The Premier Issue of Fantasy Book – October 1981 features a comical wrap around cover. In the editorial, Dennis Mallonee makes reference to the magazines predecessor and goes on to discuss their plans for the magazine, noting that they have a stock of great stories in the pipeline, some by big names in the field.
Many of the authors featured in this issue have published multiple stories.
Some years ago while idly scrolling through eBay posts I came across magazine called Fantasy Book. The June 1984 edition to be specific. Now there are hundreds of fantasy and science fiction magazines out there, most of which have sadly come and gone. Something about this one intrigued me and with postage and exchange rates what they were at the time, i.e. affordable, I bought it and another edition from the same seller.
Why may you ask? I suppose they just looked cool at the time. I was not aware of resources such as ISDB or Galactic Central, so had no idea of the scope of their run, rather basing my research on what I could pick up via other eBay listings and occasional searches on the internet. Referencing Locus (which I was aware of) never crossed my mind. All hugely useful resources which I now reference regularly.
What is the draw of old genre magazines? For me there are various reasons, from the simple joy of collecting, especially if a series is finite, which means one is not in for a unending commitment to purchase new issues as they come out.
Another aspect is the possible exposure to authors one would never otherwise encounter and, if the magazine is old enough, coming across big names when they were maybe less know at the time.
The stories in this issue were all enjoyable and of good quality in my easy-going opinion. Each story is accompanied by at least one piece of interior black and white artwork.
The only instantly recognisable big name I encountered was L. Ron Hubbard (The Were-Human). A bit of a publishing error came in with The Musician by J. Neil Schulman, whereby a few hundred words were omitted. This unintentionally abridged story was accompanied by a note acknowledging the error and promising to reprint it in full in the next issue. Aside from these, story contents included in the 80-page magazine include:
- The Assiz Dragon by Sherwood Springer
- A Symphony for Sarah Ann by Sheila Finch
- The Ballad of Lookhma by Jon L. Breen
- We Take Care of Our Own by Terri E. Pinckard
- Another Creator by Kris Neville
- The Room at Inglenook by Walt Liebscher
- Wasps by Walter Beckers
- The Hour of the Anvil (poem) by Jim Neal
- The Devil Behind the Leaves by Stephen Golden and Kathleen Sky
- Bourbon, Water and Djinn by Boyd Correll
- Warm, Dark Places by H.L. Gold
The second issue of Fantasy Book was published in December 1981 featuring a beautiful cover of a sorceress changing people into pigs.
Fantasy Book ticked these boxes and one other very important one – it was accessible in terms of price and availability. Living on the other side of the world from the US and the opposite hemisphere from Europe, one simply does not have the ability to jump onto your motorbike and head off to The Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention – read an awesome article about this event here and here , or its equivalent in the UK: The London Paperback and Pulp Fair. Please leave a comment if similar events occur in your country!
With exchange rates and postage fees, one has to be somewhat selective in collecting while continuing to scour book exchanges, school and church fêtes and the like in the hopes of picking up a little treasure.
The Fantasy Book I will be writing about here over the space of a few posts was a semiprofessional magazine published from 1981 to 1987 by Dennis Mallonee and Nick Smith.
It was not the first magazine to bear this name. That honour goes to the magazine published by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc from 1947 to 1951 and edited under the pseudonym of Garret Ford.
I am not enough of a completist to try and obtain these older magazines, the prices online are exorbitant, although two copies appear to have been reprinted in 2022 by Fiction House Press , which means if one were to buy, one had better be sure which version is for sale.
The old Fantasy Book also printed a few of their issues in two formats, the budget pulp edition and then a deluxe edition, printed on book paper.
I do not know enough about this first version to comment more, suffice is to say it folded half way though publishing certain serials such as Journey to Barkut/Gateway to Elsewhere by Murray Leinster, which I am sure frustrated readers at the time.
At 80 pages including the unabridged version of The Musician by J. Neil Schulman one must wonder at what was cut to allow space for this mistake in the previous issue. My humble, inexperienced in publishing, take on this would be to have added an extra 8 pages (the stories length) and point this out to the readers in assurance that they were not being short changed.
Big author names in this issue were A.E. van Vogt (Death Talk) and Katerine Kurtz Camber the Heretic opening chapters). I was particularly pleased to see the Kurtz excerpt as she is an author I have always wanted to read but have never gotten to. Having read these opening chapters to Camber the Heretic, I know I must obtain at least this series. The van Vogt was honestly not one of is strongest works in my opinion. It started well and was quite a nice concept but then became disjointed and a bit hard to follow. Was it written this way or was it hacked down to size?
Another name I was pleased to see was Donald A. Wollheim! The driving force behind Ace Science Fiction and Fantasy books and later his own brand (DAW), it was a pleasure to read the short and humorous Great Gog’s Grave by Forrest J. Ackerman and Donald A. Wollheim. Lest we forget, Forrest J. Ackerman was Mr. English Perry Rhodan, notwithstanding working with C.L. Moore on the Northwest Smith series and having published numerous short stories and other works.
As is often the case each new issue of a magazine improves its quality as the editorial and publishing teams gel and hone their craft and the second issue of Fantasy Book is no exception. While the Premier Issue was slick bar its admitted publishing error, this one simply felt better. Other stories not already mentioned are:
- Won’t You Have a Cup of Tea Dearie by Terri E. Pinckard
- Among the Wilder Talents by Sherwood Springer
- Herbie Feamster, Lord of Dimensions! By K.L. Jones
- Deal with the D.E.V.I.L. by Theodore R. Cogswell
- The Dark Country by Dennis Etchison
- Necromantic (poem) by Leilah Wendell
- It Ain’t Missed Yet by Michael Bernard
- Transylvanian Roots by Thomas R. McDonough
- M-M-Magic by Rory Harper
- Of Mice and Monsters by Albert Hernhuter
- In All Things Moderation by Steve Rasnic Tem
- Challenge (poem) by Jim Neal
Overall I think these two volumes present a great start to a magazine I look forward to reading through all issue of and reporting back on in future articles. Yes I have all the issues, COVID induced exorbitant costs of obtaining the final issue aside, so the collection is complete!
If you find one of these around, pick it up. They are usually well priced from what I have seen and have some good stories, often by authors who have gone on to a degree of success in the genre.