Amazing Stories
- Hugo Gernsback (April 1926-April 1929)
- Arthur Lynch (May 1929-October 1929)
- T. O'Conor Sloane (November 1929-May 1939)
- Raymond A. Palmer (June 1939-December 1939)
- Bernard G. Davis (January 1940-May 1946)
- Raymond A. Palmer (June 1946-December 1949)
- Howard Browne (January 1950-August 1956)
- Paul W. Fairman (September 1956-December 1958)
- Cele Goldsmith Lalli (January 1959-June 1965)
- Joseph Wrzos (August 1965-October 1967)
- Harry Harrison (December 1967-September 1968)
- Barry N. Malzberg (November 1968-January 1969)
- Ted White (March 1969-February 1979)
- Elinor Mavor (May 1979-August 1981 under the pseudonym Omar Gohagen, November 1981-September 1982 under her own name)
- George H. Scithers (November 1982-July 1986)
- Patrick Lucien Price (September 1986-March1991)
- Kim Mohan (May 1991-1995 and 1998-2000)
- David Gross (May 2004-October 2004)
- Jeff Berkwits (October 2004-March 2005)
B.G. Davis held the title of Editor at all Ziff-Davis magazines but had little daily involvement at Amazing. After Browne's departure, Norman Lobsenz was Editorial Director (writing editorials but not buying stories) until the magazine was sold to Sol Cohen (Ultimate Publishing Company).[42] During Cohen's first years, the magazine was edited entirely by Joseph Wrzos, who signed himself "Joseph Ross." Cohen concentrated on acquiring artwork (both old and new) and on layouts and production. Elinor Mavor used the title Editorial & Art Director for a while before dropping "Omar Gohagen" completely. Pierce Watters was "Executive Editor" and superior to Mohan during Mohan's second term.
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Media crossovers
Director Steven Spielberg licensed the title for use on an American television show called Amazing Stories that ran from 1985 to 1987. Spielberg named it after the magazine, which his father had read since he was a child.[citation needed]
Between 1998 and 2000, Amazing Stories published the first (and, to date, only) officially licensed magazine short stories based upon the Star Trek franchise. In 2002, these stories were reissued by Pocket Books in the collection Star Trek: The Amazing Stories.
Amazing Stories also published several Babylon 5 stories written by J. Michael Straczynski.
A short story by science fiction author Isaac Asimov, "Birth of a Notion", tells how a time-travelling physicist briefly visits Hugo Gernsback and plants the idea for the title Amazing Stories.
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July, 1926 issue
Amazing Stories, Volume 1, Number 4, gives a feeling of the original magazine. [43] The cover features a Frank R. Paul illustration of giant house fly, many times the size of a man. It is attacking a naval vessel, which is firing artillery at it. The lower-right corner boldly proclaims "Stories by H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Garrett P. Serviss". At the bottom of the cover is the legend "Experimenter Publishing Company, New York, publishers of Radio News — Science & Invention — Radio Review — Amazing Stories — Radio Internacional" [sic].
There were 96 pages, but the page numbering continued from the previous issue. The only non-fiction is a 1-page editorial in which Gernsback expands on the magazine's motto: Extravagant Fiction Today . . . Cold Fact Tomorrow.
The contents page lists:
- G. McLeod Windsor, Station X (part 1 of 3 parts)
- H. G. Wells, The Man Who Could Work Miracles
- Jacque Morgan, The Scientific Adventures of Mr. Fosdick: The Feline Light and Power Company Is Organised (a humorous piece about trying to generate usable static electricity from cats)
- Garrett P. Serviss, The Moon Metal
- Curt Siodmak, The Eggs From Lake Tanganyika
- Hugo Gernsback, The Magnetic Storm
- Edgar Allan Poe, The Sphinx
- Jules Verne, A Trip To The Centre of The Earth (last part of serial)
- Clement Fezandié, Doctor Hackensaw's Secrets: The Secret of the Invisible Girl
Each story has a full page illustration. There are a very few small advertisements (magic tricks, trusses, etc.) and classified advertisements (For sale: Rharostine "B" Eliminator, $15).
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Other Notable Issues
The August 1928 issue of Amazing Stories has become a sought-after collectors item.[citation needed] It is important in the history of the space opera subgenre because it includes Armageddon 2419 A.D. - the first appearance of Buck Rogers - and E.E. Smith's The Skylark of Space, considered one of the first space opera novels. Though Armageddon 2419 A.D. was not a space opera, the comic strip based on it certainly was.
The July 1940 issue of Amazing featured an illustration by Frank R. Paul on the back cover. It showed a model of an Earthling, as imagined by Martians, that included a small image of Earth as a cloudless blue planet. Forrest J Ackerman cites this as one of the earliest corrections to the popular pre-spaceflight image of Earth as a green world.[44]
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Notes
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, p. 7.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 21–25.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 29–35.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, p. 48.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, p. 47.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 48–49.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, p. 49.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 51–54.
- ^ a b c Ashley, Time Machines, p. 238.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 63–64.
- ^ "To Pay 95% Of Debts In $600,000 Failure", New York Times, 1929-04-04, p. 22.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, p. 76.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, p. 77.
- ^ "Advertising News and Notes", New York Times, January 18 1938, pp. 28. "Ziff-Davis Publishing Company, New York and Chicago, has purchased Radio News Magazine and Amazing Stories."
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 112–116.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, p. 119.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 178–180.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 183–185.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, p. 185.
- ^ Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 220–225.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 7.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 48-51.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 173.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 353.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 173–174.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 222.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 224–226.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 263.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 321.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 325.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, pp. 263–266.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 266.
- ^ Ashley, Transformations, p. 266–267.
- ^ Quoted in Ashley, Time Machines, p. 50.
- ^ Time Machines, p. 50.
- ^ Quoted in Ashley, Time Machines, p. 50–51.
- ^ Quoted in Ashley, Time Machines, pp. 52–53.
- ^ See the individual issues. For convenience, an online index is available at Magazine:Amazing Stories — ISFDB. Texas A&M University. Retrieved on 14 June, 2008.
- ^ Ackerman. "Amazing! Astounding! Incredible! Pulp Science Fiction", World of Science Fiction, 117-118.
- ^ Amazing Stories And Undefeated Magazines Cancelled. Paizo Publishing. Retrieved on 2006-04-02.
- ^ Carlson, Walter. "Advertising: Death and Taxes and Insurance", New York Times, June 23 1965, pp. 62." [P]urchase by the Ultimate Publishing Company, Inc., of two science-fiction magazines from Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. [Amazing Stories and Fantastic.] … according to Sol Cohen, president of Ultimate."
- ^ Paul, Frank R.. Amazing Stories July 1926 cover. Frank R. Paul Gallery. Frank Wu. Retrieved on 2006-04-02.
- ^ Ackerman. "Amazing! Astounding! Incredible! Pulp Science Fiction", World of Science Fiction, 116-117.
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References
- Ashley, Mike (2000). The Time Machines:The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the beginning to 1950. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-865-0.
- Clute, John; Nicholls, Peter (1993). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. New York: St. Martin's Press, Inc.. ISBN 0-312-09618-6.
- Ackerman, Forrest J (1997). Forrest J Ackerman's World of Science Fiction. Los Angeles: RR Donnelley & Sons Company. ISBN 1-57544-069-5.
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External links
- Checklist of issues (1926-2005).
- Frank R Paul Gallery - Amazing covers, especially 1926-1929
- Archive of Amazing Stories covers
- Index of Amazing Magazine issues and contents
- Cover art with artist's name and contents (1926-1967)
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