Astounding Stories of Super Science

August 1930

Hal Salive Science Fiction and Fantasy Collection, University of Otago Library Special Collections. Every effort has been made to trace copyright ownership and to obtain permission for reproduction. If you believe you are the copyright owner of an item on this site, and we have not requested your permission, please contact us at special.collections@otago.ac.nz

New York: Clayton Publications

The Planet of Dread, the feature story for this August 1930 issue of Astounding, was written by Roman Frederick Starzl (1899-1976), an American author and the father of Thomas E. Starzl (b. 1926), a surgeon who pioneered human liver transplantation. The main character, Mark Forepaugh, is accompanied by his servant, Gunga, a cyclopic and ‘dim-witted’ Martian on an orchid-hunting expedition to the fictional planet of Inra. They run out of fuel and have to travel to higher ground while fighting off dangerous locals like the green frog-like creature in Wesso’s painting. Wesso, himself, lost an eye in early childhood and wore a prosthetic. In 2011, Salive paid US$51.78 for this issue from Mannings Collectibles in Patoka, Indiana.