Saturn (magazine)
Wyn and Robert C. Sproul, Joe's son, were already publishing low-budget magazines such as Sure Fire Detective (later renamed Off Beat Detective Stories[4]) and Cracked, and Robert Sproul decided to add a science fiction title to take advantage of the trend.
[5][6] The first issue was dated March 1957, with Sproul listed as the editor; Wollheim was "editorial consultant" according to the masthead but actually did all the editing work.
[5] On the cover of the first issue, Wollheim advertised "Eternal Adam", a story set in the far future by Jules Verne that had never previously been translated into English.
This was a high-profile find for Saturn, but the rest of the issue was undistinguished: two stories were reprints from the British magazine New Worlds, and one was probably by Wollheim himself, under a pseudonym.
[6] The fourth issue carried a story by Robert Heinlein, "Elephant Circuit", written ten years earlier (later reprinted as "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants"),[10] and Wollheim obtained stories from a wide range of well-known writers, including Harlan Ellison, Cordwainer Smith, Clark Ashton Smith, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Damon Knight, Gordon R. Dickson, Jack Vance, and H. P.
[5] In many cases, according to sf historians Joe Sanders and Mike Ashley, "the stories... gave the suggestion of being dragged out of the back corner of some desk drawer",[6] but they also comment that some material was "surprisingly fresh",[6] and it was popular enough to be ranked the second-favorite magazine in a poll in the fanzine Science-Fiction Times after its first year.
[6] The detective stories began as hard-boiled fiction, with an emphasis on violence, sex, and titles such as "Jealous Husband" and "Rumble Bait".
[8][10] Edward D. Hoch's "Murder is Eternal", described by mystery critic Jon Breen as "very grim", appeared in the August 1960 issue.
[11] With the title change to Web Terror Stories in 1962, the magazine moved further towards sex and sadism as Sproul began publishing weird menace fiction:[6] this was a genre originally popular in the 1930s in which apparently supernatural powers are revealed to have a logical explanation at the end of the story.
