The Voyage Of Vanishing Men by Stanley Mullen - They Boarded the Ship… and Were Never Seen Again

02/24/22 • 43 min

1 Listener

The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast - Vintage Sci-Fi Short Stories

Today on the lost sci-fi podcast we’ll feature an author born in Colorado Springs, Colorado on June 20th, 1911. Our featured author is a pretty talented guy. He studied writing at the University of Colorado in Boulder and drawing, painting and lithography at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. His art was so good that some of his paintings of Indian ceremonial dances are part of the permanent collection at the Denver Art Museum. Keeping true to his Colorado roots he worked as an assistant curator of the Colorado State Historical Museum during the 1940s.

Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV

Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/

https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/share

He was also talented in the literary arts, having written over 200 stories and articles, poems, essays and one novel. In 1948 he published a chapbook, The Sphinx Child. What is a chapbook you ask? It’s a small collection of poems.

From Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in April 1955 enjoy this lost sci-fi short story written by Stanley Mullen. Earthmen had never ventured into the vast unknown beyond the galaxy. But now a survey was ordered and a ship sent out. So Braun went on—The Voyage Of Vanishing Men...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV

Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/

https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/share

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

The Hanging Stranger by Philip K. Dick - A Corpse in the Square, and No One Cared

If you’re old enough you may be surprised to discover that this short sci-fi story was written by a man whose work you have enjoyed on the big screen for 40 years! His 1968 novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” became the 1982 movie Blade Runner, Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos.

Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV

Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/

A 1966 short story he wrote showed up on the big screen as the 1990 smash hit Total Recall with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sharon Stone. Other box office blockbusters based on his works are Minority Report directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise, and 2011’s The Adjustment Bureau starring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt.

Amazon produced 4 seasons of “The Man In The High Castle”, based on his novel with the same name, set in a parallel universe where the Germans and Japanese win World War II and rule the world.

Sadly he wasn’t alive to see these incredibly successful movies. Philip K Dick passed away in March 1982, 3 months before Blade Runner debuted. He was only 53.

Philip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and somewhere around 120 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines like the one we’re going to share with you in today’s episode of the lost sci-fi podcast. His work, although cherished by many, received very little acclaim for about 10 years until he wrote the novel The Man In The High Castle.

Todays lost sci-fi short story first appeared in December 1953 in “Science Fiction Adventures” Magazine which cost 35 cents. And now for your listening pleasure Philip K Dick’s, “The Hanging Stranger”

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

And All The Girls Were Nude by Richard Magruder and The Queen of Space by Joseph Slotkin

Today we’ve got two lost sci-fi short stories for you. On the surface they would appear to be dissimilar. But they do have a few things in common. Both stories were written by men, if you can believe the names used when the stories were published in 1954. The use of pseudonyms was very common in science fiction magazines during the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. We know nothing about these two men and neither produced many stories that appear in the publications of the time, or since for that matter.

Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV

Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/

https://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/share

Our first story is one of my personal favorites for what you may consider an odd reason. When narrating an audiobook the writing style of some authors just, for lack of a better word, works. It flows off the tongue and it’s easy narrate. If I could find more stories by Richard Magruder I would narrate them. But this is the only one I could find.

Our main character is an inventor, Nathanial Evergood was an eccentric old man with a photographic passion for pretty girls. So he invented a camera lens for special effects. From Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in December 1954 And All The Girls Were Nude by Richard Magruder...

I don’t know what it is about that story but I absolutely love it. One of the reasons I started narrating these lost sci-fi stories was that many of them had never been available as audiobooks. And All The Girls Were Nude was one of those. Is it just me or is that a great story?

I’d love to hear your thoughts if you’d be kind enough to share them. Please feel free to send me an email at [email protected] with any ideas, thoughts, comments or suggestions. I look forward to hearing from you.

On to our second lost sci-fi short story. As mentioned previously I have been unable to discover anything about author Joseph Slotkin. This is the only short story I can find by Slotkin and like And All The Girls Were Nude it has never before been available as an audiobook. Helen LaTour had the best hip wriggle in galactic Burleyque. In fact, it was so good she hipped herself smack into another dimension!

From Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy August 1954, The Queen of Space, by Joseph Slotkin...

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.