If you missed the last one….
This post is brought to you by The Book of the Black Sun II: The Book Collector by G. W. Thomas. This sister volume to The Book of the Black Sun, contains stories written in the nameless detective Noir style. The Book Collector works for Telford, a guy who rents out arcane tomes. But when the renters don’t want to return their copies, Telford sends a goon to rough up the bad customer. When the goons don’t come back, he sends the Book Collector. Each story has a running clock, twenty four hours to retrieve the book or the fee is cut in half. Half a million sounds pretty good but when you have expenses… This is Cthulhu Mythos fiction that moves.
As the 1930s went on, the idea of a fourth dimension found its way into different kinds of fantastic magazines including the Horror titles. The mathematical concepts haven’t changed, just the results of messing with them. Journeying into another dimension can be exciting and wondrous but if the locals are slimy monsters who want to devour your brain, the tone changes. And when one of the writers using this evil fourth dimension is H. P. Lovecraft, you know you are in for some fun! Now remember, Frank Belknap Long, HPL’s best bud, already did this a few times back in the late 1920s with “The Space Eaters” and the much more famous “The Hounds of Tindalos” and in 1931 with “The Horror From the Hills”. It’s Howard Philips turn now. But before the Old Man of Providence takes a swing, it’s Jack Williamson giving us a new wrinkle on werewolves…
“Wolves of Darkness” (Strange Tales, January 1932) by Jack Williamson is a first person narration with wolves possessed by a green energy, using the fourth dimension to explain how werewolves are possible. The wolves take over Sam Judson’s farm and work their scheme to take over the entire dimension. The humans must thwart their evil plans. Williamson could have sold this one to Weird Tales but Strange Tales paid much better, two cents a word on acceptance. He also go the lead and cover. For more on the early Jack Williamson, go here.
“The Planet of the Double Sun” (Amazing Stories, February 1932) by Neil R. Jones continues the adventures of Professor Jameson and the Zoromes, cyborg creatures that explore the universe. The zoromes come to a dual sun, one orange and one blue. The blue sun emits a radiation that allows monster birds to come from another dimension and causes madness. All the zoromes are killed except for Jameson, who will be rescued in the next story. I liked this one because it is the most Lovecraftian of the series. For more on the Zorome series, go here.
“The Trap” (Strange Tales, March 1932) by H. P. Lovecraft & Herry S. Whitehead is another tale poached from Weird Tales. Loki’s Glass in Canevin’s antique shop is a passageway between dimensions. Donald Wandrei would write a similar tale for the slick, Esquire, May 1937 called “The Painted Mirror”. It was one of Lovecraft’s collaborations, though only Whitehead took credit in the magazine.
“The Einstein See-Saw” (Astounding Stories, April 1932) by Miles J. Breuer has a mobster named Costello steal Dr. Bloomsbury’s discovery on how to move between dimensions which allows him to rob banks. A reporter, Phil Hurren and Bloomsbury’s daughter, Ione, discover this but are sent to another dimension. They escape thanks to Ione’s know-how and the mobster gets fried by the feedback. For more on Miles J. Breuer, go here.
“Hellhounds of the Cosmos” (Astounding Stories, June 1932) by Clifford D. Simak has fourth dimensional Horrors attacking earth. Professor White creates a machine that will allow ninety nine men to cross over and fight back. One of them is a reporter named Henry Woods. Once in the fourth Di, the 99 men form a single being named Mal Shaf who fights the being formed by the invaders. Mal Shaf wins but does not return to our dimension. Like “The Call From Beyond”, this tale has Lovecraftian elements. For more on the early Simak, go here.
“The Dimension of Chance” (Wonder Stories, November 1932) by Clark Ashton Smith has the US and Japan at war in 1976. Two Americans chase the spy Sakamoto into a dimensional hole that leads to a world of utter randomness. They survive because the intelligent beings of the place take pity on them. The Japanese kill each other. Anti-Japanese war stories would become standard in 1941-1944. Smith, a Californian, beats the rush. For more on the SF of Clark Ashton Smith, go here.
“The Fifth-Dimension Tube” (Astounding Stories, January 1933) by Murray Leinster continues from “The Fifth Dimensional Catapault” with the fourth dimensional tech being used to create a tube between worlds. The people of the Golden City retaliate by sending poison gas through the tube. The same heroes go into the other world to sue for peace and help the good guys defeat the tyrant Jacaro.
“Wanderer of Infinity” (Astounding Stories, March 1933) by Harl Vincent has Bert Redmond going into other dimensions to rescue his girlfriend, Joan Parker and her inventor brother, Tom, when giant spiders kidnap them. (Shades of Edmond Hamilton!) Bert has the help of a giant who calls himself the Wanderer of Infinity since he destroyed his homeworld and has wandered the dimensions since. The duo rescue Joan and Tom from the spider world after seeing the giant’s home plane, where the spiders killed everyone. The wanderer reminds me of Doctor Who, where The Doctor does a similar thing having destroyed the Time Lords.
“In the Scarlet Star” (Amazing Stories, March 1933) by Jack Williamson has John Steward meet an SF fan through a Pulp magazine. The other fellow is Jimmy Miles who tells of a chuck of red glass he bought in a pawn shop. The bauble allows Jimmy to cross to another dimension where everything is primitive. He lives with a band of cavemen. The story was meant to be the first in a series. The reference to an SF magazine was clearly Amazing Stories and Hugo Gernsback’s Science Fiction League. A good way to sell a story!
“The Phantom of Terror” (Amazing Stories, April 1933) by Ed Earl Repp has another bandit steal a scientist’s dimension machine to rob banks. Professor Mortenson makes another machine so the cops can chase the culprit. After dinosaurs and lizard-men, the police manage to kill the robber.
“The Dreams in the Witch-House” (Weird Tales, July 1933) by H. P. Lovecraft has a man who suffers nightmares while sleeping in the “Witch-House”. His dreams are actually visitations by the Old Ones through dimensional portals. This tale is one of Lovecraft’s Mythos classics, featuring the extinct aliens from “At the Mountains of Madness” (Astounding Stories, February March April 1936).
“The Horror in the Museum” (Weird Tales, July 1933) by H. P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald is one of Lovecraft’s revision jobs, so the credit only went to Hazel Heald. Two men, having been dismissed from Madame Tussad’s in London, start their own museum. When one of them (named Stephen Jones, long before the English anthologist and Lovecraft fan, Stephen Jones was born!) spends the night in the museum and gets eaten by a Mythos deity. This tale features a monster called Rhan-Tegoth or a Dimensional Shambler that can cross dimensions.
“The Fourth Dimensional Escape” (Amazing Stories, December 1933) by Bob Olsen has Norman Kemp in prison, framed for murder by mobsters. He is rescued from hanging by his partner, Professor Newton Schuler y using the dimensional tongs. Together they prove Kemp’s innocence and take down the bad guys. We’ve seen this at least two time before in this post alone, so not much new here.
Conclusion
This time around I think we have learned a couple of things: dimensional traveling is dangerous either because monsters will eat your face or because gangsters will steal your tech. Of the two scenarios, I prefer the monsters. I joke, of course, but we do see some tropes that will be common in future years. The scientists popping in and out of reality will be used in shows such as Quantum Leap or Star Gate. This is dimensional device as travelogue. We also get the Lovecraftian school of Mythos fiction with its hard-to-pronounce entities. And also we see the criminal element taking on technology that will be part-and-parcel of the Superhero genre especially in comic books. Having the ability to cross in and out of the fourth (or fifth or other dimensions) is going to drive story plots. Whether they are golly-gee-whiz Sci-fi or horrific Lovecraftian bug-fests depends on the author. Me, I always like giant spiders.
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