Del Martia, Astron
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author, House name.
A House Name invented by publisher Stephen Frances for his second publishing house, the self-named S D Frances, and used there by John Russell Fearn on The Trembling World (1949), in which relics of an ancient Alien civilization are found in a valley of stone statues in Brazil; it is the best of the Del Martia titles. The name was then sold on to Gaywood Press, which used it for three more tales: Dawn of Darkness (1951 chap), Space Pirates (1951) and Interstellar Espionage (1952). The latter story features a security officer called Dog who appears also in Spawn of Space (1951) by Franz Harkon, an unattributed pseudonym. A fifth Del Martia story was advertised but never published, although the name was revived by Frances in a reprint of his One Against Time (1954 as by Hank Janson; 1969 as by Del Martia). [SH/PN]
"Astron Del Martia"
works
series
Space Express Security
- Space Pirates (London: Gaywood Press, 1951) by Franz Harkon [Space Express Security: pb/Leroi Osborne]
- Interstellar Espionage (London: Gaywood Press, 1952) by Franz Harkon [Space Express Security: pb/Leroi Osborne]
individual titles
- The Trembling World (London: S D Frances, 1949) by John Russell Fearn [pb/Philip Mendoza]
- Dawn of Darkness (London: Gaywood Press, 1951) [chap: pb/Leroi Osborne]
- One Against Time (London: Moring, 1954) by Stephen Frances writing as Hank Janson [pb/Ron Turner and Reginald Heade]
- One Against Time (London: Mayflower, 1969) as by Astron del Martia [as above: no revisions recorded: pb/Bob Haberfield]
links
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