Page:Weird Tales Volume 26 Number 01 (1935-07).djvu/140

There have been a number of complaints from you, the readers of this magazine, against the appearance of detective stories in its pages; not on the ground that such stories are not interesting, but because one can read detective stories in so many other magazines. Several readers express the fear that Weird Tales will lose the proud distinction it has held for so many years, of being "the unique magazine," the only one of its kind. Criticism was aimed especially against the Craig Kennedy story, which was given the cover illustration on our May number. That story, these critics complained, lacked weirdness, despite the suggestion of vampirism that underlay the story, and the terror-inspiring leap of the huge Sino-cat through the transoms to drink the life-blood of its victims. However, since in a very real sense this magazine belongs to you, the readers, we have commissioned Paul Ernst to write a series of super-weird detective stories around the characters of "Doctor Satan," the world's weirdest criminal, and his arch-enemy, Ascott Keane, the world's strangest criminologist. The first two stories about Doctor Satan (as he calls himself) are already in the printer's hands for our August and September issues. These stories are entirely different from any other detective stories ever printed. Doctor Satan is not a madman lusting for power, but is as sane as you or I; but he controls sources of power that no one without his trained super-intellect could ever hope to master. If these stories do not have you panting for more, then we don't know what constitutes a weird tale.

Julius Hopkins, of Washington, D. C., writes: "I award first place in the May WT to the concluding installment of Kline's serial, Lord of the Lamia. This story is indeed a splendid work of literature. The Death Cry by Arthur B. Reeves is a good story but not weird enough. I like the vampire stories to have genuine vampires—not the ones with scientific explanations, for they take away the true weirdness of it all. Bring back Jules de Grandin and his foes of the occult world. Jack Darrow, of Chicago, made a motion that we have a cover story contest. I second the motion, for I think it is a splendid idea. . . . I have not yet compiled my fist of the twelve best stories ever to appear in WT, but four stories it will have on it for sure are The Wind That Tramps the World by Frank Owen, The Woman of the Wood by A. Merritt, The Space-Eaters by Frank B. Long, Jr., and Shambleau by C. L. Moore.

J. G. Roberts, of Chicago, writes: "Just a few lines of appreciation from an old reader of nine years' standing for publishing the greatest magazine yet. This is my first letter to the Eyrie, but I feel privileged to make a few comments on 'The Unique Magazine'. First I want to commend you on your recent policy of drawing extensively on early issues of WT for the reprint department rather than the dry and far from thrilling 'Old Masters'; i. e., Dumas, Shelley, et al. Now take the final step and eliminate the latter entirely. I am quite sure that a poll among the readers would find the majority in favor of this plan. If some of the stories you have recently reprinted are indicative of the contents of the very early issues, they are enough to make a rabid weird-fiction fan like myself frantic at having missed them. And I've missed at most only four years. Consider the recent converts. I am not selfish enough to request reprints only