"The Merchants of Venus", also known by the title "The Merchants of Venus Underground", is a science fiction novella by American writer Frederik Pohl published in 1972 as part of the collection The Gold at the Starbow's End.
It is a satire of runaway free market capitalism. It also features the first appearance of the Heechee.
It was adapted as a graphic novel by Victoria Petersen and Neal McPheeters in 1986, as the fourth title in the DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel series.
A story by the same title was published in Galaxy magazine, March 1954 by A.H. Phelps and is available, with color cover art, from Project Gutenberg.[1] In it, an advertising man takes on the problem of getting colonists to go to Venus. The story was dramatized on the radio series XMinus One, which was affiliated with Galaxy.Mp3 available.[2]