Fantastic (magazine)

Fantastic was an American digest-size fantasy and science fiction magazine, published from 1952 to 1980. It was founded by the publishing company Ziff Davis as a fantasy companion to Amazing Stories. Early sales were good, and the company quickly decided to switch Amazing from pulp format to digest, and to cease publication of their other fantasy/science fiction pulp, Fantastic Adventures, which was merged with Fantastic. Within a few years sales fell, and Howard Browne, the editor, was forced to switch the focus to science fiction rather than fantasy. Browne lost interest in the magazine as a result and the magazine generally ran poorer-quality fiction in the mid-1950s, under Browne and his successor, Paul W. Fairman.

At the end of the 1950s, Cele Goldsmith took over as editor of both Fantastic and Amazing Stories, and quickly invigorated the magazines, bringing in many new writers and making them, in the words of one science fiction historian, the "best-looking and brightest" magazines in the field. The number of science fiction magazines grew quickly, and several new titles appeared over the next few years, among them Fantastic Adventures, which was launched by Ziff Davis in 1939 as a companion to Amazing. Under the editorship of Raymond Palmer, the magazines were reasonably successful but published poor-quality work; when Howard Browne took over as editor of Amazing in January 1950, he decided to try to move the magazine upmarket. Ziff Davis agreed to back the new magazine, and Browne put together a sample copy, but, when the Korean War broke out, Ziff Davis cut their budgets and the project was abandoned. Browne did not give up, and in 1952 received the go-ahead to try a new magazine instead, focused on high-quality fantasy,

Early years

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 11pt; margin-left: 2em; text-align: center; float: right"

! !! !!colspan="3"| Spring !!colspan="3"| Summer !!colspan="3"| Fall!!colspan="2"| Winter

! !!Jan !! Feb !!Mar !!Apr !!May !!Jun !!Jul !!Aug !!Sep !!Oct !!Nov !!Dec

!1952

|| || || || || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|1/1 || || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|1/2 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|1/3 ||

!1953

|bgcolor=#ccffff|2/1 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|2/2 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|2/3 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|2/4 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|2/5 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|2/6 ||

!1954

|bgcolor=#ccffff|3/1 || || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|3/2 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|3/3 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|3/4 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|3/5 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|3/6

!1955

|| ||bgcolor=#ccffff|4/1 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|4/2 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|4/3 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|4/4 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|4/5 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|4/6

!1956

|| ||bgcolor=#ccffff|5/1 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|5/2 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|5/3 || ||bgcolor=#ccffff|5/4 || ||bgcolor=#ffff99|5/5 || ||bgcolor=#ffff99|5/6

!1957

|| ||bgcolor=#ffff99|6/1 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|6/2 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|6/3 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|6/4 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|6/5 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|6/6 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|6/7 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|6/8 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|6/9 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|6/10 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|6/11

!1958

|bgcolor=#ffff99|7/1 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|7/2 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|7/3 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|7/4 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|7/5 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|7/6 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|7/7 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|7/8 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|7/9 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|7/10 ||bgcolor=#ffff99|7/11 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|7/12

!1959

|bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/1 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/2 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/3 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/4 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/5 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/6 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/7 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/8 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/9 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/10 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/11 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|8/12

!1960

|bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/1 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/2 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/3 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/4 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/5||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/6 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/7 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/8 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/9 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/10 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/11 ||bgcolor=#ccc0d0|9/12

|colspan="13" style="font-size: 8pt; text-align:left"|Issues of Fantastic through 1960, identifying volume and issue numbers, and indicating editors: in sequence, Howard Browne, Paul Fairman, and Cele Goldsmith. Underlining indicates that an issue was titled as a quarterly (i.e., "Fall 1952") rather than as a monthly.

Sales were very good, and Ziff Davis was sufficiently impressed after only two issues to move the magazine from a quarterly to a bimonthly schedule, and to switch Amazing from pulp format to digest-size to match Fantastic. Shortly afterwards the decision was taken to eliminate Fantastic Adventures: the March 1953 issue was the last, and the May–June 1953 issue of Fantastic added a mention of Fantastic Adventures to the masthead, though this ceased with the following issue. The experiment with quality fiction did not last. Circulation dropped, which led to budget cuts, and in turn the quality of the fiction fell. Browne had wanted to separate Fantastic from Amazings pulp roots, but now found he had to print more science fiction (sf) and less fantasy in order to attract Amazings readers to its sister magazine.

In May 1956, Browne left Ziff Davis to become a screenwriter. Paul W. Fairman took over as editor of both Fantastic and Amazing. In 1957, Bernard Davis left Ziff Davis; it had been Davis who had suggested the acquisition of Amazing in 1939, and he had stayed involved with the sf magazines throughout the time he spent there. With his departure Amazing and Fantastic stagnated; they were still issued monthly, but drew no attention from the management of Ziff Davis.

Mid-1950s to late 1960s

In November 1955, Ziff Davis hired an assistant, Cele Goldsmith, who began by helping with two new magazines under development, Dream World and Pen Pals. She also read the slush piles for all the magazines, and was quickly given more responsibility. In 1957, she was made managing editor of both Amazing and Fantastic, doing administrative chores and reading unsolicited manuscripts. At the end of 1958, she became editor, replacing Fairman, who had left to become managing editor of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.|group=notes Cohen had decided to make the magazines as profitable as possible by filling them only with reprints. This was possible because Ziff Davis had acquired second serial rights for all stories they had published, and since Cohen had bought the backfile of stories he was able to reprint them using these rights. Using reprints in this way saved Cohen about a year between the two magazines. Cohen had met Wrzos at the Galaxy offices not long before; Wrzos was teaching English full-time, but had worked for Gnome Press as an assistant editor in 1953–1954. White's unhappiness with his working conditions culminated in his resignation after Cohen refused his proposal to publish Fantastic as a slick magazine, with larger pages and higher quality paper. Cohen was able to persuade him to stay for another year; in the event White stayed for another three. White renewed his suggestions for improving the format of the magazine: he wanted to make Fantastic the same size as Time, and believed he could avoid the mistakes that had been made by other sf magazines that had tried that approach. White also proposed an increase in the budget and asked for a raise. Bernhard not only turned down White's ideas, but also stopped paying him: White responded by resigning. His last official day as editor was November 9; the last issue of Fantastic under his control was the January 1979 issue. He returned all submissions to their authors, saying that he had been told to do so by Bernhard; Bernhard denied this.

In August 2014, Warren Lapine, former editor of Absolute Magnitude, Realms of Fantasy, and Weird Tales, revived the Fantastic logotype of Fantastic Stories of the Imagination as a free webzine.

Contents and reception

Browne and Fairman

right|thumb|Cover of first issue; artwork by Barye Phillips and Leo Summers.The first issue of Fantastic was impressive, with a cover that sf historian Mike Ashley has described as "one of the most captivating of all first issues"; the painting, by Barye Phillips and Leo Summers, illustrated Kris Neville's "The Opal Necklace". The fiction included some stories by well known names; in particular, Raymond Chandler's "Professor Bingo's Snuff" would have caught readers' eyes—the story had appeared the year before in Park East magazine, but would have been new to most readers. It was a short mystery in which the fantasy element was invisibility, achieved by magical snuff. Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury also contributed stories, and the issue led with "Six and Ten Are Johnny", by Walter M. Miller. The rear cover reprinted Pierre Roy's painting "Danger on the Stairs", which depicted a snake on a staircase; it was an odd choice, but subsequent back covers were more natural fits for a fantasy magazine. The quality of the fiction continued to be high for the first year; sf historian Mike Ashley comments that almost every story in the first seven issues was of high quality, Science fiction bibliographer Donald Tuck dissents, however, regarding the first few years as containing "little of note",

Other well-known writers appeared in the early issues, including Shirley Jackson, B. Traven, Truman Capote and Evelyn Waugh. Browne was uninterested in science fiction, however, and the quality of the fiction soon dropped, with a small stable of writers producing much of Fantastics fiction under house names over the next couple of years. but there was some inventiveness evident from newer writers such as Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison and Randall Garrett.

Fairman devoted the July 1958 issue of Fantastic to the Shaver Mystery—a lurid set of beliefs propounded by Richard Shaver in the late 1940s that told of "detrimental robots", or "deros", who were behind many of the disasters that befell humanity. Most of these stories had run in Amazing, though the editor at that time, Ray Palmer, had been forced to drop Shaver by Ziff Davis when the stories began to attract ridicule in the press. Fantastic readers were no kinder, complaining vigorously.

Goldsmith

When Goldsmith took over as editor, there was some concern at Ziff Davis that she might not be able to handle the job. A consultant, Norman Lobsenz, was brought in to help her; Lobsenz's title was "editorial director", but in fact Goldsmith made the story selections. Lobsenz provided blurbs and editorials, read the stories Goldsmith bought, and met with Goldsmith every week or so. Goldsmith was not a long-time sf reader, and knew little about the field; she simply looked for good quality fiction and bought what she liked. In Mike Ashley's words, "the result, between 1961 and 1964, was the two most exciting and original magazines in the field". New writers whose first story appeared in Fantastic during this period included Phyllis Gotlieb, Larry Eisenberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Thomas M. Disch, and Piers Anthony. Not all Goldsmith's choices were universally popular with the magazine's subscribers: she regularly published fiction by David R. Bunch, for example, to mixed reviews from the readership. In addition to experimental work, White was able to obtain material by some of the leading sf writers of the day, including Brian Aldiss and John Brunner. Instead a four-page comic strip by Jay Kinney appeared in December 1970; a second strip, by Art Spiegelman, was planned, but never published.

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! Start month

! End month

! Cover

! Spine

! Indicia

! Masthead

! Number of issues

|Summer–52

|Feb–55

| style="background:#dbeef3;"| Fantastic

| rowspan="9" style="background:#dbeef3;"| Fantastic

| rowspan="8" style="background:#dbeef3;"| Fantastic

| 16

|Apr–55

|Oct–55

| style="background:#ddd9c3;"| Fantastic Science-Fiction

| 4

|Dec–55

| style="background:#dbeef3;"| Fantastic

| 1

|Feb–56

|Aug–56

| style="background:#ddd9c3;"| Fantastic Science-Fiction

| 4

|Oct–56

| style="background:#dbeef3;"| Fantastic

| 1

|Dec–56

|Sep–57

| style="background:#ddd9c3;"| Fantastic Science-Fiction

| 9

|Oct–57

|Feb–58

| style="background:#e5e0ec;"| Fantastic Science Fiction

| 5

|Mar–58

|Aug–59

| style="background:#dbeef3;"| Fantastic

| 18

|Sep–59

|Dec–59

| rowspan="2" style="background:#fde9d9;"| Fantastic Science Fiction Stories

| 4

|Jan–60

|Sep–60

| style="background:#fde9d9;"| Fantastic Science Fiction Stories

| 9

|Oct–60

|Jun–65

| style="background:#fcd5b4;"| Fantastic Stories of Imagination

| rowspan="11" style="background:#dbeef3;"| Fantastic

| style="background:#fcd5b4;"| Fantastic Stories of Imagination

| 57

|Sep–65

|Dec–69

| style="background:#eab8b8;"| Fantastic Science Fiction – Fantasy

| rowspan="3" style="background:#e3ecd0;"| Fantastic Stories

| rowspan="2" style="background:#eab8b8;"| Fantastic Science Fiction – Fantasy

| 26

|Feb–70

|Apr–71

| style="background:#8db4e3;"| Fantastic Stories Science Fiction – Fantasy

| 8

|Jun–71

|Apr–72

| rowspan="4" style="background:#ff9;"| Fantastic Stories Science Fiction & Fantasy

| rowspan="5" style="background:#ff9;"| Fantastic Stories Science Fiction & Fantasy

| 6

|Jun–72

| style="background:#ff9;"| Fantastic Stories Science Fiction & Fantasy

| 1

|Aug–72

| style="background:#e3ecd0;"| Fantastic Stories

| 1

|Oct–72

|Feb–75

| style="background:#ff9;"| Fantastic Stories Science Fiction & Fantasy

| 14

|Apr–75

|Jun–77

| style="background:#b0ca7c;"| Fantastic Stories Sword & Sorcery and Fantasy

| style="background:#f5dbdb;"| Fantastic Stories Swords & Sorcery and Fantasy

| 11

|Sep–77

|Oct–78

| style="background:#e3ecd0;"| Fantastic Stories

| style="background:#b0ca7c;"| Fantastic Stories Sword & Sorcery and Fantasy

| 5

|Jan–79

| style="background:#ff9;"| Fantastic Stories Science Fiction & Fantasy

| 1

|Apr–79

|Oct–80

| style="background:#e5e0ec;"| Fantastic Science Fiction

| style="background:#e3ecd0;"| Fantastic Stories

| style="background:#e5e0ec;"| Fantastic Science Fiction

| 7

The following table shows which issues appeared from which publisher.

{|class="wikitable"

! Year !! Editor !! Title !! Publisher

|1967 || Ivan Howard || Time Untamed || Belmont: New York

|1973 || Ted White || The Best From Fantastic || Manor Books: New York

|1987 || Martin H. Greenberg & Patrick Lucien Price || Fantastic Stories: Tales of the Weird and Wondrous || TSR: Lake Geneva, Wisconsin

Early years

Mid-1950s to late 1960s

Contents and reception

Browne and Fairman

Goldsmith

Notes