strange Interval, but the shark incident isn't enough to make it weird fiction. ... If this should get into the Eyrie, would any reader be willing to sell me Lovecraft's works ar a reasonable price? If so, will he please send me a price list?"

Satan's Sub-villain

Robert W. Lowndes, of Canaan, Connecticut, writes: "It is almost with trepidation that one picks up the June issue; the April and May numbers were so excellent in every respect, a let-down seems almost inevitable. If the illustrations are in any way indicative of the stories themselves, then one's fears can be laid; they are splendid. There is one complaint, though: the lettering on the cover. Is the billboard effect necessary? Of course, all the cheap magazines do it, but that is why it seems so utterly out of place in WT. Moreover, I had expected to see you adopt permanently the block picture style you had on the May issue. It is so eminently superior to the others, so completely distinctive and unique, one wonders why you ever left it. Of course, it is admitted that it does cut down a bit on the cover picture. But the May cover did not

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suffer in any respect because the figures were not complete; you had this style of cover in 1931, I recall; why not effect a joyful return? Think also of the many readers who save WT covers; what a boon a picture, neatly blocked off, devoid of all lettering, is to them! They must either take the cover, besprinkled with ads which do not in any way add to the languorous charms of Mrs. Brundage's beauties, as is, or must cut out the figures. And the lettering below the picture on the May cover is conspicuous enough, yea, even more than the mass effect on the June cover. Again, there is the script heading, "The Unique Magazine,' truly a parr ofWT's personality. Can we not have that, at least? One hopes that sufficient letters pour in from other readers similarly minded to show that there is a real majority of feeling on this score. Allow me to pan Mr, Paul Ernst, before going any farther, for his remarkable sub-villain, Girse. Of course, it is not uncommon for WT characters to die several times before making their final exit, but this one had a truly unique demise, He was utterly consumed in The Consuming Flame (quite appropriately) and Satan vowed vengeance. The doctor must have found enough remnants of his departed henchman to revive him, because Girse is well and healthy in Horror Insured until Keane again sends him to a fiery doom. And again Doctor Satan vows vengeance; I looked for Girse to appear in The Devil's Double but evidently Satan decided that Girse was too vulnerable for further resurrections. Perhaps Bostiff, now dead for the first time, can outdo Girse's record. Outside of this one amusing boner, the series have been fine."

Comments on the June Issue

Charles H. Bert, of Philadelphia, writes: "I liked the June issue. For the first time in months you have a real weird cover. Count Woerz, who holds the fragile morsel of humanity in his hands, is certainly evil-looking and would raise the hair on a bald spot. M. Brundage has just the right mixture of the pastel crayons, green and yellow, on the Count's face, giving the expression of a dead-alive corpse. The cover is commendable and in the spirit of the magazine. I have not read Loot of the Vampire, but I am sure it will come up to expectations. Without a doubt the best story in the issue is Black

Canaan by Robert E. Howard. He shows a knowledge of the southern Cajuns and displays it pridefully. If I may say so, I consider Black Canaan superior to The Hour of the Dragon, and weirder. The Conan stories are generally spoiled by excessive slaughter. I cannot be weirdly thrilled month after month, year after year, in which the hero is always slaughtering his enemies with a two-fisted sword. The first few tales were splendid with a primitive power and fired the imagination. But the ones that followed consist of practically the same thing with not much variation in plots. The main thing in those stories was the excessive slaughter. 'Red battles' and 'mighty deeds' don't inspire one with a weird feeling; perhaps to others they do, but not to me. Here's hoping Red Nails, the new Conan serial, pleases me. The description sounds good. I like Hugh Davidson's House of the Evil Eye very much, although I know that Davidson is the nom de plume of Edmond Hamilton. You see, the style of writing betrays him. Hamilton is turning out some very good yarns lately, and I rate House of the Evil Eye among his best. The story \s not as impossible as it sounds. I have a clipping somewhere in my file of strange facts which states that the eye emanates a ray which affects certain forms of vegetable growths. Incredible, but true. It was a recent discovery of modern science. Hamilton is very good when he turns out stories like Child of the Winds, In the World's Dusk, and Murder in the Grave, and quite otherwise when he turns out such junk as The Six Sleepers, with its warped misguided future civilization, and The Great Brain of Kaldar with its lifeless stock characters, impossible happenings, and brainless entities. I was surprized to find The Brain In the far as a reprint. I gave up hope years ago of ever seeing that splendid story once more in Weird Tales. IT I remember correctly, the story was requested by a reader in 1929. I enjoyed it very much and it still stands out as one of the 'eye of prophecy' stories; one of those stories upon which the fame of the magazine was built. It is still unique and different. I don't consider the story impossible. A few months ago Russian scientists discovered a means of preserving living human blood for three months, and you know how complex blood is. Those admirable Russians are going ahead with the

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human tissues, and who knows in another year or so, may find the means of preserving living parts of the human anatomy? Doctor A. Carrel, you know, has kept the heart of a chicken alive for twenty-five years. So you see, in the light of modern science, the impossible sounds possible after all. The Telephone in the Library by August W. Derlcth was fine. His tales are told with a prosaic naturalness carrying the illusion of reality and never disappoint one. I have never read a poor yarn by him. The Grinning Ghoul by Robert Bloch is the best thing he has ever done. It seems to me that Bloch continues to become better in each succeeding tale. The English atmosphere in The Druidic Doom wasn't convincing to me. More than half of the story was taken up by tedious descriptions of the legend which formed the background of the story. I found the same fault with the African desert scene of The Faceless God. Bloch is on familiar ground in his latest concoction and is no slouch with the pen. The Ruler of Pate by Jack Williamson comes to a satisfactory conclusion. His characters are human beings and not like the dummies I have read in stories in other magazines. Athonee appeals to me very much, even if she wasn't a human being. Aru is a despicable person and I would be delighted with the job of choking him. Golden Blood still remains as Williamson's most outstanding story. The best of the short stories was The Harbor of Ghosts by Bardine. Lethe was a very good yarn, and Mordecai's Pipe will delight the hearts of pipe connoisseurs."

Concise Comments

Paul M. Guignon, of Philadelphia, writes: "1 am cjuite a reader of Weird Tales. I like the way it is distinguished from other magazines of its kind. Of all the stories you have published, I enjoyed particularly The Thing in the Fog, by Seabury Quinn, in the March issue of 1933. That story, 1 am sure, is a masterpiece of weird fiction."

Edmond Hamilton writes from his home in Pennsylvania: "1 think your June number has a more arresting cover get-up than any yet. I mean the vertical story-list on the cover seems a swell idea to me, and I hope you keep it up."

Mrs. H. H. Hughes, of Lawton, Oklahoma, writes: "Beginning with the first issue of Weird Tales, in 1923, why not take

NEXT MONTH

ISLE OF THE UNDEAD

By Lloyd Arthur Eshbach

MANY readers like to read shud-dery stories that send icy thrills of horripilation up their spines and tickle the roots of their hair. This powerful tale is just what they want. for it is a goose-flesh tale of stark horror.

The guests at Clifford Darrell's yachting party were enjoying themselves with dancing and love-making, when suddenly a grisly horror from out of the past swept in from the sea in an ancient galley, and claimed them for its own. The frightful fate that seized them on the dreadful island of living dead men and women makes a story that will hold your fascinated attention to the last word. This gripping novelette will be published complete

in the October issue of

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