Introduction
This version of Science Fiction Adventures is the UK magazine published by
Nova from 1958 to 1963 and was one of at least four magazines to bear that name.
It started out in life, in fact, as a reprint of the second US magazine called
Science Fiction Adventures (SFDB). The first five numbers of SFA were drawn
from SFDB's entire 18 month, 12 issue span, though the US magazine had folded
by the time SFA #3 came out. From #6 onwards, SFA reprinted the odd story from
other magazines (FUN, FUT, INF) but almost all of its content was original.
The first two covers were painted by Jose Rubios loosely from
originals by Emsh (SFDB 1957 September) and Schoenherr (SFDB 1958 January).
One cover (#5) is a reprint of an Emsh original of SFDB 1957 June, though not
an exact one. There are detailed differences - the heaps of bodies on the US
version are absent from the British one and may have been judged too strong
for British taste. Only Emsh is credited, though. All of the other covers are
original, the majority by Brian Lewis - 19 out of 32 issues in total.
SFA was the third magazine of the Nova Publications stable,
along with NW and SFY, and was edited by E J Carnell throughout its life, though
Larry Shaw was credited as joint editor on the first five numbers. Shaw did
four of the first five editorials; Carnell did no 3. According to SFFWF, the
Shaw editorials were reprints from the American edition. Editorials petered
out after a while and, while the occasional fact article and readers' letter
column appeared, many later issues contained nothing but the stories. This,
along with the absence after the first few issues of any interior illustration,
gave SFA a rather dull and monotonous appearance inside. NW and SFY suffered
from the same problem.
At
some point, SFA made a return trip across the Atlantic and was distributed in
North America. I have seen only two examples, numbers 17 and 20. #20 is shown
at right. It was dated May/June on the cover (the UK original was issued in
May 1961, but carried no date on the cover itself) and was priced at 40 cents
- whether US or Canadian, I cannot say. Otherwise, it appears identical to the
UK version. #17 is included on the main page as it is a much cleaner example
than my own British #17.
Does anyone know any more about
the American edition of SFA?
The last of the Nova magazines
to start, it was the first to finish and folded in 1963 after only 32 issues.
Numbering
SFA is numbered sequentially from 1 to 32, but following the
Nova fashion, volume numbers are used also, in this case in volumes of 6. Thus,
it goes from volume 1, number 6 to volume 2, no 7 and so on up to volume 6,
no 32. The volume numbers are not used here as they are superfluous for identification
purposes.
Source of images
All of the images in this title
were scanned from copies in my own collection.
At
some point, SFA made a return trip across the Atlantic and was distributed in
North America. I have seen only two examples, numbers 17 and 20. #20 is shown
at right. It was dated May/June on the cover (the UK original was issued in
May 1961, but carried no date on the cover itself) and was priced at 40 cents
- whether US or Canadian, I cannot say. Otherwise, it appears identical to the
UK version. #17 is included on the main page as it is a much cleaner example
than my own British #17.