Thrilling Wonder Stories - 89 Digital Issues - 3 Disc Set

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THRILLING WONDER STORIES - 89 Digital IssuesOffered today is a really nice collection of 89 digital issues of the popular science fiction pulp magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories. Each issue has been digitally scanned, cover-to-cover, and contain all the advertisements, letters to the editor, illustrations, etc and of course, all the great stories.Every effort has been made to use the best available copies for scanning. Many issues have been fully restored with whiter pages that the originals. Others are just straight scans, brown pulp paper and all. A few are less than perfect. However, all issues are completely legible and readable. All the covers have been restored and double page illustrations have all been rendered accurately.Thrilling Wonder Stories got it's start in 1929 as Science Wonder Stories. The title was launched by pioneer sci-fi publisher Hugo Gernsback after he lost control of his first publication, Amazing Stories, through bankruptcy. In 1930, Gernsback merged Science Wonder Stories with a companion magazine called Air Wonder Stories to create simply Wonder Stories. For a time in the early 1930s, Wonder Stories was the best science fiction magazine on the stands. By 1936, however, Gernsback's fortunes had waned again and he was forced to sell Wonder Stories to a competitor, Beacon Publications. Several Beacon magazines had the word "Thrilling" in their titles...Thrilling Mystery, Thrilling Western, Thrilling Detective, etc. So, their newly acquired title became Thrilling Wonder Stories, which kept that name until it ceased publication in 1955. For it's first decade, Thrilling Wonder Stories specialized in classic space-opera tales. These were heavy on swashbuckling adventure ala Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon and not very much actual science. The covers, often by Earle Bergey, typically showed scantily clad damsels in distress menaced by alien monsters. The phrase "bug eyed monster" or BEM was coined by a reader in the letters column in 1939 to describe one of these covers. To appeal to a younger audience, the editors urged Bergey to focus on the anatomy of women, often floating in space in ridiculously revealing spacesuits, wearing brass brassieres. In addition to it's colorful covers, Thrilling Wonder Stories also boasted some of the best interior illustrations as well, many by the wonderful artist Virgil Finlay.In 1945, with the advent of a new editor, the direction of the magazine changed. It now began publishing more adult oriented fare by well known authors. Ray Bradbury had several stories published, a couple of them that ended up in his "Martian Chronicles" anthology. A. E. van Vogt was coaxed away from Astounding magazine to contribute "The Weapon Shops of Isher". The prolific Henry Kuttner contributed many novelettes and short stories including one of his best, the chilling "Call Him Demon" about a Lovecraftian monster living in the basement of a home that only the children can see. Theodore Sturgeon, Leigh Brackett and Robert Heinlein were well represented as well. Thrilling Wonder Stories published several controversial stories during this period including Philip Jose Farmer's "Mother" about a spaceman who makes his home in an alien womb. Edmond Hamilton's "What's It Like Out There?", a bleak look at space exploration that had been written in the 1930s but had been considered too downbeat to publish. And Sherwood Springer's "No Land Of Nod" about incest between a father and daughter in a world where they are the only two survivors.This collection contains all but 22 of the 111 issues published between 1936 and 1955. It will provide you with years of reading pleasure. For less than the cost of a single vintage paper copy of the magazine, you can have almost the complete series.Also included are all four issues of Wonder Story Annual published between 1950 and 1953. These not only reprinted fan favorite stories from Thrilling Wonder Stories, but also its companion magazines Startling Stories, Captain Future and the original Wonder Stories. Many stories in the annu... read more

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