British Rarities

The titles I have collected together on this page have these things in common

It is, of course, giving hostage to fortune to claim that something is rare and is in invitation for someone to produce a box full of them to show that they aren't rare at all. If anyone can produce a box full of any of these, they are welcome to contact me. The titles are:

BWT - A Book of Weird Tales

This one-off was published by Veevers & Hensman of Burnley, Lancs and, other than SAS, is the most recent magazine here, published only in 1960. Nevertheless, it is quite scarce and I have not seen it offered for sale in the last several years. All but one of the stories are reprints, the exception being one by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I don't have a note of where the image came from but, as it is featured on Morgan Wallace's site, it may well have come from there.

Aug 1960 #1
unknown

CSS - Cosmic Science Stories

There are slightly contradictory reports of this magazine. It is indexed both in SFFWF and in IBSFM. SFFWF gives the single issue as undated, #11, and speculates "The origin of the numbering is not known; it is possible that this was an isolated SF issue of a multi-genre series, like the Yankee Shorts and Master Thriller series". But no-one has suggested what that series might be. IBSFM, though, describes it as unnumbered, undated. I have never seen the magazine in the flesh so I can't say which is correct. All of the stories are reprinted from Super Science Stories, September 1949. It was published by Popular Press, London, which may have been a division of T V Boardman.

Jun 1950 #11
McLoughlin

FST - Fantastic Science Thriller

This little-known magazine is extremely unusual. I only have scans of two of the series of five and they are said to be the first copies seen in the UK since the 1980s. There are also copies of #2 and #3 known to be in this country but I have not got scans of them. Can anyone help with the missing issues? They were published by Stanley Baker Publications of Richmond, Surrey, all in 1954, and each only contained a single story; hence, SFFWF describes them as a "booklet series" rather than a magazine. These scans were kindly provided by Alistair Durie.

1954 #4
unknown
Oct 1954 #5
Hilton

SAS - Sword and Sorcery

This is undoubtedly the rarest of the rare and you may be forgiven if you have never heard of it. You will simply never see a copy offered for sale, for this very good reason: it was never published. For the information I have about it I am indebted to Bob Wardzinski and Mike Ashley. It was to have been a companion magazine to "Vision of Tomorrow" and was funded by the same Australian entrepreneur, Ron Graham. Publication was coordinated in the UK by Philip Harbottle, editor of VOT, and the editor was to have been Ken Bulmer. Thorpe and Porter were the distributors. The project collapsed when Graham pulled the plug on VOT in 1970, and SAS never saw the light of day. All that exists now is the proofs, and what you see here is a scan, kindly provided by Bob Wardzinski, of the cover proof.

Since this magazine is never likely to be indexed anywhere else, I give here a summary, also provided by Bob, of the contents:

I cannot say who the cover artist is. There is only one thing rarer than Sword and Sorcery and that is a third companion magazine that was to have been called "Image of Tomorrow" but which, so far as I know, never got past the concept stage.

1970 #1
unknown

STLB - Strange Tales (UK)

Much the less well known of the two magazines called "Strange Tales", the other, of course, being the 1931-2 Clayton title more fully called "Strange Tales of Mystery and Terror". This one was published by Utopian Publications, who were also responsible for "Thrilling Stories" below. One of the founders of Utopian, and the editor of this magazine, was Walter Gillings, editor pre-war of "Tales of Wonder", then of several early post-war British magazines including this and the first few issues of "Science Fantasy", qv. He was an important founding figure of British magazine SF, therefore.

There were actually only two issues of the magazine, but the first was published in two distinct covers. The first had a cover by Alva Rogers, the second version was by HW Perl. According to Morgan Wallace, this second cover is rarer than the first but for some reason does not command such a high price. I find this odd as, to my mind, it is much the more attractive of the two. I only know of three covers by Perl - this, the first issue of Strange Adventures and an issue of "Futuristic Stories". This is such a nicely drawn, attractive female face that it is hard to associate it with his other, relatively crude, efforts.

These covers were reproduced from his web-site by kind permission of Morgan Wallace.

Feb 1946 #1
Rogers Alva
Feb 1946 #1 alt. cover
Perl
Mar 1946 #2
Rogers Alva


STV - Strange Adventures

Strange Adventures was another short-lived attempt at a UK SF magazine in the early post-war period, published by Hamilton & Co of Stafford, and was a companion to "Futuristic Stories". In Clute & Nicholls' Encyclopaedia of SF, it is described as an "unmemorable juvenile SF magazine whose authors were unknown and probably pseudonymous". Though not common, it is not the rarest of the magazines on this page and I have seen copies for sale quite recently.

?Sep 1946 #1
Perl
Feb 1947 #2
Brab

THS - Thrilling Stories

Of all the magazines here, this is the only one of which I can say I had simply never heard of it until Alistair Durie brought this copy to my attention. It is the only copy I have ever seen. It is indexed in SFFWF, though. There are two stories, one reprinted from a pre-war Amazing, the other from Wonder Stories, and the editor is Benson Herbert, co-founder with Walter Gillings of Utopian Publications.

1946 nn
unknown

WOU - Worlds of the Universe

The cover layout of this magazine is remarkably similar to the later Spencer digests and for a long while I thought it was published by Spencer, but it isn't. It is by the Gould-Light Publishing Company of London. The Encyclopaedia of SF speculates that the Light of this publisher might be Norman Light, who did a number of covers for the Spencer magazines in the early 50s, so perhaps the resemblance is not coincidental. The cover on this one, though, is signed "Marcus", though I can find no other covers credited to him. There was only one issue, and Morgan Wallace describes it as "Highly desirable and rare"

1953 #1
Marcus

WSI - Weird Science Illustories

The only place I had ever run across this before is in the title index of SFFWF, where it is to be found close by a much more famous title (and right next to the intriguing Weird Sex Tales). I idly wondered where it got such an odd name from - its full title is "2-in-1 Weird Science Illustories" - and it turns out that half the magazine is occupied by a comic strip. The two stories that fill out the magazine, including one by Philip K Dick, are both reprinted from Planet Stories. The publishers were Magazine Enterprises of Rathmine, Scotland. The scan was provided by Alistair Durie.

1950s? #1
unknown