FANTASTIC ADVENTURES

   US PULP MAGAZINE published by ZIFF-DAVIS as a companion to AMAZING STORIES. 128 issues May 1939-Mar 1953. FA began as a bimonthly, BEDSHEET-size, but maintained a monthly schedule from vol 2 \#1 (Jan 1940) for most of its existence, shrinking to PULP-MAGAZINE size in June 1940. To Dec 1949 it was ed Raymond A. PALMER, and from then until May/June 1953 (when it merged with the one-year-old Ziff-Davis DIGEST magazine FANTASTIC) by Howard V. BROWNE. William L. HAMLING was managing editor Nov 1947-Feb 1951.The bulk of FA's contents were provided by a small stable of Chicago writers using a variety of house pseudonyms, although Palmer did publish several stories by Edgar Rice BURROUGHS 1939-42 and some material by established sf and fantasy writers-Robert BLOCH was a frequent contributor. The magazine was at its best under Browne's editorship in 1950-51, when it published Theodore STURGEON's first novel, The Dreaming Jewels (Feb 1950; 1950), and notable long stories by Lester DEL REY, Walter M. MILLER and William TENN. FA hardly bears comparison with its rival ASF's short-lived but excellent companion UNKNOWN, but sf writers given carte blanche to write pure fantasy for FA did often produce readable fiction with a distinctive whimsical and ironic flavour. The mass-produced material it published was of quite negligible interest.In 1941-3 and 1948-51 unsold issues were bound up in threes and sold as Fantastic Adventures Quarterly, there being 8 such in the first series, Winter 1941-Fall 1943, and 11 in the second, Summer 1948-Spring 1951. There were 2 UK editions: the first released 2 short (32pp) numbered issues in 1946, the second reprinted 24 numbered issues 1950-54, abridged from US issues dated Mar 1950-Jan 1953.

   BS