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THE PULPS
STARTLING STORIES
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Startling Stories was a pulp science fiction magazine which included science fantasy. A companion magazine to Thrilling Wonder Stories and Captain Future magazine, it published 99 issues from 1939 to 1955. It was edited by Sam Merwin, Jr. from 1945 to 1951.
It featured a novel in each issue, several of which were written by Henry Kuttner. Among the classic stories which were published in it were The Black Flame by Stanley G. Weinbaum, The Last Days of Shandakor and The Star-Men of Llyrdis by Leigh Brackett, and Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke. From 1940 to 1952 it featured covers by Earle Bergey. After Captain Future magazine ceased publication, some of the final stories about the eponymous character were published in Startling.
Although science fiction had been published before the 1920s, it did not begin to coalesce into a separately-marketed genre until the appearance in 1926 of Amazing Stories, a pulp magazine published by Hugo Gernsback. By the end of the 1930s the field was undergoing its first boom,[1] Standard Magazines, a pulp publishing company owned by Ned Pines, had acquired its first science fiction magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories, from Gernsback in 1936.[2] Mort Weisinger, the editor of Thrilling Wonder, printed an editorial in February 1938 asking readers for suggestions for a companion magazine. Response was positive, and the new magazine, titled Startling Stories, was duly launched, with a first issue dated January 1939.[3]
Startling was launched on a bimonthly schedule, alternating months with Thrilling Wonder Stories, though in 1940 Thrilling moved to a monthly schedule that lasted for over a year. For the first few years Startling published a lead novel in every issue, with a few short pieces to fill out the magazine. The first editor, Mort Weisinger, left in 1941 to take a new post as editor of Superman, and was replaced by Oscar J. Friend.[3][4][5][6][7] The magazine switched from bimonthly to quarterly in 1943. Friend was replaced by Sam Merwin, Jr. from the Winter 1945 issue.[5]
Merwin succeeded in making Startling popular and successful, and the bimonthly schedule was resumed in 1947, followed by a switch to monthly at the start of 1952.[5][8] Merwin left shortly before this switch, in order to spend more time on his own writing. He was replaced by Samuel Mines, who had worked with Standard's Western magazines, though he was a science fiction aficionado.[9]
MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Startling_Stories
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From the beginning, every issue of Startling contained a lead novel, along with one or two short stories. When Standard Magazines had bought Wonder Stories in 1936, they had also acquired rights to reprint the stories that had appeared there, and so Startling also included a "Hall of Fame" reprint from Wonder Stories in every issue. The first lead novel was Dawn of Flame, a revised version of a story by Stanley Weinbaum that had previously appeared only in a edition limited to 250 copies. There was also a tribute to Weinbaum, written by Otto Binder. Otto and his brother, Earl, also contributed a story, "Science Island", under their joint pseudonym Eando Binder. The "Hall of Fame" reprint was D.D. Sharp's "The Eternal Man", from 1929. Other features included a pictorial article on Albert Einstein, and a set of biographical sketches of scientists, titled "Thrills in Science". [3]
Startling was popular, and soon "became one of the core sf magazines", according to science fiction historian Mike Ashley. The target audience was younger readers, and the lead novels were often space operas by well-known pulp writers such as Edmond Hamilton and Manly Wade Wellman. In addition to space opera, some more fantastical fiction began to appear, contributed by writers such as Henry Kuttner. These early science fantasy stories were popular with the readers, and contrast with the hard science fiction that John W. Campbell was pioneering at Astounding. [3]
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http://www.moviegoods.com/movie_poster/startling_stories_pulp_1950.htm
Startling was a pulp-sized magazine for
all of its 99 issues. It initially was 132 pages, and was priced at 15 cents.
The page count was reduced to 116 pages with the Summer 1944 issue and then
increased to 148 pages with the March 1948 issue, at which time the price went
up to 20 cents. The price increased again, to 25 cents, in November 1948, and
the page count increased again to 180 pages. This higher page count did not
last; it was reduced to 164 in March 1949 and then again to 148 pages in July
1951. The October 1953 issue saw the page count drop again, to 132, and a year
later the Fall 1954 issue cut the page count to 116. The magazine remained at
116 pages and a price of 25 cents for the rest of its existence.
The original bimonthly schedule continued until the March 1943 issue, which was
followed by June 1943 and then Fall 1943. This inaugurated a quarterly schedule
that ran until Fall 1946, except that an additional issue, dated March, was
inserted between the Winter 1946 and Spring 1946 issues. The next issue, January
1947, began another bimonthly sequence, which ran without interruption until
November 1951. With the following issue, January 1952, Startling switched
to a monthly schedule, which lasted until the June 1953 issue which was followed
by August and October 1953 and then January 1954. The next issue was Spring
1954, and the magazine stayed on a quarterly schedule from then until the last
issue, Fall 1955.
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Startling_Stories
http://www.rainfall.com/posters/scifimag/26811.htm
Startling Stories artwork by Earle Bergey.
Original had stories man battles mutant in Dragon's Island by Jack Williamson.
Posters such as this influenced much of the Sci Fi that was released later - in
this case Men In Black (the small child like aliens).
Earle K. Bergey was born in Philadelphia on August 16, 1901 and died in 1952).
He was a pulp magazine and paperback illustrator. Well-known and sometimes
notorious for what is today called Good Girl Art, he became noted in the Science
Fiction field for his covers for Startling Stories,Thrilling Wonder Stories and
Captain Future Magazine, which featured women in space helmets and bikinis or
skin-tight outfits similar to Princess Leia's slave-girl outfit in Return of the
Jedi. These covers, often described as "Bim, Bem, Bum" usually
featured a woman being menaced by a monster or robot who resembled a man in a
rubber suit, and an astronaut or other heroic type. In addition, he did
paperback covers for Popular Library usually illustrating mystery titles (though
he did do Gentlemen Prefer Blondes). This reportedly lasted until public
pressure forced Popular Library to stop using him.
http://www.bookmice.net/darkchilde/pulps/ssss.html
http://www.pulpoftheday.com/?p=968
Valley of Creation Alien
By Virgil Finlay
Interior Illustration
Startling Stories, July 1948
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