Doc Savage (magazine)

Doc Savage was an American pulp magazine that was published from 1933 to 1949. Street & Smith already had a successful hero pulp, The Shadow, and were interested in adding another.[1] They planned to create one called The Phantom, but when Standard Publications launched The Phantom Detective in early 1933 the character of Doc Savage was created instead.[2][1] Each issue ran a lead novel. Most were written by Lester Dent, but there were four ghost-writers—Harold A. Davis, Ryerson Johnson, Laurence Donovan, and Alan Hathway—until 1941, after which Dent wrote all the lead stories until 1946, when Bogard and Davis returned.[3] The novels almost always featured science fiction elements, such as a metal-destroying ray, a teleportation mechanism, or the ability to revive a dead person from history.[3][1] Despite this, Street & Smith considered Doc Savage to be an adventure magazine, not a science fiction magazine, so the short stories that accompanied the lead novel were straightforward adventure fiction. Writers who frequently contributed these stories included Steve Fisher, Laurence Donovan, and William Bogart.[1]

Cover of the March 1933 issue

Bibliographic details

Doc Savage was published by Street & Smith, and produced 181 issues between March 1933 and Summer 1949. It was pulp format from the beginning until December 1943; it switched to digest format from January 1944 to the September/October 1948 issue, and than back to pulp for the 1949 issues.[4] Doc Savage began as a monthly, and stayed on that schedule until February 1947; it was bimonthly from March–April 1947 until September–October 1948. The last three issues, in 1949, were quarterly.[5] The title began as Doc Savage Magazine, and was abbreviated to just Doc Savage for the September 1937 issue. Between the September/October 1947 and September/October 1948 issues a subtitle was added: Doc Savage: Science Detective.[3][5] The page count was 128 pages until the July 1938 issue; thereafter it varied between 114 and 164 pages. The price was initially 10 cents; this was increased to 15 cents in May 1943, and to 25 cents for the March–April 1947 issue. There were thirty volumes of six issues, and a final volume of one issue.[4]

References
  1. Weinberg (1985), pp. 183-185.
  2. Sampson (1983), pp. 408-414.
  3. Murray (1983), pp. 177-182.
  4. Stephensen-Payne, Phil (January 3, 2022). "Magazines, Listed by Title: Doc Savage". Galactic Central. Archived from the original on 2022-01-03. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
  5. Stephensen-Payne, Phil (January 3, 2022). "Doc Savage". Galactic Central. Archived from the original on 2009-10-16. Retrieved January 3, 2022.

Sources
  • Murray, Will (1983). "Doc Savage". In Cook, Michael L. (ed.). Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Magazines. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 177–182. ISBN 0-313-23310-1.
  • Sampson, Robert (1983). "The Phantom Detective". In Cook, Michael L. (ed.). Mystery, Detective, and Espionage Magazines. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 408–414. ISBN 0-313-23310-1.
  • Weinberg, Robert (1985). "Doc Savage". In Tymn, Marshall B.; Ashley, Mike (eds.). Science Fiction, Fantasy and Weird Fiction Magazines. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press. pp. 183–185. ISBN 0-3132-1221-X.
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