When Strange Tales first appeared in 1931 as a pulp magazine, it was clearly something new. Edited by Harry Bates as a companion to Astounding Stories, it combined the supernatural horror and fantasy of Weird Tales with vigorous action plots. Strange Tales rapidly attracted the most imaginative and capable writers of the day, including such Weird Tales regulars as Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Henry S. Whitehead, Hugh B. Cave, Ray Cummings, and numerous others. Had the Great Depression not intervened and killed it after seven issues, the whole history of fantastic fiction might have been different. The January 1933 issue features Hugh B. Cave's classic "Murgunstrumm," as well as stories by Robert E. Howard, Henry S. Whitehead, and many more.