tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post8237417945126505774..comments2024-03-28T19:52:07.635-04:00Comments on Sweet Freedom: FFM: Silver Anniversary Issues of F&SF, edited by Edward Ferman (Mercury Press, October 1974) and FANTASTIC, edited by Ted White (Ultimate Publications, June 1977)Todd Masonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-36275096625311262512016-06-19T16:27:21.134-04:002016-06-19T16:27:21.134-04:00Bad memory--Rusch began editing the magazine n 199...Bad memory--Rusch began editing the magazine n 1991.Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-39162699500274103732016-06-17T12:38:51.746-04:002016-06-17T12:38:51.746-04:00Still good in the '80s...though Budrys's b...Still good in the '80s...though Budrys's book columns were better in the '70s...eventual '80s editor Kristine Rusch is my least favored of F&SF editors, but her issues were still usually good, and she did seem to seek out or accept more horror fiction than Ferman had, so I had no problem with that. Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-10539150021710495272016-06-17T12:12:07.686-04:002016-06-17T12:12:07.686-04:00I only really read F&SF as a teenager in the 1...I only really read F&SF as a teenager in the 1980s - I'm always a bit too late ... Look amazing. Sergio (Tipping My Fedora)https://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-46849738662182120222016-06-17T11:14:34.595-04:002016-06-17T11:14:34.595-04:00All of them, Jerry? I didn't read the first, w...All of them, Jerry? I didn't read the first, which was pretty good, for some years after coming across the rather weak "Papa Schimmelhorn's Yang" in a new 1978 issue and the virulently awful "The Ladies of Beetlegoose Nine" in a 1976 back issue I read early on and hope to re-examine soon...this one surprised me in the degree to which it indulged only a smidgen of actua hostility to women in comparison. I'll see what I make of "Ladies" now...<br /><br />And, hey...George doesn't speak up for the White version...which, alas, was a bimonthly, then a quarterly in his term...ZD didn't give Goldsmith Lalli much more budget than Sol Cohen gave White, but at least they paid her a salary (versus what amounted to a stipend) and issued her magazines monthly...<br /><br />The most remarkable thing about F&SF is how little the basic approach...to seek fiction in decent prose and attention to character as much as the story will allow, while still being (usually) fantastic...has changed from editor to editor.Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-48352156895270338102016-06-17T10:59:50.171-04:002016-06-17T10:59:50.171-04:00George's comments are spot-on. F&SF has b...George's comments are spot-on. F&SF has been a consistent bright light in the field despite the obvious editorial changes over the years and FANTASTIC during the Lalli/White years was a publication I looked forward to every month.<br /><br />Despite the misogyny, I have a far more positive reaction to the Papa Schimmelhorn stories than you. Different stroke, I guess.Jerry Househttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09482856733981933159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-23665050689743565392016-06-17T10:06:27.126-04:002016-06-17T10:06:27.126-04:00Fairman's stable was famously Robert Silverber...Fairman's stable was famously Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison, Milton Lesser before he legally changed his name to Stephen Marlowe, and Randall Garrett, with Henry Slesar coming in big toward the end of Fairman's short term at Ziff-Davis...after a couple of years (of mostly writing his own fiction for other markets on ZD company time), he moved on to become the managing editor of ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE for a brief run, at BG Davis's new company, where fiction magazines still mattered...while the brilliant group who provided the bulk of AMAZING and FANTASTIC's fiction during Fairman's tenure knew they were to get it in Thursday, rather than worry too much about it being good. If it was good, fine...but mostly it should Not Cause Problems by being too challenging in any way, and should be readable...not that Fairman actually bothered to read it before turning it over for typesetting...Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-3946089739654331972016-06-17T09:51:40.907-04:002016-06-17T09:51:40.907-04:00FANTASTIC in the 1970s and '60s as well was al...FANTASTIC in the 1970s and '60s as well was always a mixed bag (as was F&SF), though both published a very impressive amount of excellent and good fiction, and no little brilliant. Cele Goldsmith Lalli and Ted White were pretty much on par as editors, I'd suggest, with White's lack of publisher support even more profound than Goldsmith Lalli's..."Ross"/Wrocz, Harrison and Malzberg between them, and Mavor after White, did what they could, and also managed to publish some impressive work. The librarian reference THE GUIDE TO PERIODICAL LITERATURE gave FANTASTIC a rave review ca. 1976, along with similar for F&SF...but everyone expected good things from F&SF (Gregory Feeley touches on this on FaceBook today). White's AMAZING got a more measured review, which I think (and I think White thought and thinks) is fair...AMAZING had rather more newsstand competition for sf stories than FANTASTIC did for fantasy stories, for most of their run. And FANTASTIC founding editor Howard Browne certainly hadn't been averse to publishing good fiction, nor was Paul Fairman, when they cared at all (and Fairman apparently let Goldsmith find what good stories she could in the slushpile as his assistant, such as Kate Wilhelm's first published story, and shoo them in among the pre-purchased yard-goods he had bought from his stable of good writers producing some good and mostly indifferent work on regular schedule).Todd Masonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01815516018079824802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8525415828746712027.post-14413142805486054712016-06-17T09:20:58.023-04:002016-06-17T09:20:58.023-04:00I was a big fan of FANTASTIC during the Sixties. ...I was a big fan of FANTASTIC during the Sixties. But THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASTY & SF consistently published quality stories over the decades. And the Ed Ferman anthologies were top-notch. Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04546161337366365635noreply@blogger.com