Argos Index

The final issue

Argos was a short lived (3 issues) magazine that appeared in 1988. It ought to have been successful: it featured some big-name writers – Larry Niven, Keith Laumer, John Brunner, Janet Morris and Mike Resnick (who had a story in every issue). It is always difficult for a new magazine to gain prominence on news-stands and this may have been part of the problem.

The rather amateurish cover for issue 1 probably did the magazine no favours either. Later covers were better and in my view the best was Deborah Skilton’s illustration for Jack Lovejoy’s “The Gatekeeper” that graced the final issue.

Issues 2 & 3 featured a non-fiction column by Keith Laumer and Issue 3 added a multi-author book review column.

Analog 1970s Non-Fiction Index

Non-Fiction sometimes made the cover

Here as promised is the 1970s non-fiction index for Analog.

The articles were a varied bunch, from popular science through speculation to what is now frequently termed woo. I have also included the editorials, which were articles in their own right. Ben Bova introduced a policy of publishing some guest editorials, which are so marked under the authors’ listings.

Also included are the book review columns which appeared in almost every issue.

Analog 1970s Fiction Index

Vincent diFate's cover art for Roger Zelazny's "Home Is The Hangman"

Analog maintained a regular monthy schedule throughout the 1970s (as indeed it had from 1935 and would continue to do so until 1996) so an index for this decade is extremely long. What follows is the fiction index and a list of cover art credits.

Missing List 1 – Isaac Asimov

In Volume Two of his “History of the Science Fiction Magazine”, Michael Ashley stated that the checklists of ten influential writers from the period (April 1936 – March 1946) had to be omitted for reasons of space. One such author would surely have had to be Isaac Asimov. In this period he not only published “Nightfall” but many of his Positronic Robot and Foundation stories first appeared. Anyway, here is the checklist:

Fantastic 1980s Index

The front cover of the final issue dated October 1980

This is a rather short index as the magazine folded in 1980, with the October 1980 issue being the final one. Circulation had declined to fewer than 15,000 per issue and the magazine was simply not economically viable.

IASFM Index (1970s)

Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine was one of a number of new science fiction magazines that appeared in the late 70s. It is the only one currently being published. There are a number of factors that likely contributed to this success.

Have SF Magazines Had Their Day?

On reading “Brass Tacks” (Analog‘s letter column) I noticed one reader commented that he had taken out a subscription since retailers no longer seemed to stock the magazine.

(SF) Impulse Index

Impulse (later SF Impulse) was a a successor to Science Fantasy and was published in the same paperback book format as Science Fantasy had been in its later years.

What’s With Analog?

What’s wrong with Analog’s subscription department? I renewewd my subscription in October 2007 and have had problems ever since.

Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy

Cosmos was a large sized magazine published by Baronet Publishing Company of New York. Four bi-monthly issues were published in 1977, edited by David G. Hartwell.