It's time for another installment of 20th Century Refugee, the official newsletter of Glen Cadigan. If there are any unofficial newsletters out there, I'd like to know about ‘em!
Back To The Future
For months now, I've been teasing a pair of announcements. Finally, I can make one of them official: the May 2024 issue of Alter Ego (on sale in April) will feature a cover story about Edmond Hamilton, written by yours truly!
This announcement has been a long time in coming — the article was originally written back in 2020, when people were hunkering in place during COVID lockdowns. In fact, the article is so long that, outside of the regular features of Alter Ego (FCA, Comics Crypt, the letters column, and Roy's editorial), I’ve been told it will take up the entire issue. The endnotes alone are the length of a small article — and if you've read my Dave Cockrum bio, then you know I love lots of endnotes!
Here are some things you probably didn't know about Edmond Hamilton:
1.) He was arguably the most successful author of the Golden Age of science fiction. He was the first writer to have a collection of short stories published — in hardcover, no less!
2.) He was so prolific that sometimes two stories by him would appear in the same pulp magazine, forcing the use of a pseudonym.
3.) Isaac Asimov grew up reading his work, and said that Hamilton was his favorite author.
4.) A young Ray Bradbury would bring him his stories to read, pre-publication, for his approval.
5.) An even younger Jerry Siegel — long before Superman — wrote him fan letters.
6.) He was the first client of the Solar Sales Service, a literary agency founded by Mort Weisinger and Julius Schwartz.
7.) He wrote almost all the Captain Future novels, years before he wrote comic books.
8.) He co-created Batwoman.
9.) He's credited with inventing the spacesuit.
10.) Ray Bradbury was the best man at his wedding.
Today, Edmond Hamilton is best remembered for his comic book work, specifically "The Legion of Super-Heroes." In that capacity, he was the writer of record for numerous Legionnaires (Light Lass, Element Lad, and Timber Wolf among them), as well as the entire Legion of Substitute Heroes and the Heroes of Lallor. He wrote the first team-up of Superman and Batman in comics, and had a hand in the creation of the sci-fi characters Space Ranger and Chris KL-99.
Thanks to reprint collections, a lot of his comic book work is still kept in print. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for his prose science fiction, but getting people talking about him again might change some of that.
Pulp Fiction
In honour of the pulp flavour of this month's newsletter, here are some retro covers of fake science fiction magazines that I made, courtesy of Pulp-O-Mizer:
Still on Sale
April is the last month for attendees of the 2023 Worldcon to nominate works for this year’s Hugo Awards. It was in very late March that I discovered, by virtue of being published in 2022, The Life and Art of Dave Cockrum is eligible in the Best Related Work category.
Thus armed, I started a very quixotic, grass roots campaign to get people to nominate it. I took to social media with mixed results, and let’s just say the odds are against me. There isn’t a lot of crossover between people who vote in the Hugos and the comic book crowd, but what the hey, I’m a fan of lost causes.
There’s still time left for people to send in their nomination ballots, so if you’re an attendee and are reading this newsletter, please consider nominating The Life and Art of Dave Cockrum. By supporting the book, you’d be in good company.
That's it for this newsletter. Hopefully, you're as excited by this cat being out of the bag as I am!
Next time... something different!
'Til Then,
Glen