 = Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine = 
 
 Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine was a pulp magazine which was launched in December 1936 . It was published by Harold Hersey , and was an attempt to cash in on the growing comics boom , and the popularity of the Flash Gordon comic strip in particular . The magazine contained a novel about Flash Gordon and three unrelated stories ; there were also eight full @-@ page color illustrations . The quality of both the artwork and the fiction was low , and the magazine only saw a single issue . It is now extremely rare . 
 
 = = Publication history and contents = = 
 
 Although science fiction ( sf ) had been published before the 1920s , it did not begin to <unk> into a separately marketed genre until the appearance in 1926 of Amazing Stories , a pulp magazine published by Hugo <unk> . After 1931 , when Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories was launched , no new science fiction magazines appeared for several years . In 1934 a science fiction comic strip following the adventures of superhero Flash Gordon appeared in newspapers and quickly became popular . In 1936 the strip spawned a movie serial in thirteen parts , also titled Flash Gordon . Late that year Harold Hersey , an experienced pulp magazine editor and publisher , decided to launch three new magazines based on comics . The first two were titled Dan Dunn Detective Magazine and <unk> Tommy Air Adventure Magazine ; these were launched in September and October 1936 respectively . The third was Flash Gordon Strange Adventures Magazine , which saw a single issue , dated December 1936 ; it was copyrighted by both Hersey and King Features , the syndicate that owned the copyright to Flash Gordon . Dan Dunn and <unk> Tommy produced one more issue each before Hersey closed down the venture . It is not known why only one issue of Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine appeared ; poor sales figures from the other magazines may have been responsible , or Hersey may simply have run out of money , or possibly King Features , the owner of the copyright to Flash Gordon , only granted rights to Hersey for one issue , and withdrew from the venture after the first issue appeared . <unk> historian Everett Bleiler notes that Hersey did not mention the venture in his autobiographical <unk> Editor , published a year later , and adds that " given Hersey 's usual attempts to glorify himself and to <unk> his failures , this silence suggests a <unk> larger than usual " . 
 The magazine contained a lead novel and three short stories . The novel , The Master of Mars , by James Edison <unk> ( or <unk> ; the name is spelled one way on the contents page and the other way at the head of the story ) , has been described by Bleiler as " <unk> " . Bleiler also comments that of three short stories , one is dated and another third @-@ rate . Two of the stories were by <unk> <unk> ; one , " The Saga of the <unk> " , was published under his own name ; the other , " The Last War " , was published under the pseudonym " <unk> <unk> " . The other story , " The Man Without a Brain " , is a collaboration between <unk> Vance ( or <unk> <unk> ; as with <unk> , the magazine is inconsistent in spelling the name ) and <unk> Young . 
 Hersey 's idea was to have a pulp magazine about comic strip characters ; he hoped that there would be sufficient overlap between pulp readers and comics fans to make the magazine successful . The presentation was like that of a typical pulp , but with eight full page color illustrations , all by Fred <unk> , who had previously illustrated Westerns . Bleiler describes the artwork as crude and " far inferior to the sometimes elegant work " of Alex Raymond , the creator of Flash Gordon . 
 The attempt to market pulp fiction to comics fans turned out to be the wrong approach : the comics field was on the verge of dramatic successes , but the crossover appeal for pulp magazines was not there . The magazine was not widely known at the time it was issued , and has since become extremely rare . 
 
 = = <unk> details = = 
 
 The publisher of Flash Gordon Strange Adventure Magazine was <unk> Publishing Co . , based in New York . The sole issue was numbered volume 1 , number 1 ; it was in large pulp format , with 96 pages and was priced at 10 cents . Harold Hersey was the president of <unk> and the editor of the magazine . A facsimile of the magazine was released as a book in 2005 . 
 
 