THE FANS' OWN MAGAZINE
Editor: Charles D. Hornig
(Managing Editor: Wonder Stories)
| Published | 10 cents a copy |
| Monthly | $1.00 per year |
137 West Grand Street, Elizabeth, New Jersey
| Volume 1 | October, 1933 | Number 2 |
EDITORIAL
You will note several improvements in this issue of THE FANTASY FANover the first number. The most noticeable one, of course, is the factthat there are almost twice as many pages as in the September copy.But our improvements do not end there—not by a long shot. Not onlyhas the circulation been doubled, but we have a new policy. Startingwith this issue, we will present a story every month (maybe more thanone) by Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, August W. Derleth, andother top-notchers in the field of weird fiction. You science-fictionfans are probably wondering by the import of the last sentence why wewill not print science-fiction. Well, here's the reason. In theSCIENCE FICTION DIGEST we have a fan magazine for thosescientifictionally inclined, which also presents gems of this typestory by Arthur J. Burks, Ray Palmer, and others. We feel that theweird fans should also have a magazine for themselves—hence THEFANTASY FAN. But don't get discouraged, you science-fiction guzzlers,we have dozens of excellent articles composed just for you. AlthoughTHE FANTASY FAN will present no science-fiction stories, we certainlywill continue to give absorbing columns, articles and departments thatwill make each issue well worth a dime to you. You won't want to missthe rest of Schwartz's "How to Collect Fantasy Fiction," or Ackerman'sstory of his A-1 collection, or the Club News or the Famous Fansdepartment, or the Boiling Point, or Science Fiction in EnglishMagazines by Tucker, or the super-excellent material we have on handbesides—dozens of articles of humor, satire, information, absorbinginterest—the type of article that only the science fiction fan canderive full enjoyment from. So, while THE FANTASY FAN will lean towardthe weird angle, it will be worth the while of every science fictionfan to continue to be a reader. Furthermore—through years ofexperience (well, a month, anyway), we have learned that a great manyweird fans—we could almost say a majority—are also readers ofscience fiction and vice versa. After all, both science fiction andweird tales are fantastic, aren't they? They both are based on thehighly improbable, and they both stimulate the imagination. It is arare fan that does not like both. The scientifically inclined readermay not like weird tales; those that only want to be horrified andterrorized may not like science fiction; but those who want theirimaginations stimulated like both.
Let us remind you again, and inform the new readers, that this isprimarily a magazine for the fans, of the fans, and by the fans—thefan, the whole fan, and nothing but the fan. (We hope that by thistime you realize that we publish a FAN magazine). But all foolishnessaside, we want you to run the magazine. Tell us what you like and whatyou don't like. As many letters as possible will be published in "OurReaders Say" department. We will always abide by the wishes of themajority, and very often act upon the opinions of a single reader—tryout his ideas to see how the rest of the readers like