Fantastic Novels came into existence because of the demand from readers of Famous Fantastic Mysteries for book-length reprints.
 Gnaedinger observed that "Everyone seems to have realized that although [the] set-up of five to seven stories with two serials running, was highly satisfactory, that the long list of novels would have to be speeded up somehow".
 When the new magazine was launched, Famous Fantastic Mysteries was partway through serialization of Austin Hall and Homer Eon Flint's The Blind Spot, with the third episode appearing in the May/June 1940 issue.
 Rather than complete the serialization, Gnaedinger printed the novel in its entirety in the first issue of Fantastic Novels, ensuring that readers of Famous Fantastic Mysteries would also acquire the new magazine.
 Over the next four issues she printed Ray Cummings' People of the Golden Atom, Ralph Milne Farley's The Radio Beasts, and two novels by A. Merritt: The Snake Mother and The Dwellers in the Mirage.
 Gnaedinger's interest in reprinting Merritt's work helped make him one of the better-known fantasy writers of the era.

In the second series, from 1948 to 1951, Gnaedinger continued to reprint work by Merritt, along with other reader favorites from the Munsey years.
 Works by George Allan England, Victor Rousseau, Ray Cummings, and Francis Stevens (the pen name of Gertrude Barrows Bennett) appeared, as well as (occasionally) reprints of more recent work, such as Earth's Last Citadel, by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, which had been serialized in Argosy in 1943.
 In the early 1950s, when first Fantastic Novels and two years later Famous Fantastic Mysteries ceased publication, it is likely that the audience for science fiction was growing too sophisticated for these early works.

Each issue, except the last one, featured a lead novel with additional short fiction.
 The cover artwork was mostly by Virgil Finlay, Lawrence Stevens, Peter Stevens, and Norman Saunders, with one early cover contributed by Frank R. Paul.
Fantastic Novels came into existence because of the demand from readers of Famous Fantastic Mysteries for book-length reprints.  Gnaedinger observed that "Everyone seems to have realized that although [the] set-up of five to seven stories with two serials running, was highly satisfactory, that the long list of novels would have to be speeded up somehow".  When the new magazine was launched, Famous Fantastic Mysteries was partway through serialization of Austin Hall and Homer Eon Flint's The Blind Spot, with the third episode appearing in the May/June 1940 issue.  Rather than complete the serialization, Gnaedinger printed the novel in its entirety in the first issue of Fantastic Novels, ensuring that readers of Famous Fantastic Mysteries would also acquire the new magazine.  Over the next four issues she printed Ray Cummings' People of the Golden Atom, Ralph Milne Farley's The Radio Beasts, and two novels by A. Merritt: The Snake Mother and The Dwellers in the Mirage.  Gnaedinger's interest in reprinting Merritt's work helped make him one of the better-known fantasy writers of the era.
In the second series, from 1948 to 1951, Gnaedinger continued to reprint work by Merritt, along with other reader favorites from the Munsey years.  Works by George Allan England, Victor Rousseau, Ray Cummings, and Francis Stevens (the pen name of Gertrude Barrows Bennett) appeared, as well as (occasionally) reprints of more recent work, such as Earth's Last Citadel, by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, which had been serialized in Argosy in 1943.  In the early 1950s, when first Fantastic Novels and two years later Famous Fantastic Mysteries ceased publication, it is likely that the audience for science fiction was growing too sophisticated for these early works.
Each issue, except the last one, featured a lead novel with additional short fiction.  The cover artwork was mostly by Virgil Finlay, Lawrence Stevens, Peter Stevens, and Norman Saunders, with one early cover contributed by Frank R. Paul.
Fantastic Novels