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102-472: Startling Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine , published from 1939 to 1955 by publisher Ned Pines ' Standard Magazines . It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger , who was also the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories , Standard's other science fiction title. Startling ran a lead novel in every issue; the first was The Black Flame by Stanley G. Weinbaum . When Standard Magazines acquired Thrilling Wonder in 1936, it also gained

204-475: A pulp magazine published by Hugo Gernsback . By the end of the 1930s the field was booming. Standard Magazines, a pulp publishing company owned by Ned Pines , acquired its first science fiction magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories , from Gernsback in 1936. Mort Weisinger , the editor of Thrilling Wonder , printed an editorial in February 1938 asking readers for suggestions for a companion magazine. Response

306-611: A Science Fiction Book Club edition titled Moment in Time . P. Schuyler Miller praised it as "an excellent collection by anyone's standards." Pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as " the pulps ") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 until around 1955. The term "pulp" derives from the wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed, due to their cheap nature. In contrast, magazines printed on higher-quality paper were called "glossies" or "slicks". The typical pulp magazine had 128 pages; it

408-483: A complete novel, along with one or two short stories; long stories did not appear since the publisher's policy was to avoid serials. When Standard Magazines had bought Wonder Stories in 1936, they had also acquired rights to reprint the stories that had appeared in it and in its predecessor magazines, Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories , and so Startling also included a "Hall of Fame" reprint from one of these magazines in every issue. The first lead novel

510-531: A completed draft in September. This time, Merwin asked for revisions: Leo Margulies , Merwin's boss, had decided that Startling needed to focus more on action and adventure in the style of Amazing , and less on cerebral stories in the style of Astounding . Asimov, "for the first and only time of [his] life...openly lost [his] temper with an editor", stalked out of the room with his manuscript and never submitted anything to Merwin again, though he later expressed

612-414: A continuation of his Hugo Award-winning ERB-dom which began in 1960. It ran for 75 issues and featured articles about the content and selected fiction from the pulps. It became Pulpdom Online in 2013 and continues quarterly publication. After 2000, several small independent publishers released magazines which published short fiction, either short stories or novel-length presentations, in the tradition of

714-424: A few quick dollars could bolster their income with sales to pulps. Additionally, some of the earlier pulps solicited stories from amateurs who were quite happy to see their words in print and could thus be paid token amounts. There were also career pulp writers, capable of turning out huge amounts of prose on a steady basis, often with the aid of dictation to stenographers , machines or typists . Before he became

816-475: A four-year period from 1946 to 1949 the writing team of Kuttner and Moore had seven novels published in Startling , mostly science fantasy , a subgenre not common at that time. Notable novels that appeared in the late 1940s include Fredric Brown 's What Mad Universe and Charles L. Harness 's Flight Into Yesterday , later published in book form as The Paradox Men . Arthur C. Clarke 's novel The City and

918-444: A line-wide relaunch with the 1985 event maxi-series Crisis on Infinite Earths . Folding their vast multiverse into a single shared universe , Superman and his supporting cast would receive a massive overhaul at the hands of writer/artist John Byrne . One last story, which also marked the end of Schwartz's tenure as editor of the series, was published to give a send-off to the former status quo: Alan Moore 's Whatever Happened to

1020-590: A little over two years, and was replaced by Sam Merwin Jr. , as of the Winter 1945 issue. Merwin succeeded in making Startling popular and successful, and the bimonthly schedule was resumed in 1947. At the start of 1952 Startling switched to a monthly schedule; this was unusual in that Startling was notionally junior to Thrilling Wonder , its sister magazine, which remained bimonthly. Merwin left shortly before this switch, in order to spend more time on his own writing. He

1122-488: A magazine called Pulp Adventures reprinting old classics. It came out regularly until 2001, and then started up again in 2014. In 1994, Quentin Tarantino directed the film Pulp Fiction . The working title of the film was Black Mask , in homage to the pulp magazine of that name , and it embodied the seedy, violent, often crime-related spirit found in pulp magazines. In 1997 C. Cazadessus Jr. launched Pulpdom ,

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1224-534: A monthly schedule that lasted for over a year. The first editor was Mort Weisinger , who had been an active fan in the early 1930s and had joined Standard Magazines in 1935, editing Thrilling Wonder from 1936. Weisinger left in 1941 to take a new post as editor of Superman , and was replaced by Oscar J. Friend , who was an established writer of pulp fiction, though his experience was in western fiction rather than sf. During Friend's tenure Startling slipped from bimonthly to quarterly publication. Friend lasted for

1326-416: A more sober title typeface and reducing the sensationalism of the covers, but by 1955 the pulp magazine market was collapsing. Startling absorbed its two companion magazines, Thrilling Wonder and Fantastic Story Magazine , in early 1955, but by the end of that year it too ceased publication. Ron Hanna of Wild Cat Books revived Startling Stories in 2007. Wild Cat Books folded in 2013. A statement of

1428-435: A novelist, Upton Sinclair was turning out at least 8,000 words per day seven days a week for the pulps, keeping two stenographers fully employed. Pulps would often have their authors use multiple pen names so that they could use multiple stories by the same person in one issue, or use a given author's stories in three or more successive issues, while still appearing to have varied content. One advantage pulps provided to authors

1530-454: A package that provided affordable entertainment to young working-class people. In six years, Argosy went from a few thousand copies per month to over half a million. Street & Smith , a dime novel and boys' weekly publisher, was next on the market. Seeing Argosy ' s success, they launched The Popular Magazine in 1903, which they billed as the "biggest magazine in the world" by virtue of its being two pages (the interior sides of

1632-413: A part of the " One Year Later " banner. Superman had a crossover with Action Comics , titled " Up, Up and Away! " co-written by Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek with art by Pete Woods . This storyline told of Clark Kent attempting to protect Metropolis without his powers until eventually regaining them. Busiek became the sole writer of the series with issue #654 (September 2006) and Carlos Pacheco became

1734-503: A rescuing hero . Cover art played a major part in the marketing of pulp magazines. The early pulp magazines could boast covers by some distinguished American artists; The Popular Magazine had covers by N. C. Wyeth , and Edgar Franklin Wittmack contributed cover art to Argosy and Short Stories . Later, many artists specialized in creating covers mainly for the pulps; a number of the most successful cover artists became as popular as

1836-927: A short story in the issue, and his run on the title began with issue #701. Artist Eddy Barrows , a previous Action Comics artist and one of the artists on the War of the Supermen event, was Straczynski's artistic collaborator. Straczynski and Barrows began a year-long story entitled " Grounded " that sees Superman begin a long walk across the United States to regain the connection with his adopted home that he feels he lost while away on New Krypton. The series ended with issue #714 (October 2011), prior to DC Comics' The New 52 company wide reboot and relaunch. DC Comics launched Superman volume 3 with issue #1 in September 2011 ( cover dated November 2011), as part of The New 52 . The first three issues saw George Pérez doing

1938-670: A similar format to American pulp magazines, in that it was printed on rough pulp paper and heavily illustrated. During the Second World War , paper shortages had a serious impact on pulp production, starting a steady rise in costs and the decline of the pulps. Following the model of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine in 1941, some magazines began to switch to digest size : smaller, sometimes thicker magazines. In 1949, Street & Smith closed most of their pulp magazines in order to move upmarket and produce slicks . Competition from comic-books and paperback novels further eroded

2040-522: A softening of feeling and admitted Merwin had been within his rights. Another title in the Standard Magazines stable was Captain Future , which had been launched a year after Startling , and featured the adventures of the superhero after whom the magazine was named. When it folded with its Spring 1944 issue, the series of novels was continued for some time in the pages of Startling ; over

2142-503: 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". The letter column was called "The Ether Vibrates", and there was a regular fanzine review column, providing contact information so that readers could obtain

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2244-622: A superhero in 2001. The tale was an inspiration for Mark Millar 's Superman: Red Son limited series published in 2003. DC's parent company Warner Communications reinstated the byline for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster which had been dropped decades earlier and the first issue with the restored credit was Superman #301 (August 1976). Martin Pasko and Swan created the Master Jailer character in issue #331 (January 1979). The bottle city of Kandor , which had been introduced in 1958,

2346-666: A taboo-breaking story about aliens who can reproduce only by mating with humans. Illustrated with an eye-popping cover by Bergey, Farmer's ground-breaking story integrated sex into the plot without being prurient, and was widely praised. Farmer, partly as a consequence, went on to win a Hugo Award as "Most Promising New Writer". New authors first published by Mines include Frank Herbert , who debuted with "Looking for Something?" in April 1952, and Robert F. Young , whose first story, "The Black Deep Thou Wingest", appeared in June 1953. The artwork

2448-424: A total of 21 or 22 issues (sources differ on the correct number). Six quarterly issues appeared from Summer 1945 through Fall 1946 from Publication Enterprises, Ltd.; then another three bimonthly issues appeared, from May to September 1948, from Pines Publications . Finally 12 more bimonthly issues appeared from March 1949 to January 1951, from Better Publications of Canada. All these issues were almost identical to

2550-732: A total of 228 monthly issues including issue #0 (October 1994) published between issues #516 and #517 as a tie-in to the Zero Hour limited series and issue #1,000,000 (November 1998) as a tie-in to the DC One Million limited series and nine Annuals published between 1987 and 1997. When the series was relaunched in late 1986 under its new title, the creative team initially was writer Marv Wolfman and artist Jerry Ordway . John Byrne replaced Wolfman with issue #436 (January 1988) and Ordway became both writer and artist with issue #445 (October 1988). Writer/artist Dan Jurgens worked on

2652-521: Is a collection of "pulp fiction" stories written by such current well-known authors as Stephen King , Nick Hornby , Aimee Bender and Dave Eggers . Explaining his vision for the project, Chabon wrote in the introduction, "I think that we have forgotten how much fun reading a short story can be, and I hope that if nothing else, this treasury goes some small distance toward reminding us of that lost but fundamental truth." The Scottish publisher DC Thomson publishes "My Weekly Compact Novel" every week. It

2754-483: Is literally a pulp novel, though it does not fall into the hard-edged genre most associated with pulp fiction. From 2006 through 2019, Anthony Tollin's imprint Sanctum Books has reprinted all 182 Doc Savage pulp novels, all 24 of Paul Ernst's Avenger novels, the 14 Whisperer novels from the original pulp series and all but three novels of the entire run of The Shadow (most of his publications featuring two novels in one book). Superman (comic book) Due to

2856-527: The Nobel Prize in Literature , worked as an editor for Adventure , writing filler paragraphs (brief facts or amusing anecdotes designed to fill small gaps in page layout), advertising copy and a few stories. The term pulp fiction is often used for massmarket paperbacks since the 1950s. The Browne Popular Culture Library News noted: Many of the paperback houses that contributed to the decline of

2958-742: The Superman title in July 2021. The monthly series concluded in December 2022, with 18 issues and one annual. The series followed the adventures of Jon Kent , the son of Superman and Lois Lane, as he is entrusted with the protection of Earth. A new ongoing Superman comic book series launched in February 2023 from writer Joshua Williamson and artist Jamal Campbell. The Superman series had Annuals published since 1960. Eight issues of Superman Annual were published starting in winter 1960. An additional four issues were published from 1983 to 1986 and

3060-457: The supervillain Terra-Man in issue #249 (March 1972) and the superhero Vartox in issue #281 (Nov. 1974). Issues #272 (Feb. 1974), #278 (Aug. 1974), and #284 (Feb. 1975) of the series were in the 100 Page Super Spectacular format. Superman #300 (June 1976) featured an out-of- continuity story by Bates and Maggin which imagined the infant Superman landing on Earth in 1976 and becoming

3162-457: The "Hall of Fame" reprint section of the magazine. Then in 1954 Samuel Mines edited The Best from Startling Stories , published by Henry Holt; despite the title, the stories were reprinted from both Startling and its sister magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories . The anthology was reprinted twice in the UK under different titles; as Startling Stories in 1954, published by Cassell, and then in 1956 as

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3264-692: The 1920s–1940s, the most successful pulps sold up to one million copies per issue. In 1934, Frank Gruber said there were some 150 pulp titles. The most successful pulp magazines were Argosy , Adventure , Blue Book and Short Stories , collectively described by some pulp historians as "The Big Four". Among the best-known other titles of this period were Amazing Stories , Black Mask , Dime Detective , Flying Aces , Horror Stories , Love Story Magazine , Marvel Tales , Oriental Stories , Planet Stories , Spicy Detective , Startling Stories , Thrilling Wonder Stories , Unknown , Weird Tales and Western Story Magazine . During

3366-535: The 1950s. Pulp magazines often contained a wide variety of genre fiction , including, but not limited to: The American Old West was a mainstay genre of early turn of the 20th-century novels as well as later pulp magazines, and lasted longest of all the traditional pulps. In many ways, the later men's adventure ("the sweats") was the replacement of pulps. Many classic science fiction and crime novels were originally serialized in pulp magazines such as Weird Tales , Amazing Stories , and Black Mask . While

3468-527: The Amazon Queen by E.A. Guest, their first contribution to a "New Pulp Era", featuring the hallmarks of pulp fiction for contemporary mature readers: violence, horror and sex. E.A. Guest was likened to a blend of pulp era icon Talbot Mundy and Stephen King by real-life explorer David Hatcher Childress. In 2002, the tenth issue of McSweeney's Quarterly was guest edited by Michael Chabon . Published as McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales , it

3570-562: The American versions, although they are 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) taller. A Mexican magazine, Enigmas , ran for 16 issues from August 1955 to May 1958; it included many reprints, primarily from Startling and from Fantastic Story Magazine . Two anthologies of stories from Startling have been published. In 1949 Merlin Press brought out From Off This World , edited by Leo Margulies and Oscar Friend, which included stories that had appeared in

3672-505: The Man of Tomorrow? The story's first part saw publication in Superman #423, which would be the last issue before the title was relaunched with its legacy numbering as The Adventures of Superman . Superman was relaunched with a new #1 issue in a second volume in 1986, and was published concurrently with The Adventures of Superman . The Adventures of Superman was numbered from issue #424 (January 1987) to issue #649 (April 2006), for

3774-641: The Stars first saw print in Startling in abbreviated form, in the November 1948 issue, under the title Against the Fall of Night . One novel that did not appear in Startling was Isaac Asimov 's Pebble in the Sky , which Merwin had commissioned from Asimov in the early summer of 1947. After the unusual step of allowing the editor to twice read the work-in-progress and receiving nothing but approval, Asimov delivered

3876-541: The Superman character's popularity after his premiere in Action Comics #1 , National Allied Publications decided to launch an entirely new magazine featuring a single character, which at that time was unprecedented. Superman #1 appeared on the shelves in the summer of 1939. Superman now also had the distinction of being the first ever hero-character featured in more than one comic magazine. By issue #7, Superman

3978-408: The Superman storylines ran with the story continuing through the titles Superman , Action Comics and later in two further series, Superman: The Man of Steel and Superman: The Man of Tomorrow . Jerry Ordway returned as writer of the title with issue #480 (July 1991). Tom Grummett drew part of #480 and became the main artist on the series with the following issue. The series participated in

4080-653: The annual pulp magazine convention that had begun in 1972. The magazine, devoted to the history and legacy of the pulp magazines, has published each year since. It now appears in connection with PulpFest , the summer pulp convention that grew out of and replaced Pulpcon. The Pulpster was originally edited by Tony Davis and is currently edited by William Lampkin, who also runs the website ThePulp.Net. Contributors have included Don Hutchison, Robert Sampson, Will Murray , Al Tonik, Nick Carr, Mike Resnick , Hugh B. Cave , Joseph Wrzos, Jessica Amanda Salmonson , Chet Williamson , and many others. In 1992, Rich W. Harvey came out with

4182-428: The art was black lines on the paper's background, but Finlay and a few others did some work that was primarily white lines against large dark areas. Another way pulps kept costs down was by paying authors less than other markets; thus many eminent authors started out in the pulps before they were successful enough to sell to better-paying markets, and similarly, well-known authors whose careers were slumping or who wanted

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4284-518: The authors featured on the interior pages. Among the most famous pulp artists were Walter M. Baumhofer , Earle K. Bergey , Margaret Brundage , Edd Cartier , Virgil Finlay , Frank R. Paul , Norman Saunders , Emmett Watson , Nick Eggenhofer , (who specialized in Western illustrations), Hugh J. Ward , George Rozen , and Rudolph Belarski . Covers were important enough to sales that sometimes they would be designed first; authors would then be shown

4386-465: The closure is still posted on the Facebook page All Pulp dated March 12, 2013 (as of January 29, 2019). The magazine was again revived by John Gregory Betancourt 's Wildside Press in February 2021, with Douglas Draa as editor. 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 ,

4488-487: The cover art and asked to write a story to match. Later pulps began to feature interior illustrations, depicting elements of the stories. The drawings were printed in black ink on the same cream-colored paper used for the text, and had to use specific techniques to avoid blotting on the coarse texture of the cheap pulp. Thus, fine lines and heavy detail were usually not an option. Shading was by crosshatching or pointillism , and even that had to be limited and coarse. Usually

4590-426: The cover price rose to 15 cents and 30 pages were added to each issue; along with establishing a stable of authors for each magazine, this change proved successful and circulation began to approach that of Argosy . Street and Smith's next innovation was the introduction of specialized genre pulps, with each magazine focusing on a particular genre, such as detective stories, romance, etc. At their peak of popularity in

4692-528: The covers for issues #675 (June 2008) through #685 (April 2009). James Robinson replaced Busiek with issue #677 (August 2008). Robinson's run on the title began with " The Coming of Atlas " story arc and began a link between Superman , Action Comics , and Supergirl that started a long-form narrative with the New Krypton event. The majority of Robinson's run featured Mon-El and the Guardian as

4794-498: The crossover storyline "Panic in the Sky" in 1992. During their run on The Adventures of Superman , Grummett and Ordway (along with editor Mike Carlin and others) were the architects of " The Death of Superman " storyline, in which Superman died and was resurrected. It was during that storyline, that Grummett and writer Karl Kesel , created the new Superboy in The Adventures of Superman #500 (June 1993). Other crossovers

4896-448: The direct precursors of pulp fiction. The first "pulp" was Frank Munsey 's revamped Argosy magazine of 1896, with about 135,000 words (192 pages) per issue, on pulp paper with untrimmed edges, and no illustrations, even on the cover. The steam-powered printing press had been in widespread use for some time, enabling the boom in dime novels; prior to Munsey, however, no one had combined cheap printing, cheap paper and cheap authors in

4998-533: The early 1940s, Superman was selling over a million copies per month. By 1942, artist Wayne Boring , who had previously been one of Shuster's assistants, had become a major artist on Superman. Superman #23 (July–August 1943) featured the first Superman comic book story written by someone other than Jerry Siegel. The story "America's Secret Weapon!" was written by Don Cameron despite bearing Siegel's signature. Siegel introduced Mister Mxyzptlk in issue #30 (September 1944). A more detailed origin story for Superman

5100-748: The economic hardships of the Great Depression , pulps provided affordable content to the masses, and were one of the primary forms of entertainment, along with film and radio . Although pulp magazines were primarily an American phenomenon, there were also a number of British pulp magazines published between the Edwardian era and World War II . Notable UK pulps included The Pall Mall Magazine , The Novel Magazine , Cassell's Magazine , The Story-Teller , The Sovereign Magazine , Hutchinson's Adventure-Story and Hutchinson's Mystery-Story . The German fantasy magazine Der Orchideengarten had

5202-495: The end came only a few years later. In 1954, Fredric Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent , a book in which he asserted that comics were inciting children to violence. A subsequent Senate subcommittee hearing led to a backlash against comics, and the publishers dropped titles in response. The financial impact spread to pulp magazines, since often a publisher would publish both. A 1955 strike by American News Corporation,

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5304-466: The end of the "pulp era"; by that date, many of the famous pulps of the previous generation, including Black Mask, The Shadow , Doc Savage , and Weird Tales , were defunct (though some of those titles have been revived in various formats in the decades since). Almost all of the few remaining former pulp magazines are science fiction or mystery magazines, now in formats similar to " digest size ", such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact , though

5406-669: The fanzines directly. Initially the stories for the "Hall of Fame" were chosen by the editor, but soon Weisinger recruited well-known science fiction fans to make the choices. Startling was popular, and soon "became one of the core science fiction 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

5508-443: The featured characters, while Superman himself had gone to live on the planet New Krypton. Robinson's last full issue was #699, tying into Last Stand of New Krypton , and he finished his run in a short story in issue #700 (August 2010) that returned Superman to Earth. Superman #700 also saw writer J. Michael Straczynski , a self-professed Superman fan who feels a personal connection to the character, take over writing duties with

5610-566: The field. Critics' opinions vary on the relative quality of the magazines of this era; Malcolm Edwards regards Startling as second only to Astounding , but Ashley considers Thrilling Wonder to be Astounding ' s closest challenger in the late 1940s. Merwin's discoveries included Jack Vance , whose first story, "The World Thinker", appeared in the Summer 1945 issue. He also regularly published work by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore , who wrote both under Kuttner's name and as "Keith Hammond": in

5712-570: The front and back cover) longer than Argosy . Due to differences in page layout however, the magazine had substantially less text than Argosy . The Popular Magazine did introduce color covers to pulp publishing, and the magazine began to take off when in 1905 the publishers acquired the rights to serialize Ayesha (1905), by H. Rider Haggard , a sequel to his popular novel She (1887). Haggard's Lost World genre influenced several key pulp writers, including Edgar Rice Burroughs , Robert E. Howard , Talbot Mundy and Abraham Merritt . In 1907,

5814-971: The genre–Ace, Dell, Avon, among others–were actually started by pulp magazine publishers. They had the presses, the expertise, and the newsstand distribution networks which made the success of the mass-market paperback possible. These pulp-oriented paperback houses mined the old magazines for reprints. This kept pulp literature, if not pulp magazines, alive. The Return of the Continental Op reprints material first published in Black Mask ; Five Sinister Characters contains stories first published in Dime Detective ; and The Pocket Book of Science Fiction collects material from Thrilling Wonder Stories , Astounding Science Fiction and Amazing Stories . But note that mass market paperbacks are not pulps. In 1991, The Pulpster debuted at that year's Pulpcon ,

5916-437: The image of science fiction as it was perceived by the general public. When Merwin became editor in 1945 he brought changes, but artist Earle K. Bergey retained the creative freedom he had come to expect given his relationship with Standard. Some argue that Bergey's covers became more realistic, and Merwin managed to improve the interiors of Startling to the point of being a serious rival to Astounding , acknowledged leader of

6018-414: The leading magazines. However, Startling ' s editorial policy was more eclectic: it did not limit itself to one kind of story, but printed everything from melodramatic space opera to sociological sf, and Mines had a reputation as having "the most catholic tastes and the fewest inhibitions" of any of the science fiction magazine editors. In late 1952, Mines published Philip José Farmer 's "The Lovers",

6120-591: The magazine stayed on a quarterly schedule from then until the last issue, Fall 1955. There was a British reprint edition from Pembertons between 1949 and 1954. These were heavily cut, with sometimes only one or two stories and usually only 64 pages, though the October and December 1952 issues both had 80 pages. It was published irregularly; initially once or twice a year, and then more or less bimonthly beginning in mid-1952. The issues were numbered from 1 to 18. Three different Canadian reprint editions also appeared for

6222-426: The magazine. Many subscribers found the approach irritating. The interior artwork was initially done by Hans Wessolowski (more usually known as "Wesso"), Mark Marchioni and Alex Schomburg , and occasionally Virgil Finlay . The initial cover art was mostly painted by Howard Brown , but when Earle K. Bergey began to paint covers for Startling in 1940, soon after its launch, Bergey quickly became identified with

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6324-459: The magazine; between 1940 and 1952 (the year of Bergey's death) he painted the great majority of covers. Bergey's covers were visually striking: in the words of science fiction editor and critic Malcolm Edwards, they typically featured "a rugged hero, a desperate heroine (in either a metallic bikini or a dangerous state of déshabillé ) and a hideous alien menace". The brass bra motif came to be associated with Bergey, and his covers did much to create

6426-447: The main distributor in the U.S., meant that magazines remained in warehouses and never made it to the newsstands; the unsold copies represented a significant financial blow and contributed to publishers' decisions to cancel magazines. Startling was one of the casualties. The schedule had already returned from monthly to bimonthly in 1953, and it became a quarterly in early 1954. Thrilling Wonder published its last issue in early 1955, and

6528-682: The majority of pulp magazines were anthology titles featuring many different authors, characters and settings, some of the most enduring magazines were those that featured a single recurring character. These were often referred to as "hero pulps" because the recurring character was almost always a larger-than-life hero in the mold of Doc Savage or The Shadow . Popular pulp characters that headlined in their own magazines: Popular pulp characters who appeared in anthology titles such as All-Story or Weird Tales : Pulp covers were printed in color on higher-quality (slick) paper. They were famous for their half-dressed damsels in distress , usually awaiting

6630-598: The most durable revival of Weird Tales began in pulp format, though published on good-quality paper. The old format is still in use for some lengthy serials, like the German science fiction weekly Perry Rhodan (over 3,000 issues as of 2019). Over the course of their evolution, there were a huge number of pulp magazine titles; Harry Steeger of Popular Publications claimed that his company alone had published over 300, and at their peak they were publishing 42 titles per month. Many titles of course survived only briefly. While

6732-519: The most popular titles were monthly, many were bimonthly and some were quarterly. The collapse of the pulp industry changed the landscape of publishing because pulps were the single largest sales outlet for short stories. Combined with the decrease in slick magazine fiction markets, writers trying to support themselves by creating fiction switched to novels and book-length anthologies of shorter pieces. Some ex-pulp writers like Hugh B. Cave and Robert Leslie Bellem had moved on to writing for television by

6834-486: The next six years ten more "Captain Future" novels appeared, with the last one, Birthplace of Creation , printed in the May 1951 issue. Merwin's successor, Mines, also published some excellent work, though increased competition in the early 1950s from Galaxy and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction did lead to some dilution of quality, and Startling ' s rates—one to two cents per word—could not compete with

6936-509: The numbering continued from the 1960 series. Superman Annual #11 (1985) featured the story " For the Man Who Has Everything " by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons . When the original Superman series was retitled as The Adventures of Superman , both it and Superman (vol. 2) received Annuals relaunched with #1 issues. The Adventures of Superman Annual ran for nine issues from 1987 to 1997. After The Adventures of Superman

7038-476: 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,

7140-402: The project became an issue. DC Comics responded to a petition about to be dropped with a statement that it supported freedom of expression and that the personal views of individuals associated with the company were not the views of the company. Illustrator Chris Sprouse left the project due to the media attention and some comic book stores announced a boycott. Card's Superman story was dropped and

7242-474: The public image of science fiction in his day was partly created by his work for Startling and other magazines. Merwin left in 1951, and Samuel Mines took over; the standard remained fairly high but competition from new and better-paying markets such as Galaxy Science Fiction and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction impaired Mines' ability to acquire quality material. In mid-1952, Standard attempted to change Startling ' s image by adopting

7344-433: The pulp magazines of the early 20th century. These included Blood 'N Thunder , High Adventure and a short-lived magazine which revived the title Argosy . These specialist publications, printed in limited press runs, were pointedly not printed on the brittle, high-acid wood pulp paper of the old publications and were not mass market publications targeted at a wide audience. In 2004, Lost Continent Library published Secret of

7446-539: The pulps' market share, but it has been suggested the widespread expansion of television also drew away the readership of the pulps. In a more affluent post-war America, the price gap compared to slick magazines was far less significant. In the 1950s, men's adventure magazines also began to draw some former pulp readers. The 1957 liquidation of the American News Company , then the primary distributor of pulp magazines, has sometimes been taken as marking

7548-462: The readers, and contrasted with the hard science fiction that John W. Campbell was pioneering at Astounding . Weisinger set out to please the younger readers, and when Friend became editor in 1941, he went further in this direction, giving the magazine a strongly juvenile flavor. For example, Friend introduced "Sergeant Saturn", a character (originally from Thrilling Wonder Stories ) who answered readers' letters and appeared in other features in

7650-423: The rights to stories published in that magazine's predecessor, Wonder Stories , and selections from this early material were reprinted in Startling as "Hall of Fame" stories. Under Weisinger the magazine focused on younger readers and, when Weisinger was replaced by Oscar J. Friend in 1941, the magazine became even more juvenile in focus, with clichéd cover art and letters answered by a "Sergeant Saturn". Friend

7752-438: The scripting and breakdowns. Dan Jurgens began to co-write and draw Superman with Keith Giffen . Their first issue was #7 (May 2012). As of September 2012's issue #0, Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort became the creative team. John Romita Jr. drew the Superman series in collaboration with writer Geoff Johns in 2014. Romita Jr.'s Superman pencils were inked by Klaus Janson . Superman's secret identity as Clark Kent

7854-422: The series participated in included Zero Hour: Crisis in Time , The Final Night , and Infinite Crisis . As of the start of 2002, the integration between the Superman titles became less frequent, and the remaining issues of The Adventures of Superman commonly carried self-contained stories. Issue #600 (March 2002) was a double-sized special featuring Superman combating Lex Luthor. The final issue (#649)

7956-478: The series' artist. The series participated in the weekly series Countdown to Final Crisis , giving a different perspective on certain events shown in the weekly title, such as the events preceding the death of New God Lightray . Busiek and Pacheco developed an extended storyline featuring Arion coming into conflict with Superman. The plotline concluded in Superman Annual #13. Alex Ross painted

8058-464: The term pulp fiction in reference to run-of-the-mill, low-quality literature. Successors of pulps include paperback books, such as hardboiled detective stories and erotic fiction . Before pulp magazines, Newgate novels (1840s-1860s) fictionalized the exploits of real-life criminals. Later, British sensation novels gained peak popularity in the 1860s-1870s. Sensation novels focused on shocking stories that reflected modern-day anxieties, and were

8160-472: The title from 1989–1991. Hank Henshaw , a character who would later become the Cyborg Superman, first appeared in issue #466 (May 1990). By the late 1980s, the plots of the Superman books were often linked. To coordinate the storyline and sequence of event, from January 1991 to January 2002, "triangle numbers" (or "shield numbers") appeared on the cover of each Superman comic book. During these years,

8262-404: The title's editor with issue #233 (January 1971) and together with writer Denny O'Neil and artist Curt Swan streamlined the Superman mythos, starting with the elimination of Kryptonite . Elliot S. Maggin began his long association with the title with the story "Must There Be a Superman?" in issue #247 (Jan. 1972). Writer Cary Bates , in collaboration with Swan, introduced such characters as

8364-557: The view of comics historian Les Daniels , artist Curt Swan became the definitive artist of Superman in the early 1960s with a "new look" to the character that replaced Wayne Boring's version. Writer Jim Shooter and Swan crafted the story "Superman's Race With the Flash!" in Superman #199 (Aug. 1967) which featured the first race between the Flash and Superman, two characters known for their super-speed powers . Julius Schwartz became

8466-467: The women in brass bras. With the Spring 1955 issue, at the start of its final year, Startling dropped its long-standing policy of printing a novel in every issue, but only three issues later it ceased publication. The editorial succession at Startling was as follows: 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

8568-418: Was The Black Flame , a revised version of "Dawn of Flame", a story by Stanley Weinbaum that had previously appeared only in an edition limited to 250 copies. There was also a tribute to Weinbaum, written by Otto Binder ; Weinbaum had died in 1935 and was well regarded, so even though the story was not one of his best, it was excellent publicity for the magazine. Otto and his brother, Earl, also contributed

8670-407: Was 7 inches (18 cm) wide by 10 inches (25 cm) high, and 0.5 inches (1.3 cm) thick, with ragged, untrimmed edges. Pulps were the successors to the penny dreadfuls , dime novels , and short-fiction magazines of the 19th century. Although many respected writers wrote for pulps, the magazines were best known for their lurid, exploitative , and sensational subject matter, even though this

8772-464: Was also high quality; Virgil Finlay's interior illustrations were "unparalleled", according to science fiction historian Robert Ewald. Other well-known artists who contributed interior work included Alex Schomburg and Kelly Freas . Startling ' s instantly recognizable title logo was redolent of the magazine's pulp roots, and in early 1952 Mines decided to replace it with a more staid typeface. The covers became more sober, with spaceships replacing

8874-414: Was also the 800th issue of the Superman series as a whole, with a variant cover done by Tony S. Daniel to commemorate the occasion. The series ended its run with issue #45 (April 2018). A fifth series under the direction of Brian Michael Bendis was released in July 2018 and ended its run in June 2021 with issue #32. Superman: Son of Kal-El , written by Tom Taylor and art by John Timms, replaced

8976-471: Was being hailed on the covers as the "World's Greatest Adventure Strip Character". Perry White , a supporting character who had originated on the Superman radio program was introduced into the comic book in issue #7 (October 1940). Editor Mort Weisinger began his long association with the title with issue #11 (July–August 1941). Jimmy Olsen first appeared as a named character in the story "Superman versus The Archer" in Superman #13 (Nov.–Dec. 1941). In

9078-404: Was but a small part of what existed in the pulps. Digest magazines and men's adventure magazines were also regarded as pulps. Modern superhero comic books are sometimes considered descendants of "hero pulps"; pulp magazines often featured illustrated novel-length stories of heroic characters, such as Flash Gordon , The Shadow , Doc Savage , and The Phantom Detective . The pulps gave rise to

9180-409: 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

9282-530: Was part of a three-part crossover with Superman and Action Comics , an homage to the Earth-2 Superman in the wake of events in the limited series Infinite Crisis . For its last two years, The Adventures of Superman was written by Greg Rucka . His stories included the villain Ruin , the attempted assassination of Lois Lane and a number of Mister Mxyzptlk appearances. Adventures of Superman

9384-427: Was positive, and the new magazine, titled Startling Stories , was duly launched, with a first issue (pulp-sized, rather than bedsheet-sized , as many readers had requested), dated January 1939. Initial pay rates were half a cent per word, lower than the leading magazines of the day. Startling was launched on a bimonthly schedule, alternating months with Thrilling Wonder Stories , though in 1940 Thrilling moved to

9486-402: Was presented in issue #53 (July 1948) to mark the character's tenth anniversary. Another part of the Superman mythos which had originated on the radio program made its way into the comic books when kryptonite was featured in a story by Bill Finger and Al Plastino . Superman was the first DC title with a letters column as a regular feature beginning with issue #124 (September 1958). In

9588-407: 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

9690-543: Was relaunched on April 29, 2013. Unlike the previous volume, the new series is not set in the mainstream DC Universe continuity but instead features anthology style stories with rotating creative teams in the same format as the second Legends of the Dark Knight series. It is released as a digital-first comic with print publication to follow. The first story was to have been written by Orson Scott Card and drawn by Chris Sprouse and Karl Story . Card's participation in

9792-480: Was replaced by Sam Merwin Jr. in 1945, and Merwin was able to improve the quality of the fiction substantially, publishing Arthur C. Clarke 's Against the Fall of Night , and several other well-received stories. Much of Startling ' s cover art was painted by Earle K. Bergey , who became strongly associated with the magazine, painting almost every cover between 1940 and 1952. He was known for equipping his heroines with brass bras and implausible costumes, and

9894-401: Was replaced by Samuel Mines, who had worked with Standard's Western magazines, though he was a science fiction aficionado. Street & Smith , one of the longest established and most respected publishers, shut down all of their pulp magazines in the summer of 1949. The pulps were dying, partially as a result of the success of paperbacks. Standard continued with Startling and Thrilling , but

9996-399: Was replaced by a story written by Jeff Parker . The relaunched Adventures of Superman series came to an end with issue #17, released in September 2014. Superman volume 2 reached issue #226 (April 2006) and was then canceled as part of the linewide " Infinite Crisis " storyline. The Adventures of Superman was returned to its original title, Superman , with issue #650 (May 2006), as

10098-408: Was restored to normal size in a story by Len Wein and Swan in Superman #338 (August 1979). The series reached issue #400 in October 1984. That issue featured work by several popular comics artists including the only major DC work by Jim Steranko as well as an introduction by noted science-fiction author Ray Bradbury . Superman ran uninterrupted until the mid-1980s, when DC Comics instituted

10200-530: Was revealed to the world in a storyline by writer Gene Luen Yang in 2015. This series ended its run with the release of issue #52 (July 2016). As part of the DC Rebirth relaunch, Superman Volume 4 began with issue #1 in June 2016 (cover dated August 2016), including a one-shot DC Rebirth special Superman: Rebirth #1. Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason are the creative team, with the Superman series shipping twice-monthly. This volume's 34th issue

10302-851: Was that they paid upon acceptance for material instead of on publication. Since a story might be accepted months or even years before publication, to a working writer this was a crucial difference in cash flow . Some pulp editors became known for cultivating good fiction and interesting features in their magazines. Preeminent pulp magazine editors included Arthur Sullivant Hoffman ( Adventure ), Robert H. Davis ( All-Story Weekly ), Harry E. Maule ( Short Stories ), Donald Kennicott ( Blue Book ), Joseph Shaw ( Black Mask ), Farnsworth Wright ( Weird Tales , Oriental Stories ), John W. Campbell ( Astounding Science Fiction , Unknown ) and Daisy Bacon ( Love Story Magazine , Detective Story Magazine ). Well-known authors who wrote for pulps include: Sinclair Lewis , first American winner of

10404-404: Was then merged with Startling , as was Fantastic Story Magazine , another companion publication, but the combined magazine lasted only three more issues. Mines left the magazine at the end of 1954; he was succeeded for two issues by Theron Raines, who was followed by Herbert D. Kastle for the last two. The final issue was dated Fall 1955. From the beginning, every issue of Startling contained

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