The Barsoomian #13 – January 1968
Wow, what a difference a year made! I was a senior
in college taking mostly elective courses and had time to really work on
The Barsoomian. I had accumulated a huge file of material for publication.
And I had a new printer in a small town who quoted me a price that was
so attractive I went hog wild. Issues #13 and 14 were produced simultaneously
during the last few months of 1967 and were mailed together to subscribers
in early 1968.
I got meet to Bob Hodes, the new general manager of ERB
Inc., at the World SF Convention in New York City over Labor Day weekend.
I think everyone there was impressed with his openness and enthusiasm.
After returning home, I immediately followed up with a letter to Hodes
asking him if he’d be willing to write a guest editorial. He responded
very quickly and sent it to me as a two-page letter. In addition,
while we were at the con, John Guidry and I had an opportunity to visit
Larry Ivie at his apartment in NYC. Larry generously loaned me a
stack of illustrations and sketches by Roy G. Krenkel, which I was able
to publish with Roy’s permission.
I was thrilled to begin reprinting the original “Laugh
It Off!” series by ERB, which appeared in late 1941 and early 1942 in
the Honolulu Advertiser and the Honolulu Star Bulletin. A history
of the series appears on page 11 of this issue, so I won’t repeat it all
here. But it was a great series that showed a very different side
to Edgar Rice Burroughs. Australian fan Alan Tompkins (of “ERB
Digest” fame) called my attention to them. I then contacted the Star
Bulletin to find out more about them. My inquiry was answered by
Hobart E. Duncan, managing editor of the paper. Not only did he give
me permission to reprint them, he had a staffer go through their files
and send me Xerox copies of all the articles they could find. Unfortunately,
the Xerox copies weren’t good enough for reproduction. But I did
send them all to Hully Burroughs at his request and he kept them for his
files. He was pretty sure I had some they were missing. Hully
also provided the photos for the article. As I’ve said before, I
was always amazed at how helpful people were.
Fred Kwiecien finished up his epic article on the supernatural
in ERB’s writings. Frank J, Brueckel’s articles were always popular
wherever they appeared and he contributed two to this issue -- coincidentally,
one on the supernatural. I had the pleasure of visiting Frank and
his wife while on a business trip in Florida in 1971. He was pretty
old at that time, but mentally still very sharp and a fascinating conversationalist.
In addition to all the Krenkel artwork, Ken Webber provided
a couple of humorous cartoons (I loved his TV Tarzan sketch!), along with
a Harry Habblitz sketch. The centerfold illustration was by Joe Ferrier
and was donated by Caz. The back cover is by Neal MacDonald.
~ Paul Allen
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