Since its debut as the world’s first magazine devoted exclusively to the Science Fiction genre in 1926 (also, first genre definition in the editorial and first home for Fandom in the letters column), Amazing Stories has published under a number of different names –
AMAZING STORIES, AMAZING SCIENCE FICTION, AMAZING SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, AMAZING (Ashcan), AMAZING SCIENCE FICTION STORIES COMBINED WITH FANTASTIC, AMAZING SCIENCE FICTION STORIES COMBINED WITH FANTASTIC STORIES, AMAZING STORIES ANNUAL, AMAZING STORIES QUARTERLY, AMAZING STORIES SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL.
AMAZING SCIENCE STORIES was not one of them.
A UK reprint publication first appearing in 1951, Amazing Science Stories arguably infringed upon the Amazing Stories trademark – if it was active at the time and if that trademark had also been registered in the UK.
The timing of A.S.S. (unfortunate acronym and perhaps one of the reasons why the title came and went) is interesting as in 1950, Ziff-Davis, Amazing’s publisher at the time (Howard Browne editing) had issued an “ashcan” edition of the magazine under the title of “Amazing”. People are often confused about the details of how IP works and – purely speculatively – the publishers of A.S.S., Pembertons of Manchester (AKA “World Distributors”) may have thought their title was ok because Amazing was changing theirs. Or they didn’t care. Or they were happy to offer a confusing title, as Amazing Stories’ UK edition was being published on a very sporadic basis in 1950 and 1951. If I’d been looking for Amazing in the UK at the time, I’d have snatched this up and probably wouldn’t have noticed that it wasn’t “Amazing” until I’d gotten in home.
World Distributors generally published repackaged materials, primarily comic books. The contents of the two issues of Amazing Science Stories were drawn from an earlier Australian magazine – Thrills, Incorporated (generally geared towards the youth market. Copies are very hard to come by.) and from Super Science Stories.
Amazing Science Stories lasted a mere two issues, with unremarkable yet busy covers. Artist unknown, but the first issue re-uses the cover illustration from the April 1950 issues of Thrills Incorporated, and the second issue of A.S.S. reuses the cover from the May, 1950 Thrills, Incorporated.
Below: One cover display each of Amazing Stories many titles:
