Current issue of Alter Ego features biography of Golden Age great Edmond Hamilton
Written by Glen Cadigan (author of The Life & Art of Dave Cockrum), Alter Ego #187 focuses on Edmond Hamilton, one of the great early science-fiction authors. Beginning before the early days of science-fiction pulp magazines, Hamilton’s career spanned half a century and included short stories, novels, and comic books. Best remembered today for his work at DC Comics (where he wrote Batman, Superman, and, most notably, the Legion of Super-Heroes), his sci-fi series Star Kings, Starwolf, and especially Captain Future are fondly recalled by the science-fiction community.
Married to equally well-known author Leigh Brackett, and friend and mentor to Ray Bradbury, Hamilton’s life also intersected with Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel before the creation of Superman, as well as Julius Schwartz and Mort Weisinger, who were first his agents, then his editors.
From the dawn of the pulps through the Silver Age of Comics, Edmond Hamilton had the admiration and respect of fellow authors such as Isaac Asimov, Robert Bloch, and Arthur C. Clarke. Alter Ego #187 includes Hamilton’s own influences (A. Merritt, Homer Eon Flint, H.G. Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs) and how they shaped the imagination of an impressionable child genius who entered college at the age of fourteen, then dropped out at seventeen to work in a railroad office!
Preview available online at: https://twomorrows.com/
Extra! Bonus material available at glencadigan.substack.com includes rare finds such as 100+ year old newspaper clippings of Hamilton when he was a teenage prodigy, Ray Bradbury’s memories of his friend and mentor, and Mort Weisinger’s poem about his future client, writer, and friend, written when Weisinger was seventeen and originally published in the Nov. ’32 issue of Astounding Science Fiction!
https://glencadigan.substack.com
