Reprints By the Numbers

This post is brought to you by The Gear Crew by Jack Mackenzie. Follow Franklin and Sri as they flee to safety after an attack on their spaceport. They, and their semi-sentient toolbox organism known as the Quiddle, wind up aboard the Alizarin Crimson, a ship that is barely holding itself together and run by a dysfunctional crew led by the bullying Captain Boris Tankready. Turning the Crimson from space junk to shipshape is a challenge made more difficult by the discovery of a strange derelict. Time bends as the gears take on a mysterious invaders…

Everything old is new again! As long as it is cheap. Better yet, free. When publishers look back at the stories and art they have already paid for, twenty years ago perhaps, it seems a shame not to make more money from it. (The writers were not included in this scheme, of course. Pulp publishers bought “all rights”.) Perhaps the very first to coin some cash this way was Weird Tales, reprinting within their own magazine but also selling off lots of stories to English book publishers for The Not At Night series. Mort Weisinger would do it too, reprinting old stories in Captain Future, Thrilling Wonder and Startling Stories. This was done supposedly to bring old material to a newer audience, calling it “The Science Fiction Hall of Fame” but paying the writers nothing again. Later, any pretense of doing the reader a favor was dropped and simple greed drove the bus. The reprint digests of the 1960 and 1970s used stories and artwork any way they liked, often marring old cover art with new “boxy-looking” covers that used only fragments.

Last time we looked at “color” stories. This time it is numbers that will fill our titles. And why not? Some great SF titles have used numbers. Heinlein’s Sixth Column, Arthur C. Clarke’s “Nine Billion Names of God” and Arthur Leo Zagat’s Seven Out of Time. Number seem to add a fascination to an SF title. Why is it seven and not eight? Who are the three who came from Alpha Centuari or the twelve who killed the professor and destroyed his time machine?

Here are my thirteen choices for number titles. The earliest original is 1928 and the latest is 1963. The reprinting started as early as 1937 and the last in 1974. Sometimes the reprint is in another language and country. British, Australian, Canadian and French reprints were often the case for popular magazines. Weird Tales had Canadian editions with Canadian art in the 1930s because of Canada law. Occasionally, these covers and art were better than the American originals. (Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” got no cover in the USA but Edmond Good did a smasher in Canada.) Many of the British reprints did not use the artwork at all, only the fiction. When we are lucky, the second appearance got entirely new art–not often–but cool when it happens.

One/First

“One of Our Planets Is Missing” (Amazing Stories, November 1950) by Mack Reynolds reprinted in Space Adventures, Spring 1971. The most popular number for titles is ‘One’ since it can be used in so many ways. “The Dark One”, “One Who Does Something”, etc. Once and First are handy, too.

Two/Second

“Second Man to the Moon” (Fantastic, April 1959) by Jack Williamson reprinted in Thrilling Science Fiction, December 1972. Two surprised me with few titles. I guess as Jack Williamson points out in this story, nobody really wants to hear about the second person to do something.

Three/Third

“Third Alternative” (Fantastic Story Magazine, Spring 1952) by Sam Merwin Jr. reprinted in Science Fiction Yearbook, #2, 1968. Three seems like a natural. One person doing something can be exciting if they are first. Two is good when it’s a couple, with romance to follow. But Three’s a crowd. Naturally, it’s going to go bad. Unless it’s a baby…

Four/Fourth

“Step IV” (Amazing Science Fiction Stories, June 1960) by Rosel George Brown reprinted in SF Greats, Winter 1970. Four means business, especially if you write it in Roman numerals. Like Barry N. Malzberg’s Phase IV, or just about any planet on Star Trek. Jack Williamson wrote “Doom from Planet Four” because he was tired of the word Mars?

Five/Fifth

“The Fifth Stone” (Fantastic, December 1956) by Alfred Coppel reprinted in The Most Thrilling Science Fiction Ever Told, Summer 1968 and Thrilling Science Fiction, February 1974. Like four, five often gets tagged onto planets. Once you have five of something, it gets really serious.

Six/Sixth

“The Man Who Was Six” (Galaxy Science Fiction, September 1954) by F. L. Wallace reprinted in Galaxie, Avril 1956. Six is somehow sinister. That’s a lot of Martians, or planets. Who is keeping track?

Seven/Seventh

“The Seventh Planet” (Amazing Science Fiction Stories, May 1958) by Les Collins (Les Cole) reprinted in Thrilling Science Fiction, April 1972. Seven is another mystical number, but unlike six it is considered good luck. If you are going to be saved, it is usually by seven people. The artist for this story was the same guy who drew Airboy Comics.

Eight/Eighth

“The Eighth Green Man” (Weird Tales, March 1928) by G. G. Pendarves reprinted in Weird Tales, January 1937 and Weird Tales, May 1952. Eight is a rare number in titles. This early tale is an example where each reprint got its own image. The original by Hugh Rankin was cool. The second one got the boilerplate reprint illo, also by Rankin. The third one was at Weird Tales‘ end when it had no real talent left and reprints filled its pages. That EEC illo is a mutt.

Nine/Ninth

“Nine Starships Waiting” (Fantastic Stories of Imagination, March 1963) by Roger Zelazny reprinted in Strange Fantasy, Spring 1969. I want to sing this title every time I read it. It reminds me of “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. “…Ten space squids talking, Eleven asteroids spinning, etc.) Nine is another strange number because it is one short from our favorite, ten.

Ten/Tenth

“The Revolt on the Tenth World” (Amazing Stories, November 1940) by Edmond Hamilton reprinted in Science Fiction Adventure Classics, Winter 1969. Ten is an important number. We have ten fingers, ten toes. Hamilton uses it here as often is the case, to assume a planet after Pluto.

Eleven/Eleventh

“The Eleventh Plague” (Fantastic, December 1958) by Henry Slesar reprinted in The Most Thrilling Science Fiction Ever Told, No. 4, December 1966. Like nine, eleven is not often used, because it isn’t ten either. Nor is it twelve. A dozen but missing one. Irving H. Novick was another comic book artist at DC.

Twelve/Twelfth

‘Twelve Hours to Live” (Wonder Stories, August 1931) by Jack Williamson reprinted in Startling Stories, March 1946. Startling gave the story a new, and equally good, illo. Twelve is a great number. There are twelve issues of Wonder Stories a year, for example. The word “dozen” is another option.

Thirteen/Thirteenth

“Thirteen to Centaurus” (Amazing Stories, April 1962) by J. G. Ballard reprinted in The Most Thrilling Science Fiction Ever Told, No. 7, Winter 1967. Thirteen is the bad luck number, of course. Unlike you are in a bakery (A baker’s dozen) or buying issues of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine with that extra number in December.

Conclusion

Many of the writers here are no surprise. Jack Williamson, Edmond Hamilton, the old pros. Mack Reynolds, Henry Slesar, from the hack years, these I expect. The more surprising include two women writers: Rosel George Brown and G. G. Pendarves, as well as that king of the New Wave, J. G. Ballard. Roger Zelazny was also unexpected. This was from his earliest days writing for Cele Goldsmith at Fantastic. He hadn’t won any Hugos or Nebulas yet but they weren’t long in coming. These old reprint mags are cheesy, often reprinting the artwork poorly, but they do allow younger folks to discover stories and writers they may never have encountered before. And let’s be honest, the selections are often the better ones, as these magazines left other stories untouched. Anyone want to reprint Joseph W. Skidmore’s ‘The Saga of Posi and Nega”? I thought not.

Discover these RAGE m a c h i n e SF books