- Fantasy Magazine [v1 #1, March 1953] (35¢, 160pp+, digest, cover by Hannes Bok) []
- 2 · Things That Go Foomp · Lester del Rey · ed
- 4 · The Black Stranger [Conan] · Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp & Lester del Rey · na; illustrated by Orban
abridged, edited by de Camp and rewritten by Del Rey from “The Black Stranger” by Howard (Echoes of Valor ed. Karl Edward Wagner, Tor, 1987). - 73 · Too Gloomy for Private Pushkin · Richard Deming · ss; illustrated by Kelly Freas
- 82 · The Demons · Robert Sheckley · ss; illustrated by Ebel
- 93 · Ashtaru the Terrible · Poul Anderson · nv; illustrated by Emsh
- 112 · Feeding Time · Finn O’Donnevan (Robert Sheckley) · ss; illustrated by M. Berwin
- 117 · The Night Shift · Frank Robinson · ss; illustrated by H. R. Smith
- 126 · Dragon Fires · Steve Frazee · nv; illustrated by H. R. Smith
Given as February 1953 in the Table of Contents.
One of the more promising fantasy fiction magazines to arise in the early '50s post-F&SF/Galaxy boom of fantastic-fiction magazines was the (sadly, four-issue run only) of Fantasy Magazine, which with its second issue changed its title to Fantasy Fiction, presumably due to legal pressure from one party or another--not the best way to help readers find the next issue (an even more short-lived and less impressive magazine called Fantasy Fiction had published two issues in 1950; it also leaned a bit on crime-fiction amphibians in its first issue, particularly). With a Robert Howard/Conan cover story "completed" by old hands L. Sprague de Camp and editor del Rey, and otherwise filling the first issue with young lions from fantastic fiction (and, as hinted above. a couple, Frazee and Deming, already more famous for their western and/or crime fiction) and with a striking Bok cover, the magazine couldn't overcome the crowding of the newsstands, and undercapitalization will and did out.
The stories I've read so far are more promising than brilliant, but I'm not sorry I've spent the time. Richard Deming's "Too Gloomy for Private Pushkin" has excellent detail in its WW2 setting, and Deming is game to introduce the fantasticated elements sparingly, even if the climax might feel a bit rushed vs. the build-up. Frank Robinson's "The Night Shift" lays its hardboiled-reporters-and-cops patter on a bit thick, and rushes its ending, but is clever enough. "Feeding Time", the shortest story in the issue, isn't quite clever enough for most readers not to see the punch coming; one guesses that's why Robert Sheckley chose to employ his pseudonym on this one, albeit it has a nice attention to detail, in describing a particularly odd, surprisingly large old bookshop.
For more of today's Short Story Wednesday entries (two shots of Jerry House this week), please see Patti Abbott's blog.
