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} }) </script> </div> </form> </fieldset> <article class="entryArticle content STeditorial"> <header class="entryHeader icon-publication"> <h1 class="entryTitle">Startling Stories </h1> </header><p class='tagLine'>Entry updated 10 July 2023. Tagged: Publication.</p><div class="browsingBtns"> <span> <input class="button PNI previous" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?id=p&entry=startling_stories'" value="Prev" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI next" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/next.php?&entry=startling_stories'" value="Next" /> </span> <span> <input class="button PNI incoming" type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/incoming.php?entry=startling_stories'" value="About This Entry" title="What links to the entry; contributor initials explained; how to cite; other information" /> </span> </div><p style='float:right; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:10px; position: relative; top: 3px;'> <a href='/gallery.php?id=Leinster-Brain.jpg' target='_blank'> <img src='https://x.sf-encyclopedia.com/gal/thumbs/Leinster-Brain.jpg' alt='pic'></a></p> <p><b>1.</b> US <a href="/entry/pulp">Pulp</a> magazine, 99 issues January 1939 to Fall 1955, published by Better Publications January 1939 to Winter 1955, and by Standard Magazines (really the same company) Spring to Fall 1955; edited by Mort <a href="/entry/weisinger_mort">Weisinger</a> (January 1939-May 1941), Oscar J <a href="/entry/friend_oscar_j">Friend</a> (July 1941-Fall 1944), Sam <a href="/entry/merwin_sam_jr">Merwin</a> Jr (Winter 1945-September 1951), Samuel <a href="/entry/mines_samuel">Mines</a> (November 1951-Fall 1954), Theron <a href="/entry/raines_theron">Raines</a> (Winter and Spring 1955) and Herbert D <a href="/entry/kastle_herbert_d">Kastle</a> (Summer and Fall 1955). Leo <a href="/entry/margulies_leo">Margulies</a> was editorial director of <i>Startling</i> and its companion magazines during Weisinger's and Friend's editorships. The schedule varied between bimonthly (dated by month) and quarterly (dated by season), with a monthly period in 1952-1953.</p> <p><i>Startling</i> was started as a companion magazine to <a href="/entry/tws">Thrilling Wonder Stories</a>. Whereas <i>Thrilling Wonder</i> printed only shorter fiction, the policy of <i>Startling</i> was to include a complete novel (albeit sometimes very short) per issue; in its early years the cover bore the legend "A Novel of the Future Complete in This Issue". The space left for shorter stories was limited, and was partially filled by "Hall of Fame" reprints – stories from the Hugo <a href="/entry/gernsback_hugo">Gernsback</a>-edited <a href="/entry/wonder_stories">Wonder Stories</a> and its predecessors: #1 featured Stanley G <a href="/entry/weinbaum_stanley_g">Weinbaum</a>'s <i>The Black Flame</i> (January 1939; <b>1948</b>). Contributors in the early years included Eando <a href="/entry/binder_eando">Binder</a>, Oscar J Friend, Edmond <a href="/entry/hamilton_edmond">Hamilton</a>, Henry <a href="/entry/kuttner_henry">Kuttner</a>, Manly Wade <a href="/entry/wellman_manly_wade">Wellman</a> and Jack <a href="/entry/williamson_jack">Williamson</a>. Hamilton's "A Yank at Valhalla" (January 1941; vt <i>The Monsters of Juntonheim</i> <b>1950</b>; vt <i>A Yank at Valhalla</i> <b>1973</b> dos) was a particularly vigorous adventure. Early covers were by Howard <a href="/entry/brown_howard_v">Brown</a> and Rudolph Belarski, but from 1940 onwards the covers were mostly by Earle K <a href="/entry/bergey_earle_k">Bergey</a>, the artist whose style is most closely identified with <i>Startling</i> and its sister magazines. The characteristic Bergey cover showed a rugged hero, a desperate heroine (in either a metallic bikini or a dangerous state of <i>déshabillé</i>) and a hideous <a href="/entry/aliens">Alien</a> menace.</p> <p>Under Weisinger and more particularly under Friend, <i>Startling</i> adopted a deliberately juvenile slant. This was most clearly manifested in the patronizing shape of the character "Sergeant Saturn", who conducted the letter column and other readers' departments (in <a href="/entry/tws">Thrilling Wonder Stories</a> and <a href="/entry/captain_future">Captain Future</a> as well as in <i>Startling</i>). Many readers were alienated by this, and when Merwin became editor he phased out such juvenilia and gradually built <i>Startling</i> into the best sf magazine of the period, apart from <a href="/entry/asf">Astounding</a>. In 1948-1949 it featured such novels as <i>What Mad Universe</i> (September 1948; exp <b>1949</b>) by Fredric <a href="/entry/brown_fredric">Brown</a>, <i>Against the Fall of Night</i> (November 1948; <b>1953</b>; rev vt <i>The City and the Stars</i> <b>1956</b>) by Arthur C <a href="/entry/clarke_arthur_c">Clarke</a> and <i>Flight into Yesterday</i> (May 1949; exp <b>1953</b>; vt <i>The Paradox Men</i> <b>1955</b> dos; rev <b>1984</b>) by Charles L <a href="/entry/harness_charles_l">Harness</a>, in addition to novels by Henry <a href="/entry/kuttner_henry">Kuttner</a> (mostly <a href="/entry/science_fantasy">Science Fantasy</a>) and Murray <a href="/entry/leinster_murray">Leinster</a> and stories by Ray <a href="/entry/bradbury_ray">Bradbury</a>, Clarke, C M <a href="/entry/kornbluth_c_m">Kornbluth</a>, John D <a href="/entry/macdonald_john_d">MacDonald</a>, Jack <a href="/entry/vance_jack">Vance</a>, A E <a href="/entry/van_vogt_a_e">van Vogt</a> and others.</p> <p>Merwin left the magazine in 1951 (thereafter becoming a frequent contributor). By this time <i>Startling</i>, like other <a href="/entry/pulp">Pulp</a> magazines, was feeling the effect of the increased competition provided by such new magazines as <a href="/entry/galaxy">Galaxy Science Fiction</a> and <i>The</i> <a href="/entry/fsf">Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction</a>. Merwin's successor, Mines, continued to publish interesting material, such as Philip José <a href="/entry/farmer_philip_jose">Farmer</a>'s <i>The Lovers</i> (August 1952; exp <b>1961</b>) – which helped earn him a <a href="/entry/hugo">Hugo</a> as Most Promising New Writer – and many Jack <a href="/entry/vance_jack">Vance</a> stories, notably <i>Big Planet</i> (September 1952; <b>1957</b>). The magazine adopted a new cover slogan ("Today's Science Fiction – Tomorrow's Fact") and a more dignified appearance, but it became another victim of the general decline of pulp magazines. In Spring 1955, as the most popular title in its stable, it absorbed <a href="/entry/tws">Thrilling Wonder</a> and its more recent companion, <i>Fantastic Story Magazine</i> (see <a href="/entry/fantastic_story_quarterly">Fantastic Story Quarterly</a>). After two further issues it ceased publication, one short of #100.</p> <p>Mines edited an anthology drawn from <i>Startling</i>'s pages, <i>The Best from Startling Stories</i> (anth <b>1953</b>; vt <i>Startling Stories</i> <b>1954</b>), while a number of its "Hall of Fame" reprints were collected in <i>From Off this World</i> (anth <b>1949</b>) edited by Margulies and Friend. A heavily cut and very irregular UK edition was published by Pembertons in 18 numbered issues, June 1949 to May 1954. A first Canadian reprint series ran 1945-1946, and a second 1948-1951. Damon <a href="/entry/knight_damon">Knight</a>'s useful selection <i>The Shape of Things</i> (anth <b>1965</b>) is drawn exclusively from <i>Startling</i> and <i>Thrilling Wonder Stories</i>.</p> <p><b>2.</b> <i>Startling Stories</i> was revived in 2007 by Ron Hanna of Wild Cat Books, Winchester, Virginia. Its initial format was in letter-size, 64 pages, saddle-stapled, printed on semi-slick stock and available as print-on-demand. It reproduced the original <i>Startling Stories</i> logo on the cover but otherwise lacked the pulp format. The magazine's content, however, modelled itself on the original <a href="/entry/captain_future">Captain Future</a> pulp, introducing in the first issue its own <a href="/entry/shared_worlds">Shared World</a> sequence of <a href="/entry/space_opera">Space Opera</a> adventures, starting with Captain <b>Steve Danger</b> in "Calling Captain Danger" by Tom Johnson, <b>Omega Station</b>, created by K G McAbee, set in a port at the end of one of our galaxy's spirals, and the <b>Space-Hawk Squadron</b>, created by Wayne Skiver, featuring an inter-galactic police force with <a href="/entry/superpowers">Superpowers</a>. Other series characters were added in subsequent issues. The sequence lasted for six quarterly issues from January 2007 to May 2008 (numbered #1 to #6), the last of which made stronger links to the original <i>Startling Stories</i> by reprinting stories by Frank Belknap <a href="/entry/long_frank_belknap">Long</a> and Murray <a href="/entry/leinster_murray">Leinster</a>.</p> <p>The magazine was then entirely revamped and reissued in traditional <a href="/entry/pulp">Pulp</a> format, 204 pages, perfect bound on semi-slick stock, quarterly (though not consistently) from Fall 2008 to Summer 2012 – eight issues in all, numbered vol 2 #1 to vol 2 #8. Ron Hanna remained editor-in-chief but it was now edited by William Carney and reproduced the style and appearance of <i>Startling Stories</i>, including the editorial feature "The Ether Vibrates" and reprinting selected stories from the magazine and its companion titles alongside new stories, <a href="/entry/comics">Comic</a>-strips and art features. The shared-world approach was dropped but a few continuing series remained, and it retained the <a href="/entry/retro-pulp">Retro-Pulp</a>, space adventure atmosphere. The final issue was dated Summer 2012; Wild Cat Books ceased operations in 2013.</p> <p><b>3.</b> <i>Startling Stories</i> was revived again in February 2021 as an annual published by <a href="/entry/wildside_press">Wildside Press</a> with John <a href="/entry/betancourt_john_gregory">Betancourt</a> as publisher and editor-in-chief and Doug Draa as editor, thus making it a companion to the revived <i>Weirdbook</i>. Apart from a reprint from Robert <a href="/entry/silverberg_robert">Silverberg</a>, the issue was all-new fiction including a short novel by Betancourt himself. The aim is to keep alive the vivacious form of <a href="/entry/space_opera">Space Opera</a> and intelligent adventure fiction of the original pulp. [MJE/MA]</p> <p><b>see also:</b> <a href="/entry/golden_age_of_sf">Golden Age of SF</a>.</p> <p><b>further reading</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li>Samuel <a href="/entry/mines_samuel">Mines</a>, editor. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=The+Best+from+Startling+Stories&field-author=Mines+Samuel" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">The Best from Startling Stories</a></em> (New York: Henry Holt, <b>1953</b>) [anth: introduction by Robert A <a href="/entry/heinlein_robert_a">Heinlein</a>: hb/Alex <a href="/entry/schomburg_alex">Schomburg</a>] <ul class="x"> <li>Samuel <a href="/entry/mines_samuel">Mines</a>, editor. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=Startling+Stories&field-author=Mines+Samuel" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">Startling Stories</a></em> (London: Cassell and Company, <b>1954</b>) [anth: vt of the above: hb/]</li> </ul></li> <li>Damon <a href="/entry/knight_damon">Knight</a>, editor. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=The+Shape+of+Things&field-author=Knight+Damon" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">The Shape of Things</a></em> (New York: Popular Library, <b>1965</b>) [anth: selected from <em>Startling</em> and <a href="/entry/tws">Thrilling Wonder</a>: pb/Eugene Berman]</li> <li>Leon L Gammell. <em><a href="/sfeshop.php?field-keywords=The+Annotated+Guide+to+Startling+Stories&field-author=Leon+L+Gammell" class="link-amazon" target="_blank">The Annotated Guide to Startling Stories</a></em> (Mercer Island, Washington: Starmont House, <b>1986</b>) [nonfiction: chap: pb/nonpictorial]</li> </ul> <p><b>links</b></p> <ul class="x"> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://www.philsp.com/mags/startling_stories.html">Galactic Central illustrated checklist</a></li> </ul> <p><b>previous versions of this entry</b></p> <ul><li><a href='https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/startling_stories' target='_blank'>Internet Archive</a></li></ul><br /><br /></article></div> <div class="sideBarsWrapper"> <div class="sideBarsColsWrapper clearfix"> <div class="column sideBar12 clearfix"> <div class="columnForm"><aside id="blogFeed" class="widget"> <div class="content STeditorial clearfix"> <h2>Recently visited entries<span style="background:url(/images/thingSFE2.png) !important"></span></h2><ul style='width: 50%; 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