At the end of the 1940s, Frank Belknap Long worked in comic books as well as Pulps. With the Pulps fading away in the 1950s, FBL had to find new ways to make a living. This was a transition he would do over and over during his decades long career.
The 1950s saw the Pulps that didn’t die transition into smaller magazines. Long worked for five different magazines over the next ten years. As a sub-editor he supplied material to The Saint Magazine and Fantastic Universe (under Leo Marguiles, 1953 to 1956) . In 1959 he became associate editor at the short-lived Satellite Science Fiction (under Cylvia Kleinman, Leo’s wife) and the same year into 1960 he worked at Short Stories (under M.D. Gregory). From 1960 to 1966, he edited at Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine. Wherever FBL was an editor, the table of contents of these magazines include old friends and fellow Weird Tales authors like Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury and Fritz Leiber. Coincidence? Perhaps, but I like to think Long was playing cheerleader there.
Of 1950s story writing, Frank’s last story for a Pulp magazine was “Manhunt” for Thrilling Wonder Stories, Spring 1954. The next fifteen stories would all appear at Fantastic Universe between 1953 and 1957. (His last Weird Tales story had been “The Mississippi Saucer”, March 1951.)
During his tenure at Fantastic Universe, Frank got the job of writing a one-page summation on the theme of the cover. It is interesting to see how his mind wanders far and wide over the fantastic landscape in these ditties. It is also a fairly large collection of uncollected Long.
“The Story Behind the Cover” feature began with the March 1954 issue but wasn’t written by Frank. It was written by James Cooke Brown. Frank showed up with the May 1954 issue with an essay called “The New and the Old”. It was the October 1954 issue that saw the FBL run of cover descriptions begin.
1954
Fantastic Universe, October 1954
It would take an incredibly long (no pun intended) post to show all 22 of them, so I won’t do that. Here are the links to all the issues. Have fun exploring Frank’s thoughts and editorials.
Fantastic Universe, November 1954
Fantastic Universe, December 1954
1955
Fantastic Universe, January 1955
Fantastic Universe, February 1955
Fantastic Universe, March 1955
Fantastic Universe, April 1955
Fantastic Universe, August 1955
Fantastic Universe, September 1955
Fantastic Universe, October 1955
Fantastic Universe, December 1955
1956
Fantastic Universe, January 1956
Fantastic Universe, February 1956
Fantastic Universe, March 1956
Fantastic Universe, April 1956
Fantastic Universe, August 1956
The 1960s
When Leo Marguiles stepped down as editor in the middle of 1956, Hans Stefan Santesson took over as straw boss. Frank must have left at this time too. His pieces finish with August 1956 though later issues still have the feature, now written by others.
In the 1960s, Long would make another transition, to paperback writer. Writing both under his name as well as “Lyda Belknap Long”, he produced Science Fiction as well as Gothic novels. He left editing behind to return to writing full-time.
