Early Magazines in Your Collection (Astounding, Galaxy, etc.)

Alex The G and T said:
It seems that most of the handful of other old mags that I happen to have acquired are also Simak related. This one turned up, quite by accident, today. I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I'd forgotten I had it.

I have a few more to post later on; but this one is.... what it is...

The Freas cover captures the essence of the story perfectly.


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A genius piece of writing was well-mated to a genius piece of artwork -- that took a genius editor.

(Notice the beast-less saddle: it seems to have been a concept that Cliff Simak liked, for he would use it again later...)
 
Alex The G and T said:
It seems that most of the handful of other old mags that I happen to have acquired are also Simak related. This one turned up, quite by accident, today. I'm a bit embarrassed to say that I'd forgotten I had it.

I have a few more to post later on; but this one is.... what it is...

The Freas cover captures the essence of the story perfectly.


View attachment 50000
Click to expand...
Alex, would you consider putting this in the Simak thread? I expect our friends there who aren't in this thread would love to see it...
 
Yep, I've got this issue of Astounding, the cover is an illustration of Simak's Hugo winning story "The Big Front Yard" which I've mentioned before on the Simak thread.
It's still one of my favorites!
 
Alex The G and T said:
First installment of Simak's four part serial, later published as the novel Time is the Simplest Thing.
No, I don't have the follow up editions.

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Alex gave us the above (the magazine containing the first installment of THE FISHERMAN) a few days back, and commented that he didn't have the rest of that serial. So I thought I'd give you the others:

1a Fisherman 2 IMG_0474 (1).JPG
1a Fisherman 3 IMG_0473 (1).JPG
1a Fisherman 4 IMG_0472 (1).JPG
 
The old days of science fiction and fantasy which exited on the the edge and the fringe , must have been exciting times for its reading audience which, wasn't so large as today audience . In that era, anything and everything seemed possible . The covers and their artistry and wondrous visions of future and alien worlds ,the stories with the authors ,some familiar and many more forgotten. It was a Golden Age, and one whose like we will never see again.
 
I've obtained a few other old magazines from antique/collectable sources since starting this thread, so thought I'd post. I'm quite attracted to some of the older issues of Astounding from the Golden Age. The ones I first posted at the start of the thread are certainly the most valuable, but these here were not pennies and are very good condition examples.

The first is Astounding Science Fiction from October 1943, and includes The Storm as the cover story, by van Vogt, which is complimented by a great line up including complete stories by 'Lewis Padgett' (Kuttner and Moore), Eric Frank Russell, Fredric Brown and Frank Belnap Long.

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This was bang in the middle of the Golden Age, in which so many notable names were publishing often - no wonder the line up includes so many big names.
 
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The 1943 Astounding (shown in the previous post) was in what's known as pulp format, which was larger than the digest-size format used from November '43 onwards (until the modern day). Pulp format was approximately 165 x 235 mm, while the digest size issues they switched to, such as these issues from 1946 and 1949, were 145 x 195 mm.

These issues are in good condition - the 1949 is extremely good, which I like.

IMG_2375.JPG


You can see from the contents page from December 1946, below, that Eric Frank Russell, van Vogt and Kuttner & Moore are still going strong, all being represented again.

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It's a sentimentality of mine, but I also enjoy finding Asimov stories originally published in old magazines, and find anything containing an Asimov as being inherently more collectable for me. The January 1949 Astounding contains one I don't think I'm familiar with (The Red Queen's Race) - a bonus:

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REF: Bick
Don't think I've got Astounding October 1943, the war time ones are so hard to get hold of, especially this side of the pond, which is a pity as there are some great stories in there, I love the Padgett (Kuttner) story, one of my favorites, as well as Russell and Brown, they just don't make authors like these nowadays!
P.S. The Russell story is one of four in the series collected in his book "Men, Martians And Machines", look it up on Wiki, about the interstellar adventures of the the ship Upskadaska City, know to its crew as the Uppsy Daisy, I really like his idea of Martians in this one, recommended!!!
The Padgett (Henry Kuttner) is one of two or three stories he wrote about an inventor who would invent things while drunk, but couldn't remember what they were for when sober, the only other story of this character I can remember is I think called "Time Locker".
 
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Great review of the issue stories bob, much appreciated. I only recently obtained this, so haven’t read it, but I shall keep it on my bedside table and go through this one cover to cover.
 
BigBadBob141 said:
REF: Bick
Don't think I've got Astounding October 1943, the war time ones are so hard to get hold of, especially this side of the pond, which is a pity as there are some great stories in there, I love the Padgett (Kuttner) story, one of my favorites, as well as Russell and Brown, they just don't make authors like these nowadays!
P.S. The Russell story is one of four in the series collected in his book "Men, Martians And Machines", look it up on Wiki, about the interstellar adventures of the the ship Upskadaska City, know to its crew as the Uppsy Daisy, I really like his idea of Martians in this one, recommended!!!
The Padgett (Henry Kuttner) is one of two or three stories he wrote about an inventor who would invent things while drunk, but couldn't remember what they were for when sober, the only other story of this character I can remember is I think called "Time Locker".
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MEN, MARTIANS, AND MACHINES was one of the books that I discovered early in my addiction to sf; it definitely has influenced my reading and my life!
 
50485


This one also belongs to the Simak estate -- of course, that's because it contains a Simak story ("The Voice in the Void").

WONDER STORIES QUARTERLY was, like WONDER STORIES, a Hugo Gernsback production. The issue shown is vol. 3, no. 3, from Spring, 1932.
The cover illustrates the story "The Vanguard to Neptune," by J.M. Walsh. It makes up nearly half the magazine (which is half an inch thick, more than twice the size of the regular WONDER STORIES issues that I've seen).
(I should add that both varieties of WS were larger than more regular sf magazines -- like the "bedsheet" format that popped up now an again in sf magazine publishing over the years. The issue shown measured 8.5 x 11-3/8 x .5 inches.
This issue also featured stories by Manly Wade Wellman and Jack Williamson (just mentioning names we might recognize...).
There's no indication who did that cover, but, as usual with WS, the Art Director was Frank R. Paul -- there were a lot of interior illos, and he did (and signed) many of them.
As for the cover story, "Vanguard" -- it was not very good...one of the sort that seemed to exist for the purpose of letting the author show off the variety of alien races and technologies that he could dream up...they were introduced one after another, with the dangers they presented to the crew of Earthmen each rapidly disposed of...
I started wishing for the end, after a while...
 
2DaveWixon said:
View attachment 50485

This one also belongs to the Simak estate -- of course, that's because it contains a Simak story ("The Voice in the Void").

WONDER STORIES QUARTERLY was, like WONDER STORIES, a Hugo Gernsback production. The issue shown is vol. 3, no. 3, from Spring, 1932.
The cover illustrates the story "The Vanguard to Neptune," by J.M. Walsh. It makes up nearly half the magazine (which is half an inch thick, more than twice the size of the regular WONDER STORIES issues that I've seen).
(I should add that both varieties of WS were larger than more regular sf magazines -- like the "bedsheet" format that popped up now an again in sf magazine publishing over the years. The issue shown measured 8.5 x 11-3/8 x .5 inches.
This issue also featured stories by Manly Wade Wellman and Jack Williamson (just mentioning names we might recognize...).
There's no indication who did that cover, but, as usual with WS, the Art Director was Frank R. Paul -- there were a lot of interior illos, and he did (and signed) many of them.
As for the cover story, "Vanguard" -- it was not very good...one of the sort that seemed to exist for the purpose of letting the author show off the variety of alien races and technologies that he could dream up...they were introduced one after another, with the dangers they presented to the crew of Earthmen each rapidly disposed of...
I started wishing for the end, after a while...
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I see the giant buzzsaw in the backroad , It looks bit like the buzzsaw on the cover the Dask's Air Wonder magazine( comment 50) Could it possibly be the same artist?
 
BAYLOR said:
I see the giant buzzsaw in the backroad , It looks bit like the buzzsaw on the cover the Dask's Air Wonder magazine( comment 50) Could it possibly be the same artist?
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If AIR WONDER was part of the "Wonder" family of magazines, I suppose it could well be the same artist...

Re the QUARTERLY cover above: it looks like the space-suited Earthmen are being chased by a flock of sheep, but those white things are actually giant slugs. And, by the way, this scene takes place in a vacuum on a moon...
 
I received a box of freebie issues of Galaxy today. Here are the 1952 and 1953 issues. This is the trove I mentioned a few weeks ago, that I suggested might make up for my faux pas in postings some Mad covers. So, am I pardoned?
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