The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1942





   Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family
First time travel: Whiz Comics 26, 23 Jan 1942

Time travel made it to the Marvel family in 1942, or at least the earliest instance that I’ve spotted was a Captain Marvel story of that year (“The Amazing Trip into Time” in Whiz Comics 26 from 23 Jan 1942). Between then and the lawful demise of Fawcett’s Marvels, the whole family (the Captain, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., the Lieutenant Marvels) and the evil Dr. Sivana had a myriad of time-travel episodes by various means from Father Time to the doctor’s time pill to the captain’s time chair.

 OMIGOSH! Now I remember everything! I went to the past in order to prevent Captain Marvel from ever existing! But when I got to the past, all I did was re-live the same events as before! Curses! 

—Dr. Sirvana from Captain Marvel Adventures 80










   DC Comics (Superheroes)
First time travel: Adventure Comics 71, Feb 1942

As a kid, I never read DC (Why would I? Excelsior!), but I’ve read some DC time-travel comics since then (don’t tell Stan). The earliest DC time travel that I’ve found was in 1942, but as for the big boys, the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder got the jump on the Man of Steel by a few months: Batman’s first travel was back to ancient Rome in Batman 24 via hypnosis by Professor Carter Nichols. Here’s a table of notable DC first time-travel experiences that I’ve found through 1969 (after that, everything became time-travel chaos):
  1. Starman (Feb 1942) Adventure Comics 71
  2. Justice Society of America    (Apr/May 1942) All Star Comics 10
  3. Green Arrow, et. al. (Jun 1942) Leading Comics 3
  4. Green Lantern (Spring 1943) Green Lantern 7
  5. The Shining Knight (Jul 1943)
      earlier Shining Knight is suspended animation Adventure Comics 66
  6. Batman and Robin (Fall 1943) World’s Finest 11
  7. Mr. Terrific (Apr 1944) Sensation Comics 28
  8. Wonder Woman (Nov 1946) Wonder Woman 20
  9. Superman (Jan-Feb 1947) Superman 44
  10. Johnny Peril (Apr 1948) Comic Cavalcade 26
  11. Johnny Quick (Nov 1948) Adventure Comics 134
  12. Superboy (May/Jun 1949) Superboy 2
  13. Lois Lane (Jan 1951) Action Comics 152
  14. Blackhawk Commandos (Dec 1951) Blackhawk 47
  15. Rex the Wonder Dog (Oct 1954) Rex 17
  16. Jimmy Olsen (Sep 1955) Jimmy Olsen 7
  17. The Flash (Oct 1956) Showcase 4
  18. Legion of Super-Heroes (Apr 1958) Adventure Comics 247
  19. Aquaman (Aug 1958) Adventure Comics 251
  20. Challengers (Nov 1958) Chal. of the Unknown 4
  21. Rip Hunter (May 1959) DC Showcase 20
  22. Supergirl (Aug 1959) Action Comics 255
  23. Adam Strange (Dec 1960) Mystery in Space 62
  24. The Atomic Knights (Jun 1961) Strange Adventures 129
  25. Elongated Man (Nov 1961) The Flash 124
  26. JLA (Mar 1962) Justice League of America 10
  27. The Atom (Nov 1962) The Atom 3
  28. J’onn J’onzz (Dec 1962) Detective Comics 305
  29. The Spectre (Apr 1966) Showcase 61
  30. Eclipso (Jul 1966) House of Secrets 79
  31. Prince Ra-Man (Jul 1966) House of Secrets 79
  32. Sea Devils (Dec 1966) Sea Devils 32

   “The Immortality of Alan Whidden”
by Ralph Milne Farley
First publication: Amazing, Feb 1942

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction characterizes Farley as “a rough-hewn, traditional sense-of-wonder writer,” who “as a consequence became relatively inactive with the greater sophistication of the genre after WWII.” But by the time of this story, Farley’s rough-hewn edges of his 1920s Radio Man stories had been smoothed out, and I find his writing to be engaging. I’ll grant that he never stepped away from the view of women as mere objects of beauty, and his characters have too much purity or evil with no examination of the morality of murdering a greedy man. Also, I have seen only stereotyped presentations of other cultures, but his time-travel plots are still fun and worthy of study. In this story, an immortal man serendipitously invents time travel which takes him from 1949 back to the time of his dastardly grandfather and a consistent resolution of the grandfather paradox.

 Framed in the front doorway stood a gloriously radiant girl of under twenty. Her flaunting reddish-brown hair was the first feature that caught Whidden’s admiring gaze. Then her eyes, yellow-green and feral, set wide and at just the least little slant, beneath definitely slanted furry brows of the same tawny color as the hair. Lips, full and inviting. Complexion, pink and cream. And a gingham clad figure, virginally volupuous. A sunbonnet hung down her back from strings tied in a little bow beneath her piquant chin. 


   “The Man Who Changed History”
by David Wright O’Brien (as by John York Cabot)
First publication: Amazing, Feb 1942

Reggie Vliet and Sandra Vanderveer want to marry, but Colonel Vanderveer refuses his permission on the basis that Reggie’s family is not of the same standing as the long-established Vanderveers. So Reggie sets out to take down the Vanderveers in the times of Waterloo and the Civil War.

O’Brien was a prolific author who died in action during World War II at age 26.

 “Supposing,” he wondered, “that those two old ducks in the pictures on the walls hadn’t been famous?” 




   “Recruiting Station”
aka Masters of Time, aka Earth’s Last Fortress
by A.E. van Vogt
First publication: Astounding, Mar 1942

When the Glorious begin shanghaiing military recruits throughout time, Miss Norma Matheson and her once-and-future boyfriend Jack Garson are caught up in 18 versions of our solar system and a Glorious-vs-Planetarians war.

 We are masters of time. We live at the farthest frontier of time itself, and all the ages belong to us. No words could begin to describe the vastness of our empire or the futility of opposing us. 




   “Bull Moose of Babylon”
by Don Wilcox (aka Cleo Eldon Wilcox)
First publication: Fantastic Adventures, Apr 1942

A somewhat mad scientist tricks Hal Norton into traveling to ancient Babylon to record ancient animal sounds (I think), but the scientist never told Norton that the kinks in the return mechanism were still being worked out. Trapped in ancient times, Hal meets the also-trapped (and beautiful) niece of the scientist, and together they endure life as slaves while plotting a possible escape.

 Where does this slave, Betty, live? 


   “Some Curious Effects of Time Travel”
by L. Sprague de Camp
First publication: Astounding, Apr 1942

The very first Probability Zero story in Astounding took us on a romp back in time by the members of the Drinkwhiskey Institute to obtain saleable specimens of Pleistocene fauna, we learn that time travel has an effect on aging (coincidentally, the same effect described by Gaspar in Chapter 9 of El Anacronópete).

 A curious feature of time travel back from the present is that one gets younger and younger, becoming successively a youth, a child, an embryo and finally nothing at all. 




   “Time Pussy”
by Isaac Asimov
First publication: Astounding, Apr 1942 (as by George E. Dale)

Mr. Mac tells of the troubles of trying to preserve the body of a four-dimensional cat.

 ‘Four-dimensional, Mr. Mac? But the fourth dimension is time.’ I had learned that the year before, in the third grade. 




   Yankee Longago
by Dick Briefer
First story: Boy Comics 3, Apr 1942

The Boy of To-day had 26 amusing adventures in the Land of Yesterday, which appeared in the pages of Boy Comics 3 (apparently there was no #1 or #2) through 28.

 George “Yankee” Longago is an ordinary boy like any of you. He isn’t a superboy or a smarty—(he flunked arithmetic twice)(and drawing)—just ordinary . . except he knows history . . oh boy does he know history—better than the teacher—because he gets his facts by going back in time! 


This issue also contains Asimov’s first Foundation story.   “Forever Is Not So Long”
by F. Anton Reeds
First publication: Astounding, May 1942

The professor’s handsome assistant, Stephen Darville, is in love with the professor’s beautiful daughter and wants to spend every waking moment with her, but duty calls—duty to build a time machine, of course, in which the youthful assistant can go ten years into the future to return with the more polished time machines that will be produced by the professor’s very own technicians over the next ten years.

 The technicians would “save” themselves ten years of labor and the new sweeping highway in the future and the past would be open to mankind within the life of its discoverer. 




   “The Ghost of Me”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: Unknown, Jun 1942

After Dr. John Adams is murdered, his ghost accidentally begins haunting some time before the murder occurred.

 I’ve simply come back into time at the wrong point. 


The story also appears in Groff Conklin’s 1952 anthology, The Omnibus of Science Fiction.   “Heritage”
by Robert Abernathy
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1942

Nick Doody, inventor of the time machine and sole explorer through time, ventures some nine millennia beyond what he reckons was the fall of mankind.

 Are you not a Man, and do not Men know everything? But I am only a . . . 


The story also appeared in this 1975 collection.   “My Name Is Legion”
by Lester del Rey
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1942

At the end of World War II, as the Allies occupation army closes in on Hitler, a man offers him a way to bring back thousands of copies of himself from the future.

 Years ago in one of those American magazines, there was a story of a man who saw himself. He came through a woods somewhere and stumbled on a machine, got in, and it took him three days back in time. Then, he lived forward again, saw himself get in the machine and go back. 

Lester del Rey, Master Traveller

For me, the scope of “My Name Is Legion” might well have garnered del Rey a Master Traveller Citation, but the actual award came when his 1966 juvenile novel, Tunnel Through Time, brought adventure time travel to young readers.




   “Time Dredge”
by Robert Arthur, Jr.
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1942

I haven’t yet read this story which appeared only in Astounding, but Jamie Todd Rubin writes that the story is of two men who seek a German professor who plans to pull things out of ancient South America to help the Germany win World War II.

 The German professor had a nice idea for making archeology a branch of Blitzkrieg technique—with the aid of a little tinkering with Time. 

—John W. Campbell’s introduction to the story


The story also appeared in this 2003 collection.   “Secret Unattainable”
by A.E. van Vogt
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1942

After his brother is killed by the Nazis, Herr Professor Johann Kenrube invents a machine that promises a little of everything to Hitler—unlimited energy and natural resources, instant transportation behind enemy lines, even a smidgden of time travel—but only after the Germans have over-committed themselves, does the truth about the machine emerge.

 Kenrube was at Gribe Schloss before two P.M., March 21st. This completely nullifies the six P.M. story. Place these scoundrels under arrest, and bring them before me at eight o’clock tonight. 

—comment on a memo from Himmler


   “About Quarrels, about the Past”
by John Pierce
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1942

In addition to A.E. van Vogt’s “Secret Unattainable,” the July 1942 Astounding also had three short, short time travel stories as part of the magazine’s Probability Zero series. In this story, our narrator tells of the quirky Quarrels who took his time machine into the past—or we should say some past—to woo the winsome Nephertiti.

 Well, didn’t you realize that this uncertainty holds for the past, too? I hadn’t until Quarrels pointed it out. All we have is a lot of incomplete data. Is it just because we’re stupid? Not at all. We can’t find a unique wave function. 


Some other flag covers from July 1942

   “The Strange Case of
the Missing Hero”
by Frank Holby
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1942

Many magazines across the U.S. featured a flag on the cover in this patriotic month. In this second Probability Zero story of the issue, Elliot Gallant, hero to the people and beacon light of courage, was the first man to travel through time; Sebastian Lelong, editor of the Encyclopedia Galactica, aims to find out why he never returned.

This is the earliest story that I’ve spotted anywhere with the time traveler coming to know his own mother.

 Elliot Gallant went back into time thirty years. He liked the peaceful days of yesteryear. He married, had a son. 


Interior artwork for the Probability Zero series   “That Mysterious Bomb Raid”
by Bob Tucker
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1942

Sitting around Hinkle’s, the narrator tells the story of how he, Hinkle and the local university scientist took a bomb back in time in an attempt to nip World War II in the bud.

 Well, sir, that little machine traveled so fast that before we could stop it we found ourselves in the last century. Somewhere in the 1890s. We were going to drop our oil drip there but I happened to remember that my grandfather was spending his honeymoon in Tokyo sometime during that decade— 


   “Time Marches On”
by Ted Carnell
First publication: Astounding, Aug 1942

Also appearing in the first ever Probability Zero column (along with de Camp’s story, listed above, and a story by Malcolm Jameson) is Carnell’s tale of a group of science fiction authors who explore the consequences of a simple time machine that can be built from radio parts, but can take the traveler only into the future.

 Yes, they were practically all here, thought Doc Smith, as his gaze moved from one to another of the circle. Williamson, Miller, Hubbard, Bond, McClary, Rocklynne, Heinlein and MacDonald, and many others who had once written about the mysteries of time travel—so many hundreds of years ago now. 


   “The Barrier”
aka “Barrier”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: Astounding, Sep 1942

John Brent travels 500 years into the future only to find that he can’t return because the authoritarian state has erected barriers to change that include regularization of all verbs and temporal barriers that prevent backward time travel.

Fred Galvin mentioned to me that this story has the earliest mention that he remembers of the Where are all the time travelers? question, but we are still looking for any earlier reference.

 Stephen frowned. “Before failure of Barrier, we often wondered why we never seed time travelers. We doubted Charnwood’s Law and yet—We decided there beed only two explanations. Either time travel bees impossible, or time travelers cannot be seed or intervene in time they visit.” 


The story also appeared in Healy and McComas’s famous 1946 anthology, Adventures in Time and Space.

   “The Twonky”
by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (as by Lewis Padgett)
First publication: Astounding, Sep 1942

A dazed man (apparently dazed from running into a temporal snag) appears in a radio factory, whereupon (before returning to his own time) he makes a radio that’s actually a twonky which gets shipped to a Mr. Kerry Westerfield, who is initially quite confounded and amazed at all it can do.

Because of the opening, I’m convinced that this twonky is from the future, but the origin of the twonky in Archg Oboler’s 1953 movie is less certain.

 “Great Snell!” he gasped. “So that was it! I ran into a temporal snag!” 

Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, Master Travellers

Kuttner and Moore hold the distinction of being the recipients of the only joint Master Travellers award. It’s hard to pick which is their most unforgetable story: “The Twonky”? “Mimsy...”? “Vintage Season”? Nope. I’m nominating the lesser known “What You Need”!


   The Anachron Stories
by Malcolm Jameson
First story: Astounding, Oct 1942

Golden-age favorite Malcolm Jameson wrote three stories of Anachron, Inc., a company that recruits ex-commandos for their “foreign” department—a euphemism for intertemporal commerce.
  1. Anachron, Inc. (Oct 1942) Astounding
  2. Barrius, Imp. (Jan 1943) Astounding
  3. When Is When? (Aug 1943) Astounding

 We can use a limited number of agents for our “foreign” department, but they must be wiry, active, of unusually sound constitution, and familiar with the use of all types of weapons. They MUST be resourceful, of quick decision, tact and of proven courage, as they may be called upon to work in difficult and dangerous situations without guidance or supervision. Previous experience in purchasing or sales work desirable but not necessary. EX-COMMANDO MEN usually do well with us. 


   “The Case of the Baby Dinosaur”
by Walter Kubilius (as by J.S. Klimaris)
First publication: Future Fantasy and Science Fiction, Oct 1942

Futurian Walter Kubilius wrote this story about Wilbur and Stevenson, two members of the Society for the Investigation of Unusual Phenomena, who must track down a time-machinist jokester who, among other things, drops a baby dinosaur in Times Square, plops Cleopatra into a modern beauty contest, and brings Shakespeare to a modern-day theater.

 A time-machinist with a sense of humor! 




   “Dinosaur Goes Hollywood”
by Emil Petaja
First publication: Amazing, Nov 1942

While waiting at a bar for Susie May, a man hears Jock Wemple’s story of how a big-shot scientist brought a brontosaurus to Hollywood just in time for the opening of Back to the Dawn.

 I heard a shrill feminine shriek. It was Dorothy LaMarr. Her dress was gold, and shone fit to knock your eyes right through the back of your head. 




   The Thunderbolt
artwork by Rafael Astarita
First publication: Doc Savage Comics 10, Nov 1942

According to the Michigan State University Comic Art Collection index, Doc Savage #10 included a 7-page origin of a superhero called The Thunderbolt (aka Dr. Adams). The story involved a scientific princess and time travel, but the hero was never heard from again. (Maybe he/she is lost in time.)

 With the aid of the mystic powers of Princess Ione, mistress of scientific wonders . . . 




   Kid Eternity
created by Otto Binder and Sheldon Moldoff
First publication: Hit Comics 25, Dec 1942

Kid Eternity, a lead character in Quality Comics title Hit Comics from #25 to #60 and in eighteen issues of his own title, died before his time, and when he returned to Earth he was able to call real and fictional heroes out of the past to help him fight Nazis and other bad guys.

 Come, we must make our way through the corridor of time! 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “The Push of a Finger” by Alfred Bester, Astounding, May 1942 [predictions ]

  “The Eternal Wall” by Raymond Z. Gallun, Amazing, Nov 1942 [long sleep ]

 

28 items are in the time-travel list for these search settings.
Thanks for visiting my time-travel page, and thanks to the many sources that provided stories and more (see the Links and Credits in the menu at the top). —Michael (main@colorado.edu)