Futuria Fantasia, Spring 1940

In Short

This collection serves as a time capsule from the early days of the science fiction zine movement. Edited by a young Ray Bradbury, it blends dark, experimental short fiction with surreal essays, poetry, and enthusiastic advertisements for other amateur publications. It remains a fascinating historical object because it highlights the raw, precocious creativity of the 1940s "fan" scene, showcasing the early voices of writers who would soon shape the genre, all presented with the earnest, jagged energy of hand-stenciled, low-budget DIY publishing.

The Story

The collection opens with a playful editorial framing device in which the editor confronts his own literary personifications—the reptilian Slith and the monstrous, opinionated Gorgono. This sets a tone of self-conscious, slightly absurd intellectualism. From here, the narrative focus shifts to "Heil!", a chilling story by Lyle Monroe. In a dystopian future, a desperate dictator commands a captive, starving surgeon to perform a delicate, unprecedented pituitary transplant. The surgeon, Samuel, is a prisoner from a concentration camp, and the doctor maneuvers through the dictator's arrogance to secure his family’s freedom. After the surgery, the dictator awakes in a squalid room, mistaken for a common prisoner by his own brutal guards, while the doctor escapes to safety. The irony is total: the dictator’s own regime, built on cruelty, consumes him.

The mood then pivots toward the surreal. Henry Kuttner contributes a manic, satirical piece about a fan named Scarlett O’God who, cursed by a mysterious figure, finds she is allergic to weather. Her bizarre journey leads her from a ruined bathroom to a cannibal island where, because the inhabitants are already accustomed to terrible climate, she is crowned their queen and finally finds peace.

The collection reaches its most somber and ambitious point in Ron Reynolds' "The Piper." Set on a dying, exploited Mars, the story follows an old man and a boy watching a mysterious exile known as the Piper. For twenty years, the Piper has played music on a hill, a slow-building siren song designed to rouse the "subterranean" Martian creatures—long considered beasts—to rise against the greedy, industrial Earthlings who have strip-mined their world. As the music reaches an insane, screaming crescendo, the boy hides while the creatures swarm the Earth settlements in a violent, apocalyptic revolution. The old man views this as the necessary, tragic destruction of an old world to allow a new, perhaps more noble, civilization to emerge.

Finally, Damon Knight’s "The Itching Hour" returns to the absurd. A narrator encounters an old, faceless man who breaks into his home, steals socks to wear around his neck, and tells a tragic, nonsensical tale about becoming cursed by double-strength purple hectograph ink. The stranger leaves behind a cryptic warning about fleas, reinforcing the collection’s underlying commitment to the bizarre, the unsettling, and the unrepentant.

How It Unfolds

The editor’s confrontation The editor interacts with two mythical, demanding critics who insist on better formatting and new authors. This meta-commentary establishes a playful, slightly rebellious editorial persona.

The surgical bargain A dictator forces a captive doctor to perform a life-saving transplant, only to face the unexpected, violent consequences of his own system. The shift in power dynamics serves as a dark, cautionary fable.

The surrealist detour A satirical essay chronicles a woman’s absurd, weather-driven exile across the globe. This beat highlights the zine’s penchant for dark, nonsensical humor.

The Martian revolution An old man explains the history of Earth's exploitation of Mars while the Piper prepares to lead a violent uprising. The arc moves from melancholy observation to high-stakes, planetary revolt.

The final encounter A bizarre visitor shares a nonsensical story about ink and misfortune before vanishing into the night. This final beat leaves the reader with a sense of lingering, unresolved unease.

The People

The Editor is a harried, imaginative young man struggling to balance his own creative vision with the harsh, arbitrary demands of his "ogre" critics. He serves as a bridge between the reader and the strange, ink-stained world of 1940s fandom. Doctor Lans is a figure of quiet, iron-willed dignity; he uses his medical expertise as his only weapon against a fascist state, sacrificing everything to secure his family’s safety. His foil, the Leader, is a man defined by fear and arrogance, whose desire to extend his own life ultimately leads to his complete dehumanization at the hands of his own subordinates. The Piper represents the transformative power of art; he is a stoic, immortal figure who spends two decades waiting for the right moment to use music as a weapon of liberation. Finally, the Old Man in "The Piper" acts as a witness to history, a weary intellectual who sees the destruction of his world not as a tragedy, but as a necessary cleansing that will allow the boy—and a new generation—to begin again.

In Its Own Voice

The editor captures the precarious, amateur nature of the zine while hinting at the dark, creative labor behind the scenes.

"CONTRIBUTIONS WILL BE HAPPILY FONDLED AND SEWED UP IN A GREEN VELVET SACK."

The narrator of the surrealistic fiction describes the eerie, impossible physical transformation that defines the collection’s darker humor.

"I raised the rim of his hat and I saw it was true! He had no face!"

The old man in "The Piper" reflects on the weaponization of art and the inevitable collapse of the occupying Earth forces.

"Music in many forms----music for peace, music for love--music for hate and music for death."

What It's Really About

At its core, this book explores the concept of "The Brilliant"—the intellectual or artist living in exile—and the power of art to catalyze social or cosmic change. It grapples with the tension between the "civilized" occupier and the "savage" native, often flipping these roles to expose the hypocrisy of imperial power. Throughout the stories, there is a recurring theme of the "fantastical" bleeding into the mundane: an allergy to weather, a face lost to ink, or a revolution triggered by a melody. It asks whether humanity can ever truly outgrow its greed and whether the destruction of an unjust order is a necessary prerequisite for the birth of something more authentic.

Why Read It Today

Readers who appreciate the history of speculative fiction will find this a treasure. It offers a rare look at the "gestation" period of genre giants, where the writing is raw, unrefined, and fiercely imaginative. Reading it feels like flipping through a dusty, forgotten box in an attic; you encounter a mix of genuine poetic beauty and the kind of juvenile, absurdist humor that was the hallmark of early 20th-century fan culture.

Be aware that the prose reflects the era’s limitations. There are occasional jarring shifts in tone, and some of the humor—often reliant on "booby" tropes or eccentric character archetypes—can feel dated or nonsensical. The writing is not polished in the way modern readers might expect; it is experimental and often deliberately weird. However, for those interested in how science fiction moved from the pages of pulp magazines into the hearts of a devoted subculture, it is essential. You will be struck by the intensity of the ambition here—a group of young people trying to build their own worlds while the real world outside was on the brink of war. It is a heartfelt, occasionally messy, and entirely singular document of a lost moment in literary history.