Tomorrow, March 6th, will see the debut of Apple TV +’s, Steven Spielberg produced AMAZING STORIES television show.
The first episode to be released is titled The Cellar and features a time travel related plot.
We here at the Experimenter Publishing company decided to designate the day Amazing Stories day owing to a little bit of history.
The cover of the very first issue of Amazing Stories displays a date of April, 1926, and April has always been considered the anniversary month for the world’s first science fiction magazine.
However, that’s always been incorrect as the cover date for magazines of that era was not a release date but was, in fact, a removal date. April told a newsstand vendor that if it was no longer April, they should remove the issue from their stands and return the copies.
Mike Ashley, the Dean of SF magazine history, has stated so (for good reason, even including the massive amount of research he has done) in his various histories of the pulps – The Time Machines. The Story of the Science-Fiction Pulp Magazines from the Beginning to 1950, Transformations. The Story of the Science Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970. Gateways to Forever. The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1970 to 1980. Science Fiction Rebels: The Story of the Science-Fiction Magazines from 1981 to 1990, offering up a guesstimate, based on long standing convention, that Amazing Stories was probably delivered to the stands on or about March 15th of 1926.
Recently, a circular published by Hugo Gernsback and the original Experimenter Publishing Company, seemingly directed at readers of Science & Invention magazine (Gernsback’s publication that was used to trial “scientifiction” stories) states that Amazing Stories will be delivered on March 1st. An image of that circular is provided here:
gernsback flyer
The flyer was unearthed by Bill Burns and provided to yours truly via Facebook by Curt Phillips. (Thanks guys!)
Both Mike Ashley and I agree that it is entirely possible that the actual release was most likely delayed (as many Gernsbackian things were back in the day). I’ll also note that March 15th appears in the above, as charter subscribers can get a special deal for subscriptions active on or before that date.
This flyer is the closest we’ve ever come to verifying the exact date on which the magazine hit the stands, and yet it still remains a partial mystery.
So, considering that March 6 falls roughly in the middle between March 1st and March 15th, and especially considering that a different kind of AMAZING STORIES debuts on that day, we decided – willy-nilly and without consulting anyone else – that March 6th would become the official unofficial Amazing Stories Day!
We hope you’ll consider giving the TV show a watch. It premieres on Apple TV + streaming service tomorrow, March 6th
