Vargo Statten Science Fiction Magazine

At the end of 1954, as part payment for a debt, Scion Distributors handed control of the magazine to Dragon Press, who continued it for another twelve issues.

Neither Paterson nor Fearn had enough of a budget to attract good quality submissions, and a printing strike in 1956 brought an end to the magazine's life.

[1] Scion's stated intention was to have at least 10% of the magazine devoted to the sf fan community, and also to publish only stories by British writers.

Scion gave Dragon Press control of the magazine with the December 1954 issue as payment for the debt, along with the novels they had rights to and their contract with Fearn.

In the opinion of sf historians Philip Harbottle and Stephen Holland, the quality of the magazine began to improve significantly, with stories by E.C.

[3] When the circulation began to fall, Dragon Press quickly cut Fearn's budget in half, from 25 shillings to only 12/6 per thousand words.

This was half the word rate on offer at other British science fiction magazines of the era, and left Fearn unable to compete for the best stories.

[2] Fearn printed material of his own that he had been unable to sell elsewhere,[5] and was also able to save some money by reprinting stories of his that had originally appeared in the U.S. magazines.