The first issue of Fantastic to retail for 50c (up from 35c for the April issue; they all but apologize in a footnote on page 70, and note the subscription price remains $2.99 for a year's 12 issues), not, in 1963, an insignificant jump; F&SF would not go to 5oc an issue till the January 1965 number...but it had held at 40c for a while. The second of the irregularly-appearing special author-highlighting F&SF issues, after Theodore Sturgeon's in 1962. A Fritz Leiber issue of F&SF would appear in 1969; Fantastic had an issue devoted entirely to Leiber fiction in 1959, and the notable horror/fantasy little magazine Whispers would highlight Leiber in 1979.
Slightly augmented listings from ISFDB:
- The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1963
(View All Issues) (View Issue Grid) - Editor: Avram Davidson
- Date: 1963-05-00
- Publisher: Mercury Press, Inc.
- Price: $0.40
- Pages: 132
- Format: digest
- Type: MAGAZINE
- Cover: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1963 by Joseph Mugnaini [as by Joe Mugnaini]
- Webpages: archive.org (where this issue can be read)
- 4 • In This Issue...Coming Next Month (F&SF, May 1963) • essay by Avram Davidson
- 5 • Introduction (Special Ray Bradbury Section) • essay by Avram Davidson
- 7 • Bradbury: Prose Poet in the Age of Space • essay by William F. Nolan
- 22 • Bradbury Film Wins Academy Award Nomination • essay by uncredited
- 23 • Bright Phoenix • short story by Ray Bradbury
- 30 • To the Chicago Abyss • short story by Ray Bradbury
- 40 • An Index to Works of Ray Bradbury • essay by William F. Nolan
- 52 • Mrs. Pigafetta Swims Well • (The Peninsula Spectator [Carmel Valley, CA newspaper] 1959) • short story by Reginald Bretnor [as by R. Bretnor]
- 58 • Through Time and Space with Ferdinand Feghoot: LXII • [Ferdinand Feghoot • 63] • short story by Reginald Bretnor [as by Grendel Briarton]
- 59 • Newton Said • short story by Jack Thomas Leahy
- 65 • Underfollow • short story by John Jakes
- 75 • Atomic Reaction • poem by Sharon Webb [as by Ron Webb]
- 76 • Now Wakes the Sea • short story by J. G. Ballard
- 86 • Watch the Bug-Eyed Monster • short story by Don White
- 91 • Treaty in Tartessos • short story by Karen Anderson
- 96 • Books (F&SF, May 1963) • [Books (F&SF)] • essay by Avram Davidson
- 96 • Review: R Is for Rocket by Ray Bradbury • review by Avram Davidson
- 97 • Review of nonfictional "Careers in Astronautics and Rocketry" by C. C. Adams and Wernher von Braun • essay by Avram Davidson
- 98 • Review: Podkayne of Mars by Robert A. Heinlein • review by Avram Davidson
- 98 • Review: Anything You Can Do ... by Randall Garrett [as by Darrell T. Langart] • review by Avram Davidson
- 100 • Just Mooning Around • [Asimov's Essays: F&SF] • essay by Isaac Asimov
- 111 • No Trading Voyage • poem by Doris Pitkin Buck
- 113 • Niña Sol • short story by Felix Marti-Ibañez
- Fantastic: Stories of Imagination, May 1963
(View All Issues) (View Issue Grid) - Editor: Cele Goldsmith
- Date: 1963-05-00
- Publisher: Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
- Price: $0.50
- Pages: 132
- Format: digest
- Type: MAGAZINE
- Cover: Fantastic: Stories of Imagination, May 1963 by Vernon Kramer
- Notes: Vol 12, No 5. Cover illustrates "Devils in the Walls" noted on the Contents/copyright page
- Webpages: Luminist Archives (where this issue can be read)
- 4 • According to You ... (Fantastic, May 1963) • letter column conducted by Cele Goldsmith and Norman M. Lobsenz; letters from Bob Adolfsen, Nat Rapport and P. B. Riley
- 5 • Editorial (Fantastic, May 1963) • [Editorial (Fantastic)] • essay by Norman M. Lobsenz: in part a recommendation of Robert Bloch's collection of fannish writing The Eighth Stage of Fandom (Advent: Publishers 1962)
- 6 • Devils in the Walls • [Brak the Barbarian] • novelette by John Jakes
- 6 • Devils in the Walls • interior artwork by Vernon Kramer
- 21 • The Cloud of Hate • [Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser] • short story by Fritz Leiber
- 23 • The Cloud of Hate • interior artwork by Leo Summers
- 34 • The Message • novelette by Edward Wellen
- 34 • The Message • interior artwork by George Schelling [as by Schelling]
- 67 • Threshold of the Prophet • short story by Roger Zelazny
- 72 • Anything for Laughs • short story by Ron Goulart (variant of Joker for Hire)
- 72 • Anything for Laughs • interior artwork by Jacquelyn Blair [as Blair]
- 90 • One False Step • [Moderan] • short story by David R. Bunch
- 91 • One False Step • interior artwork by Leo Summers [as by Summers]
- 95 • Coming Next Month (Fantastic, May 1963) • essay by uncredited
- 96 • The Screams of the Wergs • short story by John Jakes [as by Jay Scotland]
- 96 • The Screams of the Wergs • interior artwork by Dan Adkins [as by Adkins]
- 110 • Monologue for Two • short story by Roger Zelazny [as by Harrison Denmark]
- 112 • Professor Jonkin's Cannibal Plant: Introduction • essay by Sam Moskowitz
- 113 • Professor Jonkin's Cannibal Plant • [Professor Jonkin] • (The Argosy, August 1905) • short story by Howard R. Garis
- 115 • Professor Jonkin's Cannibal Plant • interior artwork by Dan Adkins [as by Adkins]
- 123 • Love Story • short story by Laurence M. Janifer
- bc • The Message [bc] • interior artwork by George Schelling [as by Schelling]
Both magazines look very interesting. The first one seems to have lots of essays, which sound good. Also the Ray Bradbury stories, although to be honest I have yet to have a lot of luck with short stories by that author.
ReplyDeleteWell, F&SF regularly has had some good to great columnists, Avram Davidson's book reviews during his editorship of the magazine among the most interesting that they have run (he would return as an occasional reviewer during his successor Edward Ferman's long editorial reign). But these special issues highlighting a single author will have material on those writers...Bradbury is often a taste cultivated in youth, since so much of his appeal is kind of built around youthful exuberance, down to the gush of much of the prose, but at his best, he can be very effective for nearly any reader.
ReplyDeleteFANTASTIC would cultivate some interesting columnists particularly in later years, as well (Ted White was the editor for nearly all the 1970s, and Fritz Leiber was the primary book reviewer for the magazine in that decade, even if the column would not appear in every issue, but was welcome whenever it did; White himself and others would also contribute. L. Sprague de Camp, and Alexei Panshin (later in collaboration with Cory Panshin) also had columns, particularly in the early '7os, which had some controversy about them, as did White's editorials.
I enjoyed the F&SF issues devoted to one SF writer. I might still have the issue with Fritz Leiber on the cover. And, I did have that FANTASTIC with the Bram the Barbaran story by John Jakes. It now resides at SUNY at Buffalo's SPECIAL LIBRARIES collection.
ReplyDeleteStill only a ways into the Brak story by Jakes...it's tough making one's hero almost invincible, and yet needing for him to be capable of being captured/challenged...it's one of the more handsome covers the Goldsmith Lalli FANTASTIC sported (as with many, I suspect, till now I'm rooting for the spectral leopard). The responses to Brak stories are all over the map...the consensus is that Jakes's s&s was not of the same caliber as Leiber's, Vance's, Karl Wagner's nor Janet Fox's, but, then, few others' were.
ReplyDeleteWhat serendipity. Just today in the latest batch of FANAC uploads there's a fanzine with a letter from Avram Davidson as F&SF editor bemoaning that Bradbury's rates have largely priced him out of sf magazines.
ReplyDeletehttps://fanac.org/fanzines/Twilight_Zine/twilight_zine_7_morris_1962-09.pdf
(p.31)
- matthew davis
Thanks for the citation! Alas, expense wasn't the only problem with much of Bradbury's work by the early '60s...albeit his tendency to provide less than inspired poetry in response to solicitation would become a default some years later.
ReplyDelete