Joe’s final issue was another effort to provide a balanced selection with four articles and a short fiction piece, along with an expanded letters section.  I’m sure John F. Cooke’s review of “Beyond the Farthest Star” was well appreciated.  At that time, the story was available only in its original pulp appearance.  Wilkie Conner’s article on Burroughs and “Literature” addresses a widely held opinion at the time -- I think every fan had at least one teacher who considered Burroughs a hack writer of trash.  Hal McClain’s article covers the waterfront of ERB characters, but I have trouble accepting his conclusion that Burroughs’ heroes were all the same.  I guess I’d forgotten all the links David Prince’s article discusses in “The Custers of Beatrice.”

Joe’s “Next Issue” announcement in this last issue highlighted the publication of the contest story he solicited in issue #4.  In that issue, he published a picture of a warrior with bow and arrow being menaced by a dinosaur.  He wanted a story written around that.  The story turned out to be “Morf and the Valley of the Old Ones” and was written by John Harwood.  I wound up publishing it in The Barsoomian #8 eleven years later.

New artwork in this reprint includes the cover by Dave Cockrum, a full-page illustration by Robert Sankner, filler illustrations by Harry Habblitz and Dave Cockrum, and the back cover by Pat Mayo.

~ Paul Allen