Fantastic (magazine) facts for kids
Cover of the October 1961 issue, by Alex Schomburg
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| Editor | Howard Browne |
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| Categories | Fantasy fiction, science fiction |
| Format | Digest size |
| Publisher | Ziff Davis |
| Founded | 1952 |
| Final issue | 1980 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Fantastic was a popular American magazine published from 1952 to 1980. It was a "digest-size" magazine, meaning it was small enough to fit in your hand, like a small book. Fantastic featured exciting stories in two main types: fantasy and science fiction.
The magazine was started by a company called Ziff Davis. They wanted Fantastic to be a partner to their other science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. At first, Fantastic sold very well! This success led Ziff Davis to change Amazing Stories from a larger "pulp" format to the smaller digest size. They also stopped publishing another magazine called Fantastic Adventures.
However, sales for Fantastic soon dropped. The editor, Howard Browne, had to change the magazine's focus from mostly fantasy to more science fiction. This made Browne lose interest, and the stories in the mid-1950s were not always the best quality.
Later, in the late 1950s, Cele Goldsmith became the editor. She took charge of both Fantastic and Amazing Stories. Goldsmith brought new energy to the magazines. She found many new and talented writers, making the magazines some of the best in their field. She helped start the careers of famous authors like Roger Zelazny and Ursula K. Le Guin.
Even with great stories, the number of copies sold didn't go up. In 1965, the magazines were sold to Sol Cohen. He decided to fill the magazines only with old stories that had been printed before. This saved money, but it caused problems with a group called the Science Fiction Writers of America. After some disagreements, Ted White became the editor. He worked to bring back new, original stories.
Ted White tried hard to make Fantastic successful again. He featured cool artwork from comic book artists and found new authors. Even though his budget for stories was small, he sometimes found great tales that other magazines had turned down. But sales kept going down. In 1978, Cohen sold his share of the business. White resigned soon after. Elinor Mavor took over as editor, but within two years, the magazine was closed. Fantastic was then combined with Amazing Stories, which had always sold a bit more.
Contents
The Beginning of Fantastic Magazine
In 1938, a company called Ziff Davis bought Amazing Stories, a science fiction magazine. Many new science fiction magazines appeared around this time. Ziff Davis launched Fantastic Adventures in 1939 as a partner to Amazing Stories.
The editor, Raymond Palmer, published many stories, but they weren't always top quality. In 1950, Howard Browne became the editor of Amazing Stories. He wanted to make the magazine better. Ziff Davis agreed to support a new magazine, but then the Korean War started, and they cut their budgets.
Browne didn't give up. In 1952, he got the go-ahead for a new magazine. This one would focus on high-quality fantasy stories, which were becoming very popular. The first issue of Fantastic came out on March 21, 1952. It was called "Summer 1952."
Early Years and Changes
The first issues of Fantastic sold very well! Ziff Davis was so impressed that they changed the magazine's schedule. It went from being published every three months to every two months. They also made Amazing Stories the same small "digest-size" as Fantastic.
Soon after, they decided to stop publishing Fantastic Adventures. The last issue was in March 1953. For a short time, Fantastic even mentioned Fantastic Adventures on its cover.
Writers were paid well for their stories, sometimes up to ten cents per word. This made Fantastic one of the better-paying magazines. However, the plan to publish only high-quality stories didn't last. Sales dropped, and the budget was cut. This meant the quality of the stories went down.
Howard Browne had wanted Fantastic to be different from Amazing Stories "pulp" roots. Pulp magazines were printed on cheap paper and often had simple, action-packed stories. But now, Browne had to print more science fiction to attract Amazing Stories readers.
Many new science fiction magazines appeared in the early 1950s. There were more magazines than people wanted to buy. This made it hard for Fantastic to sell well. Luckily, Ziff Davis had a strong sales team that helped sell Fantastic alongside their other magazines. This helped Fantastic survive.
In May 1956, Howard Browne left to become a screenwriter. Paul W. Fairman took over as editor for both Fantastic and Amazing Stories. In 1957, Bernard George Davis, who had helped buy Amazing Stories in the first place, left Ziff Davis. After he left, both magazines didn't change much and didn't get much attention from the company.
A New Editor: Cele Goldsmith
In November 1955, Ziff Davis hired Cele Goldsmith as an assistant. She started by helping with new magazines and reading through all the stories that writers sent in. She quickly got more important jobs. In 1957, she became the managing editor for both Amazing and Fantastic. She handled office tasks and read new stories.
At the end of 1958, she became the main editor, replacing Paul Fairman. Cele Goldsmith (who later became Cele Lalli after she married in 1964) was the editor for six and a half years.
During her time, the number of copies sold for both magazines dropped. In 1964, Fantastic only sold about 27,000 copies. In 1965, Sol Cohen bought both Amazing and Fantastic from Ziff Davis.
Cohen wanted to make money by only printing old stories. He could do this because Ziff Davis had bought the rights to reprint all the stories they had published. Using old stories saved Cohen about $8,000 a year for both magazines. Cele Lalli didn't want to work for Cohen, so she stayed with Ziff Davis. Her last issue was June 1965.
Cohen hired Joseph Wrzos, who used the name "Joseph Ross," to replace Lalli. Cohen also started new magazines that only printed old stories from Amazing and Fantastic.
Challenges and New Editors
Even though Cohen thought he had the right to reprint stories, the new Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) group started getting complaints. Writers said Cohen wasn't paying them for their reprinted stories. SFWA organized a boycott, meaning writers refused to let Cohen publish their work. After a year, Cohen agreed to pay a fee for the reprints, and the boycott ended in August 1967.
Harry Harrison helped with the talks between SFWA and Cohen. After the agreement, Cohen asked Harrison to become the editor of both magazines. Harrison agreed, as long as Cohen stopped reprinting old stories by the end of the year. But the reprints continued, so Harrison quit in February 1968.
Harrison suggested Barry Malzberg as his replacement. Malzberg also didn't want to work with Cohen if the reprints continued. He soon regretted taking the job. In October 1968, Cohen refused to pay for a cover Malzberg had ordered. Malzberg threatened to quit. Cohen then fired Malzberg and hired Ted White. White took over in October 1968, but his first credited issue was June 1969.
Ted White's Era and the End
Like the editors before him, Ted White agreed to the job only if the reprints would stop. It took a while, but by the end of 1971, every story in Fantastic was new.
When White became editor, Fantastic sold about 37,000 copies. Only a small number of these were subscriptions. White tried hard, but sales kept falling. By summer 1975, it was selling less than 24,000 copies.
White worked for a low salary and even had friends help him read stories for free. At one point, he asked unpublished writers to pay a small fee to submit their stories, which would be returned if he bought their story. White also had disagreements with Cohen's business partner, Arthur Bernhard.
White was unhappy with his working conditions. He wanted to make Fantastic a larger, higher-quality magazine, but Cohen refused. White resigned, but Cohen convinced him to stay for three more years.
White couldn't completely stop the drop in sales. In 1977, Cohen lost money on the magazines and decided to sell them. On September 15, 1978, he sold his half of the business to his partner, Arthur Bernhard.
White again suggested making Fantastic a larger magazine and asked for a raise. Bernhard said no and even stopped paying him. White resigned for good on November 9. His last issue was January 1979. He sent all the stories back to the writers, saying Bernhard told him to. Bernhard denied this.
Bernhard then hired Elinor Mavor to edit both Amazing and Fantastic. Mavor had edited a restaurant magazine before and loved science fiction. However, she didn't know much about the history of these magazines. She even used a male pen name, "Omar Gohagen," for a while because she didn't know she wasn't the first woman editor.
Mavor suggested a plan to increase sales, but Bernhard decided to combine the two magazines instead. Sales were still dropping. Since Fantastic had never made money, and Amazing had, Bernhard decided to keep Amazing. Until March 1985, Amazing Stories still mentioned Fantastic on its cover and contents page.
In 1999, another magazine briefly used the Fantastic name, but it wasn't a real continuation of the original. In August 2014, Warren Lapine, a former editor of other fantasy magazines, brought back the Fantastic name as a free online magazine.
Editors of Fantastic
Here are the people who were editors of Fantastic magazine:
- Howard Browne (Summer 1952 – August 1956)
- Paul Fairman (October 1956 – November 1958)
- Cele Goldsmith (December 1958 – June 1965) – She used her married name, Cele G. Lalli, from July 1964.
- Joseph Ross (September 1965 – November 1967)
- Harry Harrison (January 1968 – October 1968)
- Barry N. Malzberg (December 1968 – April 1969)
- Ted White (June 1969 – January 1979)
- Elinor Mavor (April 1979 – October 1980)
Magazine Details
Fantastic was always a "digest-sized" magazine. It started with 160 pages. This dropped to 144 pages in September/October 1953, and then to 128 pages in November/December 1953. It mostly stayed at 128 pages until September 1965, when it went back up to 160 pages. It changed page counts a few more times, ending at 128 pages from February 1971 until it closed.
The first issue cost 35 cents. The price slowly went up over the years:
- 50 cents in May 1963
- 60 cents in December 1969
- 75 cents in July 1974
- $1.00 in October 1975
- $1.25 in April 1978
- $1.50 from April 1979 until the last issue
Books from Fantastic Stories
Three collections of stories from Fantastic have been published as books:
- 1967: Time Untamed, edited by Ivan Howard
- 1973: The Best From Fantastic, edited by Ted White
- 1987: Fantastic Stories: Tales of the Weird and Wondrous, edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Patrick Lucien Price
Images for kids
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This graph shows how many copies of Fantastic were sold over time.
See also
In Spanish: Fantastic (revista) para niños
