''Uncanny Stories'' was a pulp magazine which published a single issue, dated April 1941. It was published by Abraham and Martin Goodman, who were better known for "weird-menace" pulp magazines that included much more sex in the fiction than was usual in science fiction of that era. The Goodmans published ''

Marvel Science Stories ''Marvel Science Stories'' was an American pulp magazine that ran for a total of fifteen issues in two separate runs, both edited by Robert O. Erisman. The publisher for the first run was Postal Publications, and the second run was published by ...

'' from 1938 to 1941, and ''Uncanny Stories'' appeared just as ''Marvel Science Stories'' ceased publication, perhaps in order to use up the material in inventory acquired by ''Marvel Science Stories''. The fiction was poor quality; the lead story,

Ray Cummings Ray Cummings (born Raymond King Cummings) (August 30, 1887 – January 23, 1957) was an American author of science fiction literature and comic books. Early life Cummings was born in New York City in 1887. He worked with Thomas Edison as a ...

' "Coming of the Giant Germs", has been described as "one of his most appalling stories".

Publication history

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 ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances i ...

'', a

pulp magazine Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazine ...

published by

Hugo Gernsback Hugo Gernsback (; born Hugo Gernsbacher, August 16, 1884 – August 19, 1967) was a Luxembourgish–American editor and magazine publisher, whose publications including the first science fiction magazine. His contributions to the genre as publ ...

. After 1931, when ''

Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories ''Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories'' was an American pulp science fiction magazine which published two issues in 1931. The fiction was unremarkable, but the cover art and illustrations, by Elliott Dold, were high quality, and have made the ...

'' was launched, no new science fiction magazines appeared until August 1938, when Abraham and Martin Goodman, two brothers who owned a publishing company with multiple imprints, launched ''

''. The Goodmans' magazines included several "weird-menace" pulps—a genre known for incorporating sex and sadism, with story lines that placed women in danger, usually because of a threat that appeared to be supernatural but was ultimately revealed to be the work of a human villain. The influence of the "sex and sadism" side of the Goodman's portfolio of magazines was apparent in ''Marvel Science Stories'': it was not strictly a weird-menace pulp, but authors were sometimes asked to add more sex to their stories than was usual in the science fiction field at the time. ''Marvel Science Stories'' ceased publication with its April 1941 issue, and the Goodmans brought out the only issue of ''Uncanny Stories'' the same month. Like ''Marvel Science Stories'', it was edited by Robert O. Erisman.Mike Ashley & Robert Weinberg, "Uncanny Stories", in Tymn & Ashley, ''Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines'', pp. 683–684. The quality of the fiction was very poor—sf historian Mike Ashley comments that

' lead story, "Coming of the Giant Germs", was "one of his most appalling stories". Ashley speculates that the only reason the magazine was issued was to use up some remaining material that had been acquired for ''Marvel Science Stories'',Ashley (2000), p. 163. perhaps because at this time the Goodmans were beginning to focus much more on the growing comic-book market. In addition to Ray Cummings, contributors included

David H. Keller David Henry Keller (December 23, 1880 – July 13, 1966) was an American writer who worked for pulp magazines in the mid-twentieth century, in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. He was also a psychiatrist and physician to shell- ...

, F.A. Kummer, R. DeWitt Miller, and Denis Plimmer. The story titles were not as strongly oriented towards sex as some of the other Goodman publications, which included titles such as "Blood-Brides of the Lusting Corpses", but Erisman did spice up some of the titles: for example, he changed Keller's story "The Chestnut Mare" to "Speed Will Be My Bride". Illustrations were by

Jack Kirby Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg; August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was an American comic book artist, writer and editor, widely regarded as one of the medium's major innovators and one of its most prolific and influential creators. He gr ...

and

Joe Simon Joseph Henry Simon (October 11, 1913 – December 14, 2011) was an American comic book writer, artist, editor, and publisher. Simon created or co-created many important characters in the 1930s–1940s Golden Age of Comic Books and served as the ...

Bibliographic details

''Uncanny Stories'' was in pulp format, 112 pages, and priced at 15 cents; the only issue was numbered volume 1, number 1. The publisher was Manvis Publications of New York; the editor was Robert O. Erisman. Copy available on the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/UncannyStoriesV01N01194104

References

Sources

* * * {{ScienceFictionPulpMagazines Defunct science fiction magazines published in the United States Fantasy fiction magazines Pulp magazines Magazines established in 1941 Magazines disestablished in 1941 Science fiction magazines established in the 1940s