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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.

Boxing Yarns/Shorts

The first issue was called Boxing Yarns and the second was called Boxing Shorts.

1946
#1
Jan		        
#2
Jun		            

Complete Cowboy

1943
X

Crime Shorts

1944
#1
#2
1945 #3  
1946
#4		  

Detective Shorts

1946?
#1
#2		 #3
#4

Double-Action Western

1942 May

Famous Western

1945? X

Four in One Boxing, Football and Fun Shorts

Despite the title, the copy seen contains Football Pocket Library #1 & #2, Boxing Yarns #1 and Boxing Shorts #2. It is possible there were different contents in different copies.

1949
X

Four in One Gang and Thrills Shorts

The title suggests an omnibus from previous volumes of Gang Shorts and Thrill 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		  

Hooded Detective (UK) [1942]

1942?

Ideal Love

1942

Murder Shorts

Issue #2 may be phantom.

1946
#1, Feb		 #2

Mystery Thrillers

The lead stories are reprinted from the "Master Thrillers" series of booklets from the 1930s but the other stories appear to be new (at least in the second issue). Two further issues were announced but probably never appeared.

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		  

Science Fiction Quarterly

Although the magazines were actually entitled The Moon Conquerors and Into the Fourth Dimension, these were the titles of the lead stories and each was, in fact, a nearly complete reprint of an issue of the US Science Fiction Quarterly.

1943
#1
#2

Slick Detective Yarns

One-shot thin magazine, reprinting stories from Black Hood Detective and Crack Detective.

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
#1 (New
Series)		                

Thrill Shorts

1946
#1		      
#2
May		              

True Gangster Stories (UK) [1942]

1942?
X

Vengeance Shorts

1945                    
#1
Nov		  
1946        
#2
May		              

Weird and Occult Library

1960
#1
#2
#3

Weird and Occult Miscellany

1960
X

Weird Pocket Library

(1943)
#1

Weird Shorts

(1944)
#1

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

Western Album

1946
1947

Western Shorts

Two issues of the first (1940/2) series of Yankee Shorts were called Yankee Western Shorts and (at least) two issues of the second (1943/4) series were subtitled Western Shorts, but there was also a later series of pamphlets just called Western Shorts.

#4 has not been seen and may not exist.

1944
1st Selection
2nd Selection
3rd Selection		 #4
#5

Western Yarns (UK) [1942]

1942 #1
Winter		 #2
Spring		 #3
Jun		 #4
Fall
1943
#5
#6
Spring		    

Yankee Shorts

The first series was published from 1940 to 1942, numbered sequentially, but 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.

The second series, published in 1943/1944, were digest-sized and were explicitly labelled Yankee Shorts as well as a separate title such as Romance Shorts and Western Shorts and a number. In this series, however, the issues were numbered as sequels to the equivalent title in the first series.

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		            
1943/4
Gang
Shorts
#4		 Romance
Shorts
#7		 Romance
Shorts
#8
Western
Shorts
#3		 Western
Shorts
#4