Pulp Sci-Fi Week: Captain Future

Hello pulp-friends,

On the second day of Pulp Sci Fi Week I am very honored to introduce a very talented artist and friend, Kyle Latino (kyle-latino.deviantart.com) who kindly offered to illustrate one of the classic pulp sci-fi hero. He did the beautiful illo that open this post and wrote the brief introduction to this character, including those trivia we all love :) I just added the little illo of Grag, just my daily contribute to Pulp sci-fi week.

Thank you, Kyle!

Curtis Newton (Captain Future) is born in his father's moon lab in the distant year of 1990. The Newtons share this space dwelling with three of his father's greatest scientific works: Grag, the robot; Otho, the shape-sifting biological android; and Simon Wright, family friend and scientist whose life is lived beyond his body in a small mechanized tank. Life was happy while everyone when about their amazing research projects until sceince criminal, Victor Kaslan, breaks into the moon lab and kills Curtis' parents. From that point on, Curtis is raised by Grag, Otho, and Simon to become a galactic crime-fighter. The four of them become known as the Futuremen.


His adventures were first published in 1940, by Thrilling Publications, penned by Edmond Hamilton. Interesting to note that the bickering Grag and Otho are largely considered to be the precursors of the two iconic droids, C-3PO and R2-D2. Also, Leigh Brackett, Hamilton's wife and sci-fi author in her own right, worked on the screenplay to Empire Strikes Back. So see, what inspires and excites people today is often built upon even earlier works which have all but faded from the public view. Dig through the sediment layers of pop culture, and there's no telling what you'll find.