Captain Future
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
In 1939 Better Publications, Inc. of New York City, was looking to create a new science fiction magazine to add to its roster, as a sister magazine to Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories. They drew their inspiration in part from Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers, which were both very successful comic strips, and from magazines such as Doc Savage, wherein a regular cast of characters appeared in each issue. They drew up a plan and hired well-known science fiction author Edmond Hamilton to write them. The result, Captain Future magazine, made its debut with the Winter, 1940 issue.
Captain Future is Curtis Newton, a brilliant, athletic young man who was raised on the Moon by a company of strange characters after his parents were killed by criminals. Once grown to manhood, Curt flies with his odd family in his spaceship, the Comet, fighting injustice throughout the solar system and, sometimes, beyond.
Captain Future's companions (known as the Futuremen) include Simon Wright, a distinguished scientist whose brain was kept alive in a box after the death of his body; Grag, a simple minded but very strong metal robot, and Otho, a "synthetic android", human in appearance but incredibly lithe and a master of disguise.
For seventeen quarterly issues Captain Future and the Futuremen battled crime, whether it come from the mysterious Space Emperor, the half-breed Martian magician Ul Quorn, or threats from other dimensions. The formula for the stoires required plenty of action, disguises and otherworldly trappings. These were the romantic days of science fiction; in the Captain Future universe, every planet was habitable and inhabited. The natives, though distinctive enough, were all basically human.
Edmond Hamilton wrote most of the novels under his own name. Later, when other writers alternated with Hamilton, a pseudonym, Brett Sterling, was adopted to give the series some continuity. Captain Future drew little attention outside the science fiction world (though S.J. Perelman did mockingly review the first issue in The New Yorker) and only a modicum within the genre's sphere. In the end, wartime paper rationing caused the demise of the magazine, in 1944. There were a few occasional novels and shorter stories that appeared later, but Captain Future hung up his proton pistol for good.
Or had he? The Japanese produced a few animated cartoons featuring the Man of Tomorrow (as the Cap'n was sometimes called) which still have fans today. The cartoons were produced in the late 1970's (the American version dates from 1978) and were most popular in Germany, from which most of the fan websites originate. The novels have been reprinted several times in book form. Captain Future websites have sprung up. The human imagination never dies and, so, the Comet still flies with each new generation. Just light the magnesium flare at the North Pole, and Captain Future will fly to the rescue!
For more information, I recommend
http://www.captainfuture.com
This is a fan site available in German, and contains pages relating to the animated cartoons and also the original magazine. The English version
http://www.captainfuture.com/engl-index.html
has not been updated in a long time. A fan page with a bit of history and art from the magazine (in English) can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/1128/cf.html
Captain Future is Curtis Newton, a brilliant, athletic young man who was raised on the Moon by a company of strange characters after his parents were killed by criminals. Once grown to manhood, Curt flies with his odd family in his spaceship, the Comet, fighting injustice throughout the solar system and, sometimes, beyond.
Captain Future's companions (known as the Futuremen) include Simon Wright, a distinguished scientist whose brain was kept alive in a box after the death of his body; Grag, a simple minded but very strong metal robot, and Otho, a "synthetic android", human in appearance but incredibly lithe and a master of disguise.
For seventeen quarterly issues Captain Future and the Futuremen battled crime, whether it come from the mysterious Space Emperor, the half-breed Martian magician Ul Quorn, or threats from other dimensions. The formula for the stoires required plenty of action, disguises and otherworldly trappings. These were the romantic days of science fiction; in the Captain Future universe, every planet was habitable and inhabited. The natives, though distinctive enough, were all basically human.
Edmond Hamilton wrote most of the novels under his own name. Later, when other writers alternated with Hamilton, a pseudonym, Brett Sterling, was adopted to give the series some continuity. Captain Future drew little attention outside the science fiction world (though S.J. Perelman did mockingly review the first issue in The New Yorker) and only a modicum within the genre's sphere. In the end, wartime paper rationing caused the demise of the magazine, in 1944. There were a few occasional novels and shorter stories that appeared later, but Captain Future hung up his proton pistol for good.
Or had he? The Japanese produced a few animated cartoons featuring the Man of Tomorrow (as the Cap'n was sometimes called) which still have fans today. The cartoons were produced in the late 1970's (the American version dates from 1978) and were most popular in Germany, from which most of the fan websites originate. The novels have been reprinted several times in book form. Captain Future websites have sprung up. The human imagination never dies and, so, the Comet still flies with each new generation. Just light the magnesium flare at the North Pole, and Captain Future will fly to the rescue!
For more information, I recommend
http://www.captainfuture.com
This is a fan site available in German, and contains pages relating to the animated cartoons and also the original magazine. The English version
http://www.captainfuture.com/engl-index.html
has not been updated in a long time. A fan page with a bit of history and art from the magazine (in English) can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Corridor/1128/cf.html
