New Jersey in 1939, Wellman wrote countless stories for the new field of comic books as well as for the pulps. During the war he served in New Jersey as a first lieutenant. The 1940s: New York, Weird Tales, Occult Detectives and Comic Books In the 1930s and 1940s, Wellman began selling to the bigger publications such as Weird Tales, Wonder Stories and Astounding Stories. At this time, when Wellman was living in New York, Weird Tales published numerous stories based on three of his most famous characters: Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant, John Thunstone, and Professor Nathan Enderby. Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant (written under the pen name Gans T. Fields) is described as "a renowned scholar and retired judge, hero of World War I, and now hero of darker, more dangerous battles. Huge of frame, an epicure, an authority on the occult, Pursuivant strides forth from his reclusive home in West Virginia to confront evil wherever it appears". John Thunstone is "a hulking Manhattanite playboy and dilettante, a serious student of the occult and a two-fisted brawler ready to take on any enemy. Armed with potent charms and a silver swordcane, Thunstone stalks supernatural perils in the posh night clubs and seedy hotels of New York, or in backwater towns lost in the countryside-- seeking out deadly sorcery as a hunter pursues a man-killer beast". Thunstone's arch-nemesis was the evil sorcerer, Rowley Thorne. Thorne was based on real-life occultist Aleister Crowley, the self-proclaimed "wickedest man in the world". The lesser-known character Professor Nathan Enderby is a "slender savant and unassuming authority on the supernatural, aided by his sharp wits and his Chinese servant, Quong. His cabin in rural Pennsylvania is a retreat from the frenetic social life of New York City – and a fortress against the powers of black magic". While the Edmond Hamilton-led pulp Captain Future was a going concern, Wellman wrote one novel for it, The Solar Invasion. When Captain Future was cancelled due to wartime paper shortages, the novel was instead published in Startling Stories (fall of 1946). Following a similar path to such pulp writers as Frank Belknap Long, Wellman also wrote for various comic books (what he called "squinkies") and wrote the first issue of Captain Marvel Adventures for Fawcett Publishers. Later he would be called into court to testify against Fawcett in a lawsuit by National (DC Comics) about plagiarism of Superman by