Although the cover painting by Ward didn't highlight the fact, with its July 1940 issue, adventures on foreign planets--not merely foreign climes--had arrived in the pages of SPICY ADVENTURE STORIES.  "Woman From Mercury" by Lew Merrill (hiding the identity of Victor Rousseau) was trumpeted on the cover, and inside, this science fiction story was joined by second one, "Created He Them" by Robert Leslie Bellem.  This was the continuation of what had begun with the June 1940 issue of SPICY MYSTERY STORIES, which also began to run science fiction.  For the next year and a half, science fiction would regularly crop up in the pages of both magazines--even Diana Daw, cartoon heroine, took her disrobing act on a planetary tour.  As one might expect, ASTOUNDING and the other science fiction pulps of the time had nothing to fear from what passed as science fiction in the pages of the spicy pulps.