Comet (magazine)

Although science fiction (SF) had been published before the 1920s, it did not begin to coalesce into a separately marketed genre until the appearance in 1926 of Amazing Stories, a pulp magazine published by Hugo Gernsback. By the end of the 1930s the field was booming. At the end of 1940 H-K Publications, a small New York publishing operation owned by Harold Hersey, decided to launch a new SF magazine, titled Comet. The first issue was dated December 1940. The editor was F. Orlin Tremaine, who was well known to and respected by the growing readership of science fiction because of his successful stint as editor of Astounding Stories in the early 1930s. Tremaine paid a cent a word for stories, which was more than many of the other SF magazines that were crowding the field at the time; the respectable pay rate no doubt helped him, but it put the magazine under additional financial pressure. Asimov was sufficiently upset that he later obtained token payment from Wollheim so that he could assert he had been paid for his story. == Contents ==

Tremaine was able to acquire some worthwhile material, and the magazine showed improvement over its five issues. Among the better-known stories Tremaine obtained was "Vortex Blaster", by E.E. Smith; this was the first in a series about Storm Cloud, later collected in book form. Other well-received stories included "The Street That Wasn't There", by Clifford D. Simak and Carl Jacobi, and "Dark Reality", by Robert Moore Williams. There was also a "Short, Short Story Corner" which was targeted at new writers, though established authors were also asked to submit very short stories for this feature. The Futurians, a group of New York science fiction fans many of whom would later go on to become well-known SF writers, often produced stories that were the result of collaborations between four, five, or even more of their members. One example, "The Psychological Regulator" was originally written by Wollheim. It was rejected by Tremaine and rewritten, first by Robert A.W. Lowndes, then by John Michel, and then by Elsie Balter, with Tremaine rejecting it again after each rewrite. Finally C.M. Kornbluth rewrote it and Tremaine accepted the story, publishing it in the March 1941 issue of Comet. ==Bibliographic details==

Comet was printed in pulp format, 128 pages, and was priced at 20 cents; all five issues were edited by Tremaine. There was one volume of five issues; the first four were subtitled "Stories of Super Time and Space". The schedule was initially monthly, but switched to bimonthly after the first issue. There were no overseas reprint editions or anthologies of stories from the magazine. ==Notes==