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Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1997)
Fantastic Adventures

Tagged: Publication.

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US pulp Magazine, 128 issues May 1939-March 1953, published by Ziff-Davis, New York, initially bimonthly, but monthly January-June 1940 and again from May 1941; ed nominally Raymond A Palmer (1910-1977) May 1939-December 1949, and Howard Browne (1908-1999) January 1950-March 1953, though William L Hamling (1921-    ) was managing editor November 1947-February 1951.

Like Fantastic, Fantastic Adventures was launched as a fantasy companion to Amazing Stories (see SFE link below), although early issues contained much immature sf, but with a wider remit to include Lost-Race stories. Palmer was a fanatical devotee of Edgar Rice Burroughs, whom he was able to lure to Fantastic Adventures from #2. Nevertheless, Fantastic Adventures almost folded in 1940; it was only the reader reaction to Jongor in "Jongor of Lost Land" (October 1940) by Robert Moore Williams (1907-1977) – imitation Tarzan – that saved it. During WWII Fantastic Adventures provided a diet of lighthearted whimsical fantasies adequately produced by Nelson S Bond, Robert Bloch, William P McGivern (1924-1982), David Wright O'Brien (1918-1944) and Leroy Yerxa (1915-1946). Series included Bloch's Lefty Feep and McGivern's Enchanted Bookshelf, in which the Three Musketeers return to life. Fantastic Adventures was visually attractive, especially the covers by Harold McCauley (1913-1983).

After WWII, steered by Hamling, Fantastic Adventures turned to more darkly Supernatural Fictions, still mostly written by Ziff-Davis's Chicago stable but also including stories by Ray Bradbury, August W Derleth, Geoff St Reynard (real name Robert W Krepps; 1919-1980) and Theodore Sturgeon. A brief success came with the Toffee stories, about a Dream girl, by Charles F Myers (1920-2006), beginning with "I'll Dream of You" (1947). In its final years, Fantastic Adventures published some strong material by Lester del Rey, Fritz Leiber, Sturgeon and William Tenn (real name Philip Klass; 1920-2010). Its liberal policy allowed the introduction of new, more experimental writers, and it was in Fantastic Adventures that John Jakes and Mack Reynolds (1917-1983) first appeared. But, with the success of Browne's slick-styled Fantastic, Fantastic Adventures's days were numbered, and the two magazines were merged in May/June 1953.

Unsold issues of Fantastic Adventures were rebound and published as Fantastic Adventures Quarterly (2 series: 8 issues Winter 1941-Fall 1943; 11 issues Summer 1948-Spring 1951). Two separate UK editions were published in cut form, 2 issues (undated July, September 1946) and 24 issues (undated June 1950-February 1954). No anthology has been based solely on Fantastic Adventures, although Fantastic reprinted heavily from Fantastic Adventures in the period 1965-1970, as did the companion reprint magazines Fantastic Adventures Yearbook (1 issue 1970), Strange Fantasy (6 issues Spring 1969-Fall 1970, though numbered #8-#13 as it continued from another reprint title, Science Fiction Classics), The Strangest Stories Ever Told (1 issue Summer 1970) and Weird Mystery (4 issues Fall 1970-Summer 1971). Hamling continued his formula from Fantastic Adventures briefly in Imagination (63 issues October 1950-October 1958) and Imaginative Tales (26 issues September 1954-November 1958; #24-#26 retitled Space Travel), but both of these became solely sf from 1955. [MA]

further reading: The Annotated Guide to Fantastic Adventures (1985) by Edward J Gallagher (1940-    ).

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