Today is the first day of August. It is the birthday of Ray Palmer (1910-1977), Edd Cartier (1914-2008),an d David Gemmell (1948-2006). Here’s a brief look at each.

First, Ray Palmer. Palmer saw a meteor fall. It was a piece of a white dwarf star. Palmer was able to use the material to change his size and his mass. He donned a suit to tights, called himself the Atom, Joined the Justice League, and, oh, wait. That’s the wrong Ray Palmer.

Richard Shaver (i.) and Ray Palmer (r.)

Raymond A. Palmer started out as a pulp science fiction writer who went on to be the editor of Amazing Stories. It was there that he did a lot of damage tot he science fiction field. He promoted Richard Shaver and his Shaver Mystery. This was a series of stories proported to be based on true events int he distancce past. It was a mixture of bad fiction, occult psuedoscience, and a gullible public. I’ve writeen about it here.

Palmer went on to edit several short-lived science ficetion magazines before founding Fate. One of those magazines was Other Worlds, which published the classic novelette “Dear Devil” by Eric Frank Russell. In fact, Palmer published a lot of people in his later magazines who would become major writers. Ray Bradbury, Randall Garrett, Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson, just to name a few.

And, yes, the comic book character of the Atom was named after Palmer.

David Gemmell is a name that should be familiar to most readers of this blog. He was one of the best practioners of heroic fantasy in the late Twentieth and early Twenty-First Centuries. For a while there was an award named after him. I always used the short list for the award as a recommended reading list. Sadly, that award is lon gone.

Gemmell is starting to fade from memory. I was able to briefly meet him at the 2000 World Fantasy Convention and get a couple of books signed.

Gemmell is someone who deserves to be kept in print.

Finally, one of my favorite artists is Edd Cartier. He illustrated several pulps for Street and Smith, prataicularly The Shadow, Unknown, and Astounding. His work often had an air of whimsy to it, with exagerrated facial features. Here are a few samples of his work.