Published by the Frank A. Munsey Company, the publication began with an issue cover-dated September-October 1939, initially priced at 15 cents and edited by Mary Gnaedinger. With the first issue featuring A. Merritt's The Moon Pool and Ray Cummings' The Girl in the Golden Atom, the first issue was a success, and the schedule then went from bi-monthly to monthly. Virgil Finlay was the magazine's leading illustrator.
A Canadian reprint edition was published during the 1950s.
Confronted with numerous requests for reprints, Gnaedinger launched a spinoff magazine, Fantastic Novels, in June 1940. It also had a Canadian reprint edition in the 1950s and a British reprint edition for 2 issues in 1950.
| 1939 |  v1 #1 Sep |
 v1 #2 Nov |
 v1 #3 Dec |
|||||||||
| 1940 |  v1 #4 Jan |
 v1 #5 Feb |
 v1 #6 Mar |
 v2 #1 Apr |
 v2 #2 May |
 v2 #3 Aug |
 v2 #4 Oct |
 v2 #5 Dec |
||||
| 1941 |  v2 #6 Feb |
 v3 #1 Apr |
 v3 #2 Jun |
 v3 #3 Aug |
 v3 #4 Oct |
 v3 #5 Dec |
||||||
| 1942 |  v3 #6 Feb |
 v4 #1 Apr |
 v4 #2 Jun |
 v4 #3 Jul |
 v4 #4 Aug |
 v4 #5 Sep |
 v4 #6 Oct |
 v5 #1 Nov |
 v5 #2 Dec |
|||
| 1943 |  v5 #3 Mar |
 v5 #4 Sep |
 v5 #5 Dec |
|||||||||
| 1944 |  v5 #6 Mar |
 v6 #1 Jun |
 v6 #2 Sep |
 v6 #3 Dec |
||||||||
| 1945 |  v6 #4 Mar |
 v6 #5 Jun |
 v6 #6 Sep |
 v7 #1 Dec |
||||||||
| 1946 |  v7 #2 Feb |
 v7 #3 Apr |
 v7 #4 Jun |
 v7 #5 Aug |
 v8 #1 Oct |
 v8 #2 Dec |
||||||
| 1947 |  v8 #3 Feb |
 v8 #4 Apr |
 v8 #5 Jun |
 v8 #6 Aug |
 v9 #1 Oct |
 v9 #2 Dec |
||||||
| 1948 |  v9 #3 Feb |
 v9 #4 Apr |
 v9 #5 Jun |
 v9 #6 Aug |
 v10 #1 Oct |
 v10 #2 Dec |
||||||
| 1949 |  v10 #3 Feb |
 v10 #4 Apr |
 v10 #5 Jun |
 v10 #6 Aug |
 v11 #1 Oct |
 v11 #2 Dec |
||||||
| 1950 |  v11 #3 Feb |
 v11 #4 Apr |
 v11 #5 Jun |
 v11 #6 Aug |
 v12 #1 Oct |
|||||||
| 1951 |  v12 #2 Jan |
 v12 #3 Mar |
 v12 #4 May |
 v12 #5 Jul |
 v12 #6 Oct |
 v13 #1 Dec |
||||||
| 1952 |  v13 #2 Feb |
 v13 #3 Apr |
 v13 #4 Jun |
 v13 #5 Aug |
 v13 #6 Oct |
 v14 #1 Dec |
||||||
| 1953 |  v14 #2 Feb |
 v14 #3 Apr |
 v14 #4 Jun |
| 1949 |  Jun |
 Oct |
||||||||||
| 1950 |  Feb |
 Apr |
 Jun |
|||||||||
| 1951 | ||||||||||||
| 1952 |  Apr |
 Jun |
| 1940 |  v1 #1 Jul |
 v1 #2 Sep |
 v1 #3 Nov |
|||||||||
| 1941 |  v1 #4 Jan |
 v1 #5 Apr |
||||||||||
| 1948 |  v1 #6 Mar |
 v2 #1 May |
 v2 #2 Jul |
 v2 #3 Sep |
 v2 #4 Nov |
|||||||
| 1949 |  v2 #5 Jan |
 v2 #6 Mar |
 v3 #1 May |
 v3 #2 Jul |
 v3 #3 Sep |
 v3 #4 Nov |
||||||
| 1950 |  v3 #5 Jan |
 v3 #6 Mar |
 v4 #1 May |
 v4 #2 Jul |
 v4 #3 Sep |
 v4 #4 Nov |
||||||
| 1951 |  v4 #5 Jan |
 v4 #6 Apr |
 v5 #1 Jun |
| 1948 |  Nov |
|||||||||||
| 1949 |  Nov |
|||||||||||
| 1950 |  Mar |
 Nov |
||||||||||
| 1951 |  Jan |
 Jun |
| 1950 |  |
 |