Nebula was famously unique amongst British magazines in being published in Scotland, until as recently as 2000, when Spectrum joined this exclusive club. It was edited throughout its 41-issue run by Peter Hamilton from Crownpoint Road, Glasgow. Early issues cited Crownpoint Publications as the publisher, later ones Hamilton himself, but the publication address remained the same throughout. Hamilton's editorial policy and rates of payment attracted some excellent writers and Nebula provided the first professional appearance for some top-rank authors - notably Brian Aldiss and Robert Silverberg. There is an excellent web-site by Jim Linwood dedicated to Nebula at http://members.aol.com/nebulasf/index.html where you will find a fuller history of Nebula as well as a gallery of covers, some of which he has kindly given me permission to reproduce here.
Nebula's large format (13 cm x 21 cm) and uncluttered layout provided the ideal space for some striking cover art. Hamilton cultivated a group of artists I have not seen published elsewhere and I hazard a guess that, with names like McKeown and McIntyre, they were probably Scots. There were also covers by more widely-known artists such as Gerard Quinn, Bob Clothier and Edddie Jones.
For at least the last 32 issues, Nebula carried full-page, black and white, back cover illustrations, all of them reproduced here. 23 were by Arthur Thomson, another artist I have not seen on any other magazine. Of the first nine, #1 carries an introduction to the new magazine from fan Ken Slater. Yutaka Morita tells me that the remainder carry no artwork of interest - the ones I have carry advertisements or trailers for the magazine itself.
According
to Tuck, a US edition of Nebula was published for ten issues from #30 to #39.
He says that they were the British edition stamped with a 35c cover price, numbered
as the original but dated four months later (the UK original did not carry a date
on the front cover after the first four issues). Four that I have seen are reproduced
here and I would be interested to see others, if only to confirm the publication
history.
Before this "official" US edition, Nebula was evidently being imported into the US in the original form. I have seen several with what appear to be US price stickers over the UK price - at right is an example (of #14). I have also seen #s 16 and 20. Has anyone seen others like this?
Most of the images (front and back) were scanned from my own collection. Many thanks, though, to Jim Linwood for permission to reproduce images from his own web-site to fill the gaps or where my own copies were in poor condition. Jim has a complete set of front covers and all of the Thomson back covers at his Nebula web-site (address above) and you may find it interesting to compare them. In general, Jim's are cleaner than mine, though mine may be more representative of the condition you will find these magazines in after nearly 50 years.
You will also see some differences in the back covers. Jim presents his in black and white, so they show the artwork off to its best advantage. I have scanned mine in colour to show the actual magazine appearance and the differences are not only due to the yellowing of the paper with age. Some of the back covers were printed against a curious pink or blue tinted background, which the scans may tend to exaggerate slightly but which is genuine nevertheless.
My thanks also to Robert Lichtmann, who provided the scans for several issues on Jim's site and gave me permission to further reproduce them here, and to Yutaka Morita, who provided images of several back covers and US editions, also to Phil Stephensen-Payne, who provided #31 and 39 of the US edition.