Magazine Issues

Magazines published by Gerald G. Swan, Ltd.

Gerald G. Swan was one of the most enterprising of wartime publishers in Britain. Although he established his publishing company in 1938, he stockpiled his books rather than distributing them and thus had a supply of paper when it was rationed during the war. As a result he virtually cornered the magazine market and released hundreds of publications in all fields of fiction, all of irredeemably poor quality! Most of his inventory was compiled in the 1940's from a mixture of home-grown "talent" and reprints from Columbia magazines, even though some of them were not printed until the 1960's.

The following checklists represent just a small part of their output.

Crime Shorts

1944	#1	#2
1945	#3
1946	#4

Detective Shorts

1946?

Four in One Gang and Thrills Shorts

The title suggests an omnibus from previous volumes of Gang Shorts and Thrills Shorts, but the copy seen contains Gang Shorts #3 & #4, Occult Shorts #2 and Weird Story Magazine #2 so it is possible there were different contents in different copies.

1949
X

Four in One Weird and Occult Shorts

This magazine was an attempt by Swan to eliminate unsold issues of various publications, and contained four separate magazines, complete including front and back covers.

The actual contents varied from copy to copy and were rarely limited to purely supernatural titles. The issue examined for SFFWF was subtitled "Supernatural Yarns" and contained Weird Story Magazine #2, Occult Shorts #2, Racing Shorts #1, and Detective Shorts #4, re-packaged within a new external cover, which shows a vampire rising from a coffin.

Another issue listed for sale on eBay contained: Weird Story Magazine #2, Occult Shorts #2, Occult #1, and Vengence Shorts #2.

1948
X

Gang Shorts

1944	#1	#2
1945	#3
1946	#4

Murder Shorts

Issue #2 may be phantom.

1946
#1, Feb #2

Mystery Thrillers

The lead stories are reprinted from old Gramol booklets from the 1930s but the other stories appear to be new (at least in the second issue).

1942 #1
Jul #2
Sep

Occult/Occult Shorts

Note that the first issue is undated and has been dated as early as 1941 by some sources. Note also that unsold copies of the second issue were rebound as part of Four in One Weird and Occult Shorts.

#1, (1945) was titled Occult: A Collection of Stories of the Supernatural
while #2, (1946) was Occult Shorts: 2nd Collection.

1945
#1

1946
#2

Racing Shorts

At least one issue of this magazine was produced because unsold issues of Racing Shorts #1 were rebound as part of Four in One Weird and Occult Shorts. Other than that, nothing is currently known about the magazine.

1945 #1
Oct?

Science Fiction Library

Contains both new and reprint stories.

1960
#1
#2

1961 #3

Slick Detective Yarns

Listed by both Lofts and Gifford, this is almost certainly a reprint of the adult US pulp magazine (1 issue, Jul-1951).

1951 Jun

Space Fact and Fiction

1954

v1 #1 (#1)
Mar

v1 #2 (#2)
Apr

v1 #3 (#3)
May

v1 #4 (#4)
Jun

v1 #5 (#5)
Jul

v1 #6 (#6)
Aug

v2 #7 (#7)
Sep

v1 #8 (#8)
Oct

Swan American Magazine

Contents of issues varied between detective, sf and western magazines, mostly reprinted from Columbia Magazines, with each individual issue carrying the name of an individual magazine, as follows:

  #1 - Western Yarns
  #2 - Detective Yarns
  #3 - Crack Detective Stories
  #4 - Famous Western
  #5 - Western Yarns
  #6 - Famous Western
  #7 - Hooded Detective
  #8 - Famous Western
  #9 - Crack Detective
#10 - Famous Western
#11 - Future Fantasy and Science Fiction
#12 - Complete Cowboy Wild Western Stories
#13 - Famous Western
#14 - Complete Cowboy Wild Western Stories
#15 - Science-Fiction Quarterly
#16 - Black Hood Detective

There is also at least #1 of a New Series, which is identical to #1 of the original series.

1948
#1 #2 #3 #4 #5
#6 #7 #8 #9 #10
#11

1949?
#12
#13 #14

1950
#15 #16

Thrills Shorts

1946

#2
May

True Gangster Stories (UK) [1942]

1942?

Vengeance Shorts

1945											#1 Nov
1946					#2 May

Weird and Occult Library

1960

Weird and Occult Miscellany

1960

Weird Pocket Library

(1943)

Weird Shorts

(1944)

Weird Story Magazine

There were two series of Weird Story Magazine, a single issue in August 1940, and two issues after the war in 1946. Note that unsold copies of the final issue were rebound as part of Four in One Weird and Occult Shorts.

1940
#1, August

1941

1942

1943

1944

1945

1946
(#1)
#2

Yankee Shorts

This was a generic series with each individual issue carrying the name of an individual magazine, as follows:

  #1 - Yankee Romance Shorts
  #2 - Yankee Mystery Shorts
  #3 - Yankee Science Fiction
  #4 - Yankee Romance Shorts
  #5 - Yankee Mystery Shorts
  #6 - Yankee Weird Shorts
  #7 - Yankee Western Shorts
  #8 - Yankee Gang Shorts
  #9 - Yankee Love Shorts
#10 - Yankee Air Action
#11 - Yankee Science Fiction
#12 - Yankee Romance Shorts
#13 - Yankee Gang Shorts
#14 - Yankee Weird Shorts
#15 - Yankee Romance Shorts
#16 - Yankee Air Action
#17 - Yankee Western Shorts
#18 - Yankee Romance Shorts
#19 - Yankee Weird Shorts
#20 - Yankee Gang Shorts
#21 - Yankee Science Fiction

The series mixed reprints with original stories probably depending on how much space there was left in each issue.

1940 #1
Nov #2
Nov
#3
Nov #4
Nov

1941 #5
Jan
#6
Jan #7
Jan #8
Jan #9
Jan #10
Apr
#11
Apr #12
Apr #13
Apr #14
Jul #15
Jul #16
Jul #17
Jul

1942 #18
Apr #19
May #20
Jun
#21
Jul