Today’s pick is:
Science Fiction Classics from 1967.
This is one of the Ultimate Publishing reprint titles (and so a member of the “Amazing Stories” family of magazines).
The used book stall I used to visit at the Berlin (NJ) Farmer’s Market was filled with the Ultimate reprints and I picked up quite a few, including no small number with the top half of their covers cut off (to remove the title and receive “return” credit).
That’s actually a scan of the second copy of this magazine; my original (still in hand) took quite a beating before I picked it up and experienced some additional shelf ware along the way. I’m not entirely happy with this copy, as it does have a re-seller’s stampings on it, but I can deal.
The cover illustration is actually a reprint from a July 1932 issue of Amazing Stories, illustrating a Harl Vincent story, Thia of the Drylands, which story is not present in the reprint. It’s by Morey.
Incidentally, I picked up a copy of that issue of Amazing (a “bedsheet” pulp) at another flea market in NJ, this one at the Pennsauken mall. I took a bus from there to Philadelphia every Thursday to attend Gratz College. I graduated Cum Laude, btw. But I think my primary motivation was getting to spend a few minutes in that stall, picking through the offerings, before I had to catch the bus.
As mentioned previously elsewhere, I have a particular fondness for the Ultimate reprint magazines, and that is at least partially due to its relationship to Amazing, its complicated publishing history and the sheer number of titles produced in a relatively short time frame.
The publishing history is a complicated one and not something I’d ever have been able to figure out without the assistance of websites like the Galactic Central and ISFDB sites, which I will quote from here:
“These issues were the starting point for the most complex sequence of Ultimate’s reprint magazines, a sequence which underwent two title changes and spun off two additional titles. Since the exact sequence of issues and interrelationships of these titles seems little understood, this would seem an appropriate place to summarize them.
Following the sixth issue a bewildering sequence of title changes began. The seventh issue was titled SF Adventure Classics. This was followed by Strange Fantasy: #s 8, 9 and 10. After that SF Adventure Classics #8 was issued, which had the retroactive effect of splitting off the Strange Fantasy issues into their own sequence, which continued through #13.
SF Adventure Classics #8 was followed by Space Adventures #9, 10 and 11. A title change back to SF Adventure Classics appeared to take place with the next issue, #12. However, shortly afterward a Space Adventures #12 also appeared and continued the original sequence, eventually concluding with #14. Thus was the second sequence of SF Adventure Classics retroactively split off to form its own sequence, which continued for several more years.” – Galactic Central
and
“This all-reprint digest was another attempt by Sol Cohen to exploit the extensive back catalog of Amazing which he purchased from Ziff-Davis in 1965. The first issues were published by Magazine Productions, but soon afterwards the parent company, Ultimate Publishing, was credited. When the eighth issue appeared as Strange Fantasy in Spring 1969, subscribers assumed that it was a simple name change, but after three issues under this name, Science Fiction Adventure Classics re-appeared in the fall, as Issue #8, picking up where it left off. Strange Fantasy continued as a separate title, for another three issues until Fall 1970, making #8-13 the numbering for its six issues. After receiving Issue #8 of Science Fiction Adventure Classics subscribers received in the winter of 1969/1970 Issue #9 of … Space Adventures. Another name change perhaps? After Issue #11 (Summer 1970) of Space Adventures, no Fall issue appeared. Instead there was a one-off issue titled Science Fiction Classics Annual. Then in Winter 1970 subscribers received Issue #12 of what else but Science Fiction Adventure Classics! Space Adventures would continue to be published for three more issues (Winter [#12], Spring [#13], Summer [#14] 1971) before disappearing forever. Science Fiction Adventure Classics would continue with the same numbering as well. It would be published quarterly for the next year, become bi-monthly in January 1972, and remain so until its last in November 1974. (Most of this summary is based on information in Marshall B. Tymn and Mike Ashley’s Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Weird Fiction Magazines.)” – ISFDB
Still confused? You ought to be, lol. Now wrap your head around the fact that each of those title changes is represented in the V1N1 collection.
I ought to try and create a visual for that….
It also seems I can’t pass up a magazine that states emphatically that it is a collectors item. Whether it actually is at the time or not. (It certainly is today!
It’s kind of odd how the passage of time can alter the value of things. But it certainly does.
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Speaking of other soon-to-be-classics, why not pick up an SF100 T-shirt and help support Science Fiction’s Centennial Celebration, coming April, 2026?
