Super-Science Fiction

Last updated
Super-Science Fiction
Super science fiction 195806 n10.jpg
Cover of the June 1958 issue; artwork by Kelly Freas
First issueDecember 1956;66 years ago (1956-12)
Final issueOctober 1959 (1959-10)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Super-Science Fiction was an American digest science fiction magazine published from 1956 to 1959, edited by W. W. Scott and published by Feature Publications. Robert Silverberg and Harlan Ellison, who were at the start of their careers at the time, were already selling crime stories to Scott for his other magazines, Trapped and Guilty, and quickly started bringing Scott science fiction stories as well. Scott bought scores of stories from the pair during the magazine's short life; much of the remainder was sent in by literary agents, and generally comprised material rejected by other magazines first, though Scott did obtain two stories from Isaac Asimov.

Contents

After a couple of years, Feature decided to switch the focus of the magazine to monster stories, hoping to cash in on the trend that was making Famous Monsters of Filmland a success at that time. Four more issues appeared, all the stories featuring a monster in some way, but Feature brought the axe down in 1959. The last issue was dated October that year. The magazine is not highly regarded by critics, though Silverberg considers the material he wrote for Scott and other action-adventure magazine publishers to have helped him learn his trade as a writer.

Publication history

In 1940, Feature Publications began publishing Prize Comics , and followed this with other successful superhero titles, including Frankenstein Comics and Headline Comics . The Comics Code, introduced in 1954, forced Feature to stop publication of all three titles by late 1956. Two crime magazines took their place: Trapped, under their Headline imprint, and Guilty. Both were edited by William W. Scott, who had come over to Feature from Fiction House, which had gone out of business in 1955. [note 1] Feature added Super-Science Fiction to Headline's list at the end of 1956, and gave it to Scott to edit, though he was not knowledgeable about the genre. [2] According to Robert Silverberg's later recollection, the new magazine had been Scott's idea, and Scott had persuaded Feature to launch it. [3] Scott paid two cents a word for both fiction and non-fiction, a rate that made the magazine competitive with the other major titles in the field. [4] [5]

Issues of Super-Science Fiction showing volume/issue number
YearJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
19561/1
19571/21/31/41/51/62/1
19582/22/32/42/52/63/1
19593/23/33/43/53/6
W. W. Scott was editor throughout.

Science fiction magazines proliferated during the 1950s, with dozens of new titles launched during the decade, [6] [7] but by the end of the decade the market was moving away from fiction magazines and towards paperbacks. [8] The popularity of TV and comics was another obstacle to success. Magazine distribution, which had to be reliable to support newsstand sales, was made far more difficult when a major distributor, American News Company, was liquidated in 1957. [8] Super-Science Fiction was fortunate in having independent distribution, [9] and so was able to avoid the worst effects of the change, but the disruption to the distribution business meant that smaller magazines could not always be reliably found on newsstands. [8]

The late 1950s also saw an increase in public interest in science fiction monster movies, such as Godzilla , or Attack of the 50 Foot Woman , and a new magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland , quickly became very successful. Other magazines, such as Monster Parade and Monsters and Things, tried to take advantage of the trend. [8] [9] Scott's response was to title the April 1959 issue of Super-Science Fiction a "Special Monster Issue", and to add a "Monster" banner to the cover of every subsequent issue. The move was a failure; only three more issues appeared before Feature Publications closed the magazine down. [8] [note 2] There have been no anthologies consisting solely of stories from the magazine, [11] but in 2012 a collection of Robert Silverberg's stories, titled Tales from Super-Science Fiction, appeared, with an introduction in which Silverberg reminisced about his involvement with the magazine. [12]

Contents and reception

In 1956, Harlan Ellison was living in uptown Manhattan, in the same apartment building as Robert Silverberg and Randall Garrett. [13] Early that year Ellison took Scott some stories that he had been unable to sell to Manhunt , a leading crime magazine, and Scott bought all of them for his crime titles, Trapped and Guilty. Silverberg and Ellison both began selling regularly to Scott, and that summer Scott let them know he had persuaded Feature Publications to add a science fiction title, which would pay the same high word rates as the crime magazines. [14] By the end of June Silverberg had sold Scott "Catch 'Em All Alive", a short story that appeared in the first issue of Super-Science Fiction, as well as some short non-fiction material that Scott used to fill gaps at the bottom of pages in the magazine. [15] Ellison also appeared in the first issue, with "Psycho at Mid-Point", as did Henry Slesar, whom Ellison had introduced to Scott. [16] Scott's editorial in the first issue claimed that the magazine would focus on people: "The Man of The Future is going to conquer the universe with his fists and fury." [11] Mike Ashley and Milton Subotsky, both science fiction historians, comment on the contradiction between the editorial and the contents of the first couple of issues, in many of which the protagonists fail, die, or go insane. [2] [11]

Both Silverberg and Ellison were producing work at high volume for the science fiction magazines active in the middle and late 1950s, and between them sold Scott nearly 40% of all the stories that appeared in the magazine. [2] [17] [18] [19] Silverberg also continued to sell Scott non-fiction filler material. [5] Several literary agents, including Harry Altshuler and Scott Meredith, sent Scott material that had been rejected by other magazines, [2] [20] and Silverberg later recalled one occasion on which he visited Scott in his office to find him laughing over one of these manuscripts. The agency had accidentally sent the manuscript's submission history along with the story, showing that it had been rejected eighteen times, starting in 1947, before reaching Scott, who also rejected it. [21] Ellison was drafted in 1957, but Silverberg's college exemption enabled him to continue writing for Scott, who eventually bought 36 stories from him, never rejecting a single submission. [5] [22] One exception to the rule that only rejected stories reached Scott was Isaac Asimov, who was turning to writing full-time, and was looking for new markets for his stories. Scott agreed to pay Asimov four cents a word, and bought two stories from him: "The Gentle Vultures", and "All the Troubles of the World", one of Asimov's stories about Multivac, a supercomputer. [2] [23] [24] [note 3] When the "Monster" banner was added to the cover, all stories had to have a monster appearing in them. Silverberg continued to produce stories for Scott to the end, providing twelve stories in the four monster-themed issues, all but one under a pseudonym. [10]

At the time Silverberg was producing action-adventure work for Scott and other editors, he was also writing more sophisticated stories for other science fiction markets such as Galaxy and Astounding , but he considers the space-adventure material he wrote to have been helpful in training him as a writer, and fun, recalling that he had "always had a sneaky fondness for the pulpier side of science fiction ... when the chance came to write a slew of fast-paced action stories for W.W. Scott's Super-Science Fiction, I jumped for it eagerly." [26] Silverberg's stories included titles such as "Creatures of Green Slime" and "Beasts of Nightmare Horror", but Ashley comments that Silverberg was too talented to write stories as bad as the titles suggested. [8]

Ashley describes Scott's selections as "an appalling mixture", [2] though he picks out two by Ellison, both in the second issue, as worthy of mention—"Mission: Hypnosis", and "The Untouchable Adolescents"—and also praises two other stories in the same issue: Charles de Vet's "Death of a Mutant", and James Gunn's "Every Day is Christmas". After that issue "the quality of the fiction dropped rapidly," [2] according to Ashley, though he adds that "there were just enough good stories to make Super-Science Fiction always interesting, if often disappointing," [2] picking out "Worlds of Origin", by Jack Vance, from his "Magnus Ridolph" series, and Asimov's "All the Troubles of the World" as highlights. [2] In Subotsky's words, Scott was "unable to tell good fiction from bad", [11] and the result was a magazine described by critic Brian Stableford as "mediocre". [27] Ashley suggests that the magazine's late focus on monster stories might be of interest to fans of monster movies, but that otherwise it was "one magazine too many, coming in the final wave of interest in science fiction magazines at the end of the 1950s at a time when readers were already turning to the paperback". [19]

Bibliographic details

The magazine was published by Feature Publications under its Headline imprint, and was edited by W. W. Scott for all eighteen issues. The first issue was dated December 1956; it was bimonthly, and ended with the October 1959 issue. The volume numbering was completely regular, with three volumes of six numbers each. [2] [27]

Notes

  1. ↑ In Robert Silverberg's reminiscences about the magazine he says Scott preferred to be called "Bill". He also says he thinks Scott had originally been a newspaperman before becoming a magazine editor. [1]
  2. ↑ Silverberg heard the news about the closure in March 1959. [10]
  3. ↑ When the story appeared, Asimov was annoyed to discover that his name was mis-spelled "Issac" on the cover. [25]

Related Research Articles

<i>Galaxy Science Fiction</i> American magazine (1950–1980)

Galaxy Science Fiction was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editions hired as editor H. L. Gold, who rapidly made Galaxy the leading science fiction magazine of its time, focusing on stories about social issues rather than technology.

<i>If</i> (magazine) American science-fiction magazine

If was an American science fiction magazine launched in March 1952 by Quinn Publications, owned by James L. Quinn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lester del Rey</span> American science fiction author (1915–1993)

Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.

<i>Amazing Stories</i> American science fiction magazine

Amazing Stories is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances in other magazines, including some published by Gernsback, but Amazing helped define and launch a new genre of pulp fiction.

<i>Asimovs Science Fiction</i> American science fiction magazine

Asimov's Science Fiction is an American science fiction magazine which publishes science fiction and fantasy named after science fiction author Isaac Asimov. It is currently published by Penny Publications. From January 2017, the publication frequency is bimonthly.

<i>The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction</i> American magazine

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a U.S. fantasy and science-fiction magazine, first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Press. Editors Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas had approached Spivak in the mid-1940s about creating a fantasy companion to Spivak's existing mystery title, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. The first issue was titled The Magazine of Fantasy, but the decision was quickly made to include science fiction as well as fantasy, and the title was changed correspondingly with the second issue. F&SF was quite different in presentation from the existing science-fiction magazines of the day, most of which were in pulp format: it had no interior illustrations, no letter column, and text in a single-column format, which in the opinion of science-fiction historian Mike Ashley "set F&SF apart, giving it the air and authority of a superior magazine".

<i>Unknown</i> (magazine) American pulp fantasy magazine published 1939–1943

Unknown was an American pulp fantasy fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1943 by Street & Smith, and edited by John W. Campbell. Unknown was a companion to Street & Smith's science fiction pulp, Astounding Science Fiction, which was also edited by Campbell at the time; many authors and illustrators contributed to both magazines. The leading fantasy magazine in the 1930s was Weird Tales, which focused on shock and horror. Campbell wanted to publish a fantasy magazine with more finesse and humor than Weird Tales, and put his plans into action when Eric Frank Russell sent him the manuscript of his novel Sinister Barrier, about aliens who own the human race. Unknown's first issue appeared in March 1939; in addition to Sinister Barrier, it included H. L. Gold's "Trouble With Water", a humorous fantasy about a New Yorker who meets a water gnome. Gold's story was the first of many in Unknown to combine commonplace reality with the fantastic.

<i>Planet Stories</i> 20th-century American pulp science fiction magazine

Planet Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House between 1939 and 1955. It featured interplanetary adventures, both in space and on some other planets, and was initially focused on a young readership. Malcolm Reiss was editor or editor-in-chief for all of its 71 issues. Planet Stories was launched at the same time as Planet Comics, the success of which probably helped to fund the early issues of Planet Stories. Planet Stories did not pay well enough to regularly attract the leading science fiction writers of the day, but occasionally obtained work from well-known authors, including Isaac Asimov and Clifford D. Simak. In 1952 Planet Stories published Philip K. Dick's first sale, and printed four more of his stories over the next three years.

<i>Startling Stories</i> US science fiction magazine

Startling Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by publisher Ned Pines' Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories, Standard's other science fiction title. Startling ran a lead novel in every issue; the first was The Black Flame by Stanley G. Weinbaum. When Standard Magazines acquired Thrilling Wonder in 1936, it also gained the rights to stories published in that magazine's predecessor, Wonder Stories, and selections from this early material were reprinted in Startling as "Hall of Fame" stories. Under Weisinger the magazine focused on younger readers and, when Weisinger was replaced by Oscar J. Friend in 1941, the magazine became even more juvenile in focus, with clichéd cover art and letters answered by a "Sergeant Saturn". Friend was replaced by Sam Merwin Jr. in 1945, and Merwin was able to improve the quality of the fiction substantially, publishing Arthur C. Clarke's Against the Fall of Night, and several other well-received stories.

The first Golden Age of Science Fiction, often recognized in the United States as the period from 1938 to 1946, was an era during which the science fiction genre gained wide public attention and many classic science fiction stories were published. In the history of science fiction, the Golden Age follows the "pulp era" of the 1920s and 1930s, and precedes New Wave science fiction of the 1960s and 1970s. The 1950s are a transitional period in this scheme; however, Robert Silverberg, who came of age in the 1950s, saw that decade as the true Golden Age.

<i>Infinity Science Fiction</i> 1950s US science fiction magazine

Infinity Science Fiction was an American science fiction magazine, edited by Larry T. Shaw, and published by Royal Publications. The first issue, which appeared in November 1955, included Arthur C. Clarke's "The Star", a story about a planet destroyed by a nova that turns out to have been the Star of Bethlehem; it won the Hugo Award for that year. Shaw obtained stories from some of the leading writers of the day, including Brian Aldiss, Isaac Asimov, and Robert Sheckley, but the material was of variable quality. In 1958 Irwin Stein, the owner of Royal Publications, decided to shut down Infinity; the last issue was dated November 1958.

<i>Super Science Stories</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

Super Science Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine published by Popular Publications from 1940 to 1943, and again from 1949 to 1951. Popular launched it under their Fictioneers imprint, which they used for magazines, paying writers less than one cent per word. Frederik Pohl was hired in late 1939, at 19 years old, to edit the magazine; he also edited Astonishing Stories, a companion science fiction publication. Pohl left in mid-1941 and Super Science Stories was given to Alden H. Norton to edit; a few months later Norton rehired Pohl as an assistant. Popular gave Pohl a very low budget, so most manuscripts submitted to Super Science Stories had already been rejected by the higher-paying magazines. This made it difficult to acquire good fiction, but Pohl was able to acquire stories for the early issues from the Futurians, a group of young science fiction fans and aspiring writers.

<i>Gilgamesh in the Outback</i> Science fiction novella by Robert Silverberg

Gilgamesh in the Outback is a science fiction novella by American writer Robert Silverberg, a sequel to his historical novel Gilgamesh the King as well as a story in the shared universe series Heroes in Hell. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1987 and was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1986. Originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction, it was then printed in Rebels in Hell before being incorporated into Silverberg's novel To the Land of the Living. Real-life writers Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft feature as characters in the novella.

<i>Analog Science Fiction and Fact</i> US science fiction magazine

Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled Astounding Stories of Super-Science, the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Clayton, and edited by Harry Bates. Clayton went bankrupt in 1933 and the magazine was sold to Street & Smith. The new editor was F. Orlin Tremaine, who soon made Astounding the leading magazine in the nascent pulp science fiction field, publishing well-regarded stories such as Jack Williamson's Legion of Space and John W. Campbell's "Twilight". At the end of 1937, Campbell took over editorial duties under Tremaine's supervision, and the following year Tremaine was let go, giving Campbell more independence. Over the next few years Campbell published many stories that became classics in the field, including Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, A. E. van Vogt's Slan, and several novels and stories by Robert A. Heinlein. The period beginning with Campbell's editorship is often referred to as the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

Astonishing Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Popular Publications between 1940 and 1943. It was founded under Popular's "Fictioneers" imprint, which paid lower rates than Popular's other magazines. The magazine's first editor was Frederik Pohl, who also edited a companion publication, Super Science Stories. After nine issues Pohl was replaced by Alden H. Norton, who subsequently rehired Pohl as an assistant. The budget for Astonishing was very low, which made it difficult to acquire good fiction, but through his membership in the Futurians, a group of young science fiction fans and aspiring writers, Pohl was able to find material to fill the early issues. The magazine was successful, and Pohl was able to increase his pay rates slightly within a year. He managed to obtain stories by writers who subsequently became very well known, such as Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. After Pohl entered the army in early 1943, wartime paper shortages led Popular to cease publication of Astonishing. The final issue was dated April of that year.

<i>Science Fiction Adventures</i> (1956 magazine) American digest-size science fiction magazine (1956–58)

Science Fiction Adventures was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published from 1956 to 1958 by Irwin Stein's Royal Publications as a companion to Infinity Science Fiction, which had been launched in 1955. Larry Shaw was the editor for all 12 issues. Science Fiction Adventures focused on longer fiction than appeared in Infinity; these were often labelled as novels, though they were rarely longer than 20,000 words. Shaw declared in his first editorial that he wanted to bring back a "sense of wonder", and he printed straightforward action-adventure stories. Two other magazines of the period, Imagination and Imaginative Tales, had similar editorial approaches, but science fiction historian Mike Ashley considers that Science Fiction Adventures' fiction was the best of the three. Robert Silverberg was a prolific contributor, under his own name and under the pseudonym "Calvin M. Knox", and he also collaborated with Randall Garrett on two stories in the first issue, under two different pseudonyms. Other well-known writers occasionally appeared, including Harlan Ellison, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Algis Budrys, and Harry Harrison. Ed Emshwiller contributed cover art for nine of the twelve issues, and one of the other three was among John Schoenherr's earliest sales.

<i>Marvel Science Stories</i> American pulp science fiction magazine

Marvel Science Stories was an American pulp magazine that ran for a total of fifteen issues in two separate runs, both edited by Robert O. Erisman. The publisher for the first run was Postal Publications, and the second run was published by Western Publishing; both companies were owned by Abraham and Martin Goodman. The first issue was dated August 1938, and carried stories with more sexual content than was usual for the genre, including several stories by Henry Kuttner, under his own name and also under pseudonyms. Reaction was generally negative, with one reader referring to Kuttner's story "The Time Trap" as "trash". This was the first of several titles featuring the word "Marvel", and Marvel Comics came from the same stable in the following year.

<i>Two Complete Science-Adventure Books</i> US pulp science fiction magazine

Two Complete Science-Adventure Books was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published by Fiction House, which lasted for eleven issues between 1950 and 1954 as a companion to Planet Stories. Each issue carried two novels or long novellas. It was initially intended to carry only reprints, but soon began to publish original stories. Contributors included Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Poul Anderson, John Brunner, and James Blish. The magazine folded in 1954, almost at the end of the pulp era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of US science fiction and fantasy magazines to 1950</span> Science-fiction and fantasy magazine history

Science-fiction and fantasy magazines began to be published in the United States in the 1920s. Stories with science-fiction themes had been appearing for decades in pulp magazines such as Argosy, but there were no magazines that specialized in a single genre until 1915, when Street & Smith, one of the major pulp publishers, brought out Detective Story Magazine. The first magazine to focus solely on fantasy and horror was Weird Tales, which was launched in 1923, and established itself as the leading weird fiction magazine over the next two decades; writers such as H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard became regular contributors. In 1926 Weird Tales was joined by Amazing Stories, published by Hugo Gernsback; Amazing printed only science fiction, and no fantasy. Gernsback included a letter column in Amazing Stories, and this led to the creation of organized science-fiction fandom, as fans contacted each other using the addresses published with the letters. Gernsback wanted the fiction he printed to be scientifically accurate, and educational, as well as entertaining, but found it difficult to obtain stories that met his goals; he printed "The Moon Pool" by Abraham Merritt in 1927, despite it being completely unscientific. Gernsback lost control of Amazing Stories in 1929, but quickly started several new magazines. Wonder Stories, one of Gernsback's titles, was edited by David Lasser, who worked to improve the quality of the fiction he received. Another early competitor was Astounding Stories of Super-Science, which appeared in 1930, edited by Harry Bates, but Bates printed only the most basic adventure stories with minimal scientific content, and little of the material from his era is now remembered.

<i>Fantasy Book</i> American science fiction magazine (1947–1951)

Fantasy Book was a semi-professional American science fiction magazine that published eight issues between 1947 and 1951. The editor was William Crawford, and the publisher was Crawford's Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. Crawford had problems distributing the magazine, and his budget limited the quality of the paper he could afford and the artwork he was able to buy, but he attracted submissions from some well-known writers, including Isaac Asimov, Frederik Pohl, A. E. van Vogt, Robert Bloch, and L. Ron Hubbard. The best-known story to appear in the magazine was Cordwainer Smith's first sale, "Scanners Live in Vain", which was later included in the first Science Fiction Hall of Fame anthology, and is now regarded as one of Smith's finest works. Jack Gaughan, later an award-winning science fiction artist, made his first professional sale to Fantasy Book, for the cover illustrating Smith's story.

References

  1. ↑ Silverberg (2012), p. xvi.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Ashley (2005), pp. 167–69.
  3. ↑ Silverberg (2012), p. xv.
  4. ↑ Silverberg (2012), p. xiv.
  5. 1 2 3 Silverberg (2012), p. xvii.
  6. ↑ Ashley (1977), pp. 323–25.
  7. ↑ Ashley (1978), pp. 270–271.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Ashley (2005), pp. 186–89.
  9. 1 2 Silverberg (2012), pp. xxii–xxiii.
  10. 1 2 Silverberg (2012), p. xxv.
  11. 1 2 3 4 Subotsky (1985), pp. 629–31.
  12. ↑ Silverberg (2012), pp. xiii–xxvi.
  13. ↑ Silverberg (2012), pp. xiii–xiv.
  14. ↑ Silverberg (2012), pp. xiv–xv.
  15. ↑ Silverberg (2012), pp. xvi–xvii.
  16. ↑ Silverberg (2012), p. xviii.
  17. ↑ Stableford, Brian; Clute, John (March 17, 2020). "Authors : Silverberg, Robert : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  18. ↑ Clute, John (May 12, 2020). "Authors : Ellison, Harlan : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  19. 1 2 Ashley, Mike (March 16, 2020). "Culture : Super-Science Fiction : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia". The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . Retrieved May 17, 2020.
  20. ↑ Silverberg (2012), p. xix.
  21. ↑ Silverberg (2012), p. xx.
  22. ↑ Silverberg (2012), pp. xx–xxi.
  23. ↑ Asimov (1979), p. 663.
  24. ↑ Silverberg (2012), pp. xxi–xxii.
  25. ↑ Asimov (1980), p. 117.
  26. ↑ Silverberg (2012), p. xxvi.
  27. 1 2 Stableford (1981), p. 585.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.