ANNOUNCING UNUSUAL STORIES LITERARY SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY TALES [caption title]. Everett, Pennsylvania: Fantasy Publications, n.d. [1933]. Small octavo, single sheet folded to make four pages, printed in blue and black. The rare prospectus for this semi-pro magazine, the first issue projected to be published in November 1933. Pages [2-3] print the first page of chapter 1 of "The Titan" by P. Schuyler Miller and a full-page illustration. The history of UNUSUAL STORIES is complex. There were two advance issues of UNUSUAL STORIES, both sent to subscribers because the printing of the first issue, promoted in the Fall of 1933, was delayed. A "teaser" contained an editorial, a biographical sketch of Richard Tooker, and nearly all the pages of "When the Waker Sleeps," a story by Cyril G. Wates illustrated by Guy L. Huey. Sometime later a second fragment was mailed, but for some reason that part was apparently not sent to all subscribers. Crawford never completed this first issue of UNUSUAL TALES. Instead, he published MARVEL TALES and the first issue, dated May 1934, included stories by David H. Keller and H. P. Lovecraft that had been scheduled to appear in UNUSUAL STORIES. To the surprise of many, the first published issue of UNUSUAL STORIES, dated May-June 1935, followed Crawford's fourth issue of MARVEL TALES. A Summer 1935 MARVEL TALES followed by a Winter 1935 UNUSUAL STORIES were the final issues of these groundbreaking semiprofessional magazines. Poor sales and exhausted capital killed the magazines and put an end to Crawford's plan to publish MARVEL TALES as a fully professional magazine with newsstand distribution. Moskowitz, The Immortal Storm, pp. 22-3. Pavlat and Evans, Fanzine Index (1965), p. 126. Tymn and Ashley, p. 402. A fine copy. (#177060).
Price: $850.00
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