Charles D. Hornig of Elizabeth, NJ, at the age of seventeen, founded the magazine, from the beginning seeking to secure the most prestigious weird and science fiction authors he could.

In Jan 1933 he decided to publish a fanzine and contacted Conrad H. Ruppert, who was then producing on letterpress with handset type the fan magazine The Science Fic-Digest.

Gernsback had just fired his editor David Lasser for spending more time promoting The Workers Alliance and organizing the unemployed than on his editorial work.

[1] While maintaining a small circulation - its print run probably never exceeded 300 copies, and it had only sixty subscribers - it represented a mixture of news, articles, stories, poems, and miscellany connected to weird fiction.

The March 1934 issue is remarkable for the first publication of Robert E. Howard's previously rejected (by Weird Tales editor Farnsworth Wright) Conan story, "The Frost King's Daughter".

Hornig changed the title to "Gods of the North", and the main character was called "Amra", a Conan nickname which would have been recognized by fans at the time.

Distribution of The Fantasy Fan was so small Hornig would sometimes hand write notations on each individual copy, such as upcoming previews (September 1933) or a missed back issue number that was available (December 1934).

With the final issue (February 1935), Hornig notes that a favorable arrangement he had with a printer could no longer be maintained, and he had already lost a couple of hundred dollars during the fanzine's run.

No magazine truly filled its place as a news organ, a forum for the expression of fan's views, and a venue for work by distinguished writers in the field.