Marvel Science Stories

Williamson; the second run published stories by Arthur

C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Jack Vance, and L. Sprague
de Camp, among others. In the opinion of sf historian
Joseph Marchesani, the quality of the second incarnation
of the magazine was superior to the rst, but it was un-
able to compete with the new, higher-quality magazines
that had appeared in the interim.

1 Publication history

Cover of the AprilMay 1939 issue; artwork is by Norman Saun-

ders

Marvel Science Stories was an American pulp magazine

that ran for a total of fteen issues in two separate runs,
both edited by Robert O. Erisman. The publisher for the
rst run was Postal Publications, and the second run was
published by Western Publishing; both companies were
owned by Abraham and Martin Goodman. The rst is-
sue was dated August 1938, and carried stories with more
sexual content than was usual for the genre, including sev-
eral stories by Henry Kuttner, under his own name and Cover of the November 1940 issue; art is by J. W. Scott
also under pseudonyms. Reaction was generally negative,
one reader referring to Kuttners story The Time Trap Although science ction (sf) had been published before
as trash. This was the rst of several titles featuring the the 1920s, it did not begin to coalesce into a separately
word Marvel and Marvel Comics came from the same marketed genre until the appearance in 1926 of Amazing
stable in the following year. Stories, a pulp magazine published by Hugo Gernsback.[1]
The magazine was canceled after the April 1941 issue, After 1931, when Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories
but when a boom in science ction magazines began in was launched, no new science ction magazines appeared
1950, the publishers revived it. The rst issue of the new for several years. In 1936 Abraham and Martin Good-
series was dated November 1950; a further six issues ap- man, two brothers who owned a publishing company with
peared, the last dated May 1952. As well as Kuttner, con- multiple imprints, launched Ka-Zar, an imitation Tarzan
tributors to the rst run included Arthur J. Burks and Jack magazine with some borderline sf content.[2] It lasted for

1
2 2 BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS

three issues, with the last issue dated January 1937.[3] April 1941 issue, but in 1950 the Goodmans saw an op-
In addition to this marginal science ction magazine, in portunity to revive it when a new boom in science c-
1937 the Goodmans began publishing several weird- tion magazines got under way. Erisman was still working
menace pulps. These were a genre of pulp magazine for the Goodmans, and was listed as editorial director of
known for incorporating sex and sadism, with story- the new version of the magazine, but much of the edito-
lines that placed women in danger, usually because of a rial work was done by Daniel Keyes, who was credited as
threat that appeared to be supernatural but was ultimately Editorial Associate on the 1951 issues. The rst issue
revealed to be the work of a human villain. The Good- of the new incarnation of Marvel Science Stories was dated
mans titles were Detective Short Stories, launched in Au- November 1950. After two issues Erisman switched the
gust 1937, and Mystery Tales, which published its rst magazine to a digest format, but the nal issue, dated May
issue in March 1938. These were followed up by Marvel 1952, was once again a pulp.[3] The post-war issues con-
Science Stories, edited by Robert O. Erisman, which was tained stories by well-known writers, including Arthur C.
not intended to be a weird-menace pulp, but an sf mag- Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Richard Matheson, William Tenn,
azine. The inuence of the sex and sadism side of the Jack Vance, and Lester del Rey, but the stories were of
Goodmans portfolio of magazines was apparent, how- only average quality. In Marchesanis opinion, Erisman
ever: authors were sometimes asked to add more sex to and Keyes were able to improve on the material pub-
their stories than was usual in the science ction eld at lished in the pre-war Marvel Tales, but the eld had grown
the time.[4] This was the rst time that the word Marvel more sophisticated since those days, and the writers who
was used in the title of a Goodman publication. It went sold to Marvel Tales were now publishing their best work
on to be used in other titles, notably Marvel Comics in elsewhere.[3][7]
the following year. The word may have been chosen to
appeal to advertisers Marvel Home Utilities and Marvel
Mystery Oil or it may have been that Martin Goodman 2 Bibliographic details
liked the name because it was similar to his own.[5]
The rst issue, dated August 1938, appeared on news- There were nine issues in the rst sequence, in one vol-
stands in May of that year.[6][4] It contained Survival ume of six numbers and a second volume of three num-
by Arthur J. Burks as the lead novel; this was well re- bers. All issues in the rst run were in pulp format and
ceived by the readers, and did not contain any sexual con- were priced at 15 cents. The rst four issues were 128
tent. The rst couple of issues contained several stories pages; the next ve were 112 pages. The title was Marvel
that did little to oend readers, but they also contained Science Stories for ve issues, then Marvel Tales for two
two stories by Henry Kuttner, who was selling regularly issues, and then Marvel Stories for the last two issues of
to the Goodmans other publications. Erisman and the the rst run. The publisher for the rst series was listed
Goodmans had asked Kuttner to spice up his submissions as Postal Publications of Chicago for the rst four issues,
to Marvel Science Stories. He obliged with Avengers of and as Western Publishing of New York and Chicago; in
Space in the rst issue, which included scenes of aliens both cases the owner was Martin and Abraham Good-
lusting after unclothed Earth women, in the words of man. The intended schedule was bimonthly but this was
sf historian Mike Ashley; and The Time Trap in the never achieved. The editor was Robert O. Erisman.[3]
second issue. Reader reaction was strongly negative: a
typical letter, from William Hamling, later to become a The second incarnation of the magazine lasted for six
publisher and editor of science ction magazines in his issues on a more regular quarterly schedule, starting in
own right, commented, I was just about to write you a November 1950. The price was 25 cents and the page
letter of complete congratulations when my eyes fell upon count was 128 pages for all six issues; the rst two is-
Kuttners The Time Trap. All I can say is: PLEASE, sues and last issue of this sequence were in pulp format,
in the future, dislodge such trash from your magazine. and the three from May 1951 to November 1951 were in
In addition to these two stories published under Kuttners digest format. The title returned to Marvel Science Sto-
name, there were two more stories in the same two issues ries for the rst three issues of this series, and changed to
by him under pseudonyms which were equally oensive Marvel Science Fiction for the last three issues. The pub-
to readers such as Hamling.[4] lisher was listed as Stadium Publishing of New York; as
with the rst series Martin and Abraham Goodman were
After ve issues, the title was changed to Marvel Tales; at the owners.[3]
the same time the number of stories advertised as pas-
sionate or containing sin-lost or lust-crazed charac- There was a British reprint of the February 1951 issue,
ters sharply increased. Though some of the stories con- published by Thorpe & Porter and dated May 1951. Sci-
tained little to match the titillating blurbs, there were ence ction bibliographer Brad Day lists ve other British
some that did, with women entrapped, burned and oth- reprints of the second series of Marvel Science Stories, but [3]
erwise maltreated, and whips cracking into use with un- no copies are recorded by more recent bibliographers.
inventive frequency, according to sf historian Joseph In 1977 the Goodmans launched a digest science ction
Marchesani.[3] The magazine ceased publication with the magazine titled Skyworlds, which has been described by
Mike Ashley as without any shadow of a doubt, the
 3

worst of the 1970s crop of science ction magazines; the

ction it contained was almost entirely reprinted from the
second series of Marvel Science Stories.[8]

3 Footnotes
[1] Edwards & Nicholls (1992), pp. 10661068.

[2] Ashley (2000), p. 98.

[3] Marchesani (1985), pp. 398401.

[4] Ashley (2000), pp. 120123.

[5] Bell & Vassallo 2013, p. 55.

[6] Ashley (2000), p. 245.

[7] Ashley (2005), p. 42.

[8] Ashley (1985), pp. 577579.

4 References
Ashley, Mike (1985). "Skyworlds". In Tymn, Mar-
shall B.; Ashley, Mike. Science Fiction, Fantasy, and
Weird Fiction Magazines. Westport CT: Greenwood
Press. pp. 577579. ISBN 0-313-21221-X.
Ashley, Mike (2000). The Time Machines:The Story
of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the be-
ginning to 1950. Liverpool: Liverpool University
Press. ISBN 0-85323-865-0.
Ashley, Mike (2005). Transformations. Liverpool:
Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-779-4.

Bell, Blake; Vassallo, Michael J. (2013). The Secret

History of Marvel Comics: Jack Kirby and the Moon-
lighting Artists at Martin Goodmans Empire. Fanta-
graphics Books. ISBN 9781606995525.

Edwards, Malcolm; Nicholls, Peter (1992). SF

Magazines. In Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter. Ency-
clopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martins
Press, Inc. ISBN 0-312-09618-6.

Marchesani, Joseph (1985). "Marvel Science Sto-

ries". In Tymn, Marshall B.; Ashley, Mike. Sci-
ence Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines.
Westport CT: Greenwood Press. pp. 398401.
ISBN 0-313-21221-X.
4 5 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

5 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1 Text
Marvel Science Stories Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Science_Stories?oldid=765311706 Contributors: Dan Koehl, Mar-
cok, Gadget850, Ian Rose, Curly Turkey, JHunterJ, Andrew Davidson, Mike Christie, Kiore, Frankaustx, Rawnoodles10, Adam Cuer-
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wHoobin, TFA Protector Bot, Monkbot, FACBot, Kethrus, My Chemistry romantic, Cheeseskates, Cyrus noto3at bulaga, Penskins, Lak-
endra.m.nichols and Anonymous: 11

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