Captain Future

Captain Future is a fictional character, the creation of science fiction writer Edmond Hamilton. The character was published by Ned Pine's by his Thrilling/Standard/Better publications company. A different Captain Future was published in Pine's Nedor Comics line.

Related Topics:
Science fiction - Edmond Hamilton - Nedor Comics

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The stories were published in the pulp magazines from 1940-1951. The adventures mostly appeared in Captain Future's own series but later stories appeared in "Startling Stories." They are a good example of the space opera stories of the period. Captain Future is Curtis Newton, a brilliant scientist and adventurer who roams the solar system solving problems, righting wrongs, and vanquishing futuristic supervillains.

Related Topics:
Pulp magazines - 1940 - 1951 - Space opera - Supervillain

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The series contains a number of assumptions about the solar system which are naive by modern standards but which still seemed plausible in the time the stories were written. All of the planets of the solar system, and many of the moons and asteroids are suitable for life and most are already occupied by humanoid alien races. The initial adventures take place in the planets of the solar system but later stories take the hero to other stars, other dimensions and even the distant past and future.

Related Topics:
Solar system - Humanoid - Alien

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The stories are exciting and clever but simplistic in style and characterization. In the later stories Hamilton is able to inject some pathos into his characters. This may have been due to the influence of Hamilton's wife Leigh Brackett. Brackett was also a science fiction writer and many critics credit her with improving the quality of Hamilton's writing after their marriage.

Related Topics:
Pathos - Leigh Brackett

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In 1978, one year after Hamilton's death, Toei Animation of Japan produced a Captain Future TV Anime series of 52 episodes, based on 13 original Hamilton stories. Despite the strong cultural differences and the large gap between a literary work and animation, the series was close to the original in many ways, from the didactic scientific explanations to the emphasis on the usefulness of cleverness as opposed to brawn.

Related Topics:
1978 - Toei Animation - Japan - Anime

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The series was translated in several languages and distributed globally. It met huge success particularly in France, where the title and lead character's name were changed to "Capitaine Flam" (based on Flame). The success of "Capitaine Flam" and japanimation in France was especially due to anthemic theme tunes (in French language) which became true hits in the late 1970's and early 1980's in the French charts.

Related Topics:
France - Capitaine Flam - Japanimation

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For the German version, which was cut by about a quarter of the orginal length, a completly new soundtrack was created by Christian Bruhn. To this day the soundtrack is considered cult and the theme song can be heard as background music in many magazines and other shows.

Related Topics:
German - Soundtrack - Christian Bruhn

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On a more literary plane, in 1996 the Hugo award for best Novella was given to a psychologically and socially complex pastiche of Hamilton's space opera: The Death of Captain Future by Allen Steele.

Related Topics:
1996 - Hugo award - Allen Steele

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