Introduction

The covers of "Fantasy and Science Fiction" are reproduced with the kind permission of the publisher, Gordon van Gelder and Spilogale, Inc. You can find the FSF web site at http://www.fsfmag.com.

The Queen of SF Magazines

If "Analog" can claim precedence as the world's longest-running SF magazine, in terms of number of issues and continuous publication, then F&SF is its equal in popularity, continuity and high quality over more than half a century. F&SF has been honoured many times in the Hugo Awards. It won the award for Best Magazine in 1958 and Best Professional Magazine seven times, in 1959, 1960, 1963, 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972, the last year in which an award was made in this category. Kristine Kathryn Rusch won the award for Best Professional Editor in 1994 during her tenure at F&SF. Isaac Asimov won a special award in 1963 for his long-running series of fact articles in F&SF, Edward L Ferman in 1981 for his efforts in expanding the field of science fiction. Stories first published in F&SF have also won many awards.

During 2002, F&SF overtook the now defunct Amazing's total of 602 issues and, at the time of writing, I am waiting for my copy of the February 2005 issue, #631*. The Ferman family have been involved as managers, publishers or editors over almost the whole of that period, which must go some way to explaining the magazine's extraordinary consistency and staying power. The present publisher, Gordon van Gelder, had worked as editor with the Ferman family for several years before assuming control of the magazine in October 2000. The title has remained unchanged after the first issue (which was called "The Magazine of Fantasy") and even the format has remained constant - you can line up a complete series of F&SF from v1#1 in Fall 1949 right up to the present day and, barring page count, they will all be exactly the same standard digest size.

*numbered sequentially from 1 - as explained below, the "whole number" given in the magazine has fallen slightly out of step.

The Cover Artists

At first sight, the list of artists who have painted covers for F&SF reads like a roll-call of nearly every important figure in the field since the middle of the 20th century. On closer study, though, you can see that most covers were done by a rather limited group of artists. Only eight were responsible for more than half of the covers - 326 of 633, up to April 2005. This spans a period of more than 50 years and not all these artists were working at the same time. If you look at the breakdown by decade, you can see that in any given period the favoured group was even smaller. Emshwiller, Bonestell and Hunter accounted for more than half of the covers in the 50s, for example and, in the 60s, Emsh alone produced more than a third of them.

This pattern is seen with other magazines, too, of course. Over the first 75 years of Astounding/Analog, another group of only eight artists painted nearly 60% of the covers - an entirely different group, not a single person in common with the top F&SF cover artists. Only David A Hardy stands in the top ten for both magazines. Emsh painted only eight covers for Analog while Kelly Freas, who did no less than 126 for Analog, painted only twelve for F&SF. Each editor chooses the artists who best portray what that magazine stands for.

Just outside the top group listed above is another artist who deserves mention. He is George Salter. He was listed as Art Editor from the first issue until 1958, contributed 10 covers in the first few years of the magazine, then one more in 1966, not long before his death. His work was more commonly seen on "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine", for many years a companion title to F&SF. On the early covers of F&SF, his unsettling, surrealistic compositions and oddly-textured shapes did much to underline the quirky black humour that was characteristic of the magazine at that time.

It's a Wrap

With the August 1952 issue pictured on the right, FSF introduced an innovation not, so far as I know, previously seen on a science fiction magazine - the wrap-around cover. Artwork had appeared on the back cover of SF magazines at least since the late 30s, when first Amazing and then Fantastic Adventures regularly featured full-colour paintings on the back. But on a wrap-around, the same artist continues across (and sometimes including) the spine, round to the back, giving a canvas twice the size to develop the theme. Wraparound covers had appeared a couple of years before on a general adventure magazine called "Blue Book", but this was, I believe, the first time it had been done in the SF field. I am particularly gratified that the artist was George Gibbons, though I claim no relation.

Later in 1952, "Fantastic" published the first of several wraparound covers and within a year, the idea had been imitated on "If", but it never became commonplace. Presumably, the extra costs and the loss of a full page of advertising revenue made it unattractive as a regular practice. Nevertheless, more than forty issues of FSF featured artwork on the back cover over the years, mostly in the 1960s. Some, like the Gibbons prototype above, only spread half way onto the back page, while on others the back cover merely repeated the front cover artwork without the text. After 1975 they disappeared, replaced by the usual dull advertisements for book clubs and magazine subscriptions - until the issue of February 2003 which, after a gap of more than 27 years, was again graced by a full wraparound cover by Ron Miller.

Cover Variants

There is one issue of F&SF which appears in two variants, July 1953. The two versions carried the same artwork but different title designs, one in fancy script in the style that had been used since the first issue, the other showing the title against coloured rectangles, the style that was adopted in October 1952 and became the standard for many years thereafter. The magazines appear in all other respects identical. The reason for this is not known, nor have I seen any other examples.

A minor variation arose from mid-1964 onwards, when the second British reprint edition finished and the US magazine began to be distributed in the UK. Some issues were printed with a UK price circle in place of the Mercury Publications symbol in the top right hand corner of the cover. See the reprint editions for further details. You will see some examples in the scans from 1964 onwards - since the covers are otherwise identical. I have not distinguished between the two versions.

Dating and Numbering - Prepare to be Confused

FSF published four quarterly issues in 1949-50, became bimonthly from February 1951 to June 1952, then monthly from August 1952 and has remained monthly ever since. Since the very first issue, the magazine has carried a volume and serial number and, from quite early in its life, a "whole number" also. Volume 1 had five issues, volume three had eight, and every other has had (in theory, at least), six. From 1991, though, October and November have been combined into a single large issue marking the anniversary of the magazine, so that there are now 11 issues a year.

This has confused the numbering somewhat. The combined issue is numbered "volume x, nos. 4 and 5", maintaining the pretence that it is two issues stuffed into one cover rather than a single, large issue. Even more confusingly, the whole number was also combined, so that October/November 1991 was no 484-485. Thus, the whole number steadily fell out of step with the actual number of issues since the magazine's inception. Eventually, someone must have realised what a daft idea this was and it was dropped from 1996 onwards. The anniversary issues now have a combined volume and serial number, but a single whole number. But no-one ever put the whole numbers straight, so that, for example, the December 2002 issue is Volume 103, no 6, whole number 612 - whereas it is actually the 607th issue.

Sources of Images

Some of the most recent images have been provided "hot off the press" by Gordon van Gelder. Most of those from 1995 onwards have been scanned by Cuyler Brooks. Others have been scanned from copies in my own collection, but many of the earlier magazines are copies offered for sale on eBay. With a circulation that exceeded 60,000 at times, most issues of F&SF are still fairly commonly available and the magazine is widely collected.