Fiction House
Fiction House was an American publisher of pulp magazines and comic books that existed from the 1920s to the 1950s. It was founded by John B. "Jack" Kelly and John W. Glenister.
By the late 1930s, the publisher was Thurman T. Scott. Its comics division
was best known for its pinup-style good girl art, as epitomized by the company's most popular character, Sheena, Queen of the Jungle.
The company's original location was 461 Eighth Avenue in New York City. At the end of 1929, a New York Times article referred to
John B. Kelly as "head" of Fiction House, Inc., and a new location of 271 Madison Avenue.
In late 1932, John W. Glenister was president of Fiction House and his son-in-law, Thurman T. Scott, was secretary of the corporation. By the end of the 1930s Scott had risen to the title of publisher.
In January 1950, the Manhattan-based company signed a lease for office space at 130 W. 42nd Street.
History
Pulp fiction
Fiction House began in 1921 as a pulp-magazine publisher of primarily aviation, Western, and sports pulps.According to co-founder John W. Glenister:
“ In association with J. B. Kelly, I put out our first fiction magazine devoted to adventure stories. That was in 1921. Within four years the magazine sold 150,000 copies an issue and we began four other outdoor magazines and several others."
During their first decade the company produced pulp magazines such as Action Stories, Air Stories, Lariat Stories, Detective Classics, The Frontier, True Adventures, Wings, and Fight Stories. Fiction House occasionally acquired other publishers' magazines, such as its 1929 acquisition of Frontier Stories from Doubleday, Doran & Co.
By the 1930s, the company had expanded into detective mysteries. In late 1932, however, in the midst of the Great Depression, Fiction House cancelled 12 of its pulp magazines — Aces, Action Novels, Action Stories, Air Stories, Detective Book Magazine, Detective Classics, Fight Stories, Frontier Stories, Lariat, Love Romances, North-West Stories and Wings — with the stated goal of eventually reviving them.
After a very short hiatus, Action Stories resumed publishing through this period (lasting until the fall of 1950). In addition, Fiction House relaunched its pulp magazines in 1934, finding success with a number of detective and romance pulp titles. The cancelled pulps Fight Stories and Detective Book Magazine were revived in spring 1936 and in 1937 respectively, with both magazines publishing continuously into the 1950s. Fiction House's first title with science fiction interest was Jungle Stories, which was launched in early 1939; it was not primarily a science fiction magazine, but often featured storylines with marginally science fictional themes, such as survivors from Atlantis.
At the end of 1939 Fiction House decided to add an sf magazine to its line up; it was titled
Planet Stories, and was published by Love Romances, a subsidiary company that Fiction House created to publish the company's romance titles.
At the end of 1939 Fiction House decided to add an sf magazine to its line up; it was titled
Planet Stories, and was published by Love Romances, a subsidiary company that Fiction House created to publish the company's romance titles.
List of Fiction House pulps
Aces [3]
Action Novels[3]
Action Stories (225 issues, September 1921 - Fall 1950)
Air Stories [3]
Detective Book Magazine (65 issues, Apr. 1930–Sept. 1931; 1937–Winter 1952/1953)
All Adventure Action Novels
All-American Football Magazine
Baseball Stories
Basketball Stories
Black Aces
Bull's-Eye Detective
Bull's-Eye Sports
Bull's-Eye Western Stories
Civil War Stories
Detective Classics [3]
Fight Stories (47 issues, June 1928 – May 1932; 59 issues, Spring 1936 - Spring 1952)
Football Action
Football Illustrated Annual
Football Stories
Frontier Stories[3]
George Bruce's Aces (Glen-Kel)
George Bruce's Air Novels
Jungle Stories
Lariat[3]
Love Romances[3]
North-West Romances
North-West Stories
Planet Stories (71 issues, Dec. 1939 - June 1955)
Soldier Stories
Tops in Science Fiction (2 issues, Spring–Fall 1953) — vehicle to reprint stories from Planet Stories
True Adventures
Two Complete Detective Books (Real Adventure)
Two Complete Science-Adventure Books (11 issues, 1950–1954)
Two Western Books
Two Western Romances
Wings (133 issues [11+ volumes], Jan. 1928–Spring 1953)
List of Fiction House Comic Books (selected)
"The Big Six"
Fight Comics (86 issues, Jan. 1940–[Jan.] 1954)
Jumbo Comics (167 issues, Sept. 1938–Mar. 1953)
Jungle Comics (163 issues, Jan. 1940–Summer 1954)
Planet Comics (73 issues, Jan. 1940–Winter 1953)
Rangers of Freedom Comics / Rangers Comics (69 issues, October 1941–Winter 1953)
Wings Comics (124 issues, Sept. 1940–1954)
Other titles
3-D Circus (1 issue, 1953)
Cowgirl Romances (12 issues, 1950–Winter 1952/1953)
The First Christmas (1 issue, 1953; 3-D)
Ghost Comics (11 issues, 1951–1954)
Indians (17 issues, 1950–1953)
Ka'a'nga, Jungle King (20 issues, Spring 1949–Summer 1954)
Long Bow (9 issues, 1951–Winter 1952/1953)
Man O' Mars (1 issue, 1953)
Movie Comics (4 issues, Dec. 1946–1947)
Pioneer West Romances / Firehair (11 issues, Spring 1950–Spring 1952)
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle (18 issues, Spring 1942–Winter 1952/1953)
The Spirit (5 issues, 1952–54)
Wambi, Jungle Boy (18 issues, Spring 1942–Winter 1952)
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| Bob Lubbers | PAUL GRAVETT Links to all collections posted on Old-fashioned Comics https://old-fashionedcomics.blogspot.com/search/label/Fiction%20House%20Comics%20Collection  |
Thanks for discovering this unknown publisher
ReplyDeleteGrandfather Kelly co-founded Fiction House. He worked with top fiction writers of the day, many of whom became his closest friends, such as Morgan Robertson & Walt Coburn. He was 46 when he died in 1932. I tried to work with Wikipedia & steer them toward more reliable sources but they weren't interested. https://www.pulpartists.com/Kelly.html
ReplyDelete