THRILLING WONDER STORIES

   US PULP MAGAZINE. 111 issues Aug 1936-winter 1955. Published by Beacon Magazines, Aug 1936-June 1937; by Better Publications Oct 1937-Aug 1943; and by Standard Magazines Fall 1943-Winter 1955. Ed Mort WEISINGER (Aug 1936-June 1941), Oscar J. FRIEND (Aug 1941-Fall 1944), Sam MERWIN Jr(Winter 1945-Oct 1951), Samuel MINES (Dec 1951-Summer 1954) and Alexander SAMALMAN (Fall 1954-Winter 1955). Leo MARGULIES was editorial director during Weisinger's and Friend's editorships. TWS began as a regular bimonthly and changed to monthly Dec 1939-Apr 1941, then back to bimonthly June 1941-Aug 1943. A quarterly schedule followed, Fall 1943-Fall 1946;then bimonthly Dec 1946-Aug 1953. The last 6 issues ran Nov 1953, Winter 1954, Spring 1954, Summer 1954, Fall 1954, Winter 1955.TWS was thecontinuation, after a brief gap, of Hugo GERNSBACK's WONDER STORIES; the adjective "Thrilling" was added to the title to bring it into conformity with other magazines from its new publisher. The issue numeration continued from Wonder Stories, Aug 1936 being vol 8 \#1, so there might be a case for regarding it as the same magazine. However, its personality changed. The new magazine was far more garish than its predecessor. The early covers, by Howard V. BROWN, are said to have been responsible for the coinage of the term "Bug-Eyed Monsters" (or BEMS), such creatures being a regular feature of his painting, along with giant dinosaurs, insects and men. The first 8 issues featured an early sf comic strip (Zarnak by Max Plaisted) which was abruptly suspended in mid-plot afterthe Oct 1937 number. TWS's contributors were mostly second-string authors: Eando BINDER, Frederick Arnold Kummer (1873-1943), Arthur Leo ZAGAT andothers. It ran a number of popular series, notably John W. CAMPBELL Jr's Penton and Blake stories, Arthur K. BARNES's Gerry Carlyle stories and theHollywood on the Moon series by prolific contributor Henry KUTTNER. An amateur writers' contest sponsored by the magazine was won by Alfred BESTER with his first story, "The Broken Axiom" (Apr 1939). TWS wassuccessful enough to generate 2 companion magazines: STARTLING STORIES, in Jan 1939, and STRANGE STORIES, featuring mostly weird fiction, in Feb1939. Startling featured longer stories (a complete novel in each issue, when possible) and soon became the better magazine. In mid-1940 TWS also began to proclaim a "complete novel" in most issues, but in actuality the majority of these were no more than long novelettes. During this boom period a third companion, CAPTAIN FUTURE, was initiated, and for a little over a year TWS changed from its habitual bimonthly schedule and appeared monthly. Earle K. BERGEY succeeded Brown as cover artist with the Sep 1940, issue and was responsible for most subsequent covers; his paintingsswitched the emphasis from the BEM to the scantily clad lady being threatened by it. TWS became more overtly juvenile in the early 1940s with the introduction of Sergeant Saturn (STARTLING STORIES).When Merwin became editor he did away with the magazine's juvenile trappings and considerably improved it, although it remained evidently secondary to Startling. It published further noteworthy stories, including many fromMurray LEINSTER, and some "novels" genuinely of novel length: A.E. VAN VOGT's THE WEAPON SHOPS OF ISHER (Feb 1949; fixup 1951), James BLISH's Jack of Eagles (Dec 1949 as "Let the Finder Beware"; rev 1952; vt ESP-er) and Leigh BRACKETT's Sword of Rhiannon (June 1949 as "Sea-Kings of Mars"; 1953). Ray BRADBURY, whose first solo short story appeared in TWS in 1943,was a regular contributor, as was Jack VANCE, who also made his debut in its pages. Vance's Magnus Ridolph series and Kuttner's Hogben stories were popular features of the Merwin TWS.Although the magazine acquired more companions in the boom of the early 1950s - Fantastic Story Magazine (FANTASTIC STORY QUARTERLY) and SPACE STORIES - it soon began to suffer inthe general decline of the pulp-magazine industry. Changes in editor had little effect, Mines maintaining, approximately, the standard of Merwin's TWS; he published Philip Jose FARMER's celebrated TABOO-breaking "Mother"(Apr 1953). The last issue of TWS appeared in Winter 1955, after which the magazine's title (along with that of Fantastic Story Magazine) was absorbed into Startling for that magazine's last 3 issues.2 issues of a reprint magazine, Wonder Stories, revived the old title and continued the TWS numeration (WONDER STORIES). 2 UK edns appeared for short periods,both heavily cut from the original: Atlas Publishing produced 10 numbered issues (3 in 1949-50, 7 in 1952-3); Pemberton published a further 4, numbered \#101-\#104, in 1953-4. A Canadian reprint ran 1945-6 and again 1948-51.

   MJE