Browne and Fairman The first issue of
Fantastic was impressive, with a cover that sf historian Mike Ashley has described as "one of the most captivating of all first issues"; the painting, by Barye Phillips and
Leo Summers, illustrated
Kris Neville's "The Opal Necklace". The fiction included some stories by well known names; in particular,
Raymond Chandler's "Professor Bingo's Snuff" would have caught readers' eyes—the story had appeared the year before in
Park East magazine, but would have been new to most readers. It was a short mystery in which the fantasy element was invisibility, achieved by magical snuff.
Isaac Asimov and
Ray Bradbury also contributed stories, and the issue led with "Six and Ten Are Johnny", by
Walter M. Miller. The rear cover reprinted
Pierre Roy's painting "Danger on the Stairs", which depicted a snake on a staircase; it was an odd choice, but subsequent back covers were more natural fits for a fantasy magazine. The quality of the fiction continued to be high for the first year; sf historian Mike Ashley comments that almost every story in the first seven issues was of high quality, Science fiction bibliographer
Donald Tuck dissents, however, regarding the first few years as containing "little of note", Other well-known writers appeared in the early issues, including
Shirley Jackson,
B. Traven,
Truman Capote and
Evelyn Waugh. Browne was uninterested in science fiction, however, and the quality of the fiction soon dropped, with a small stable of writers producing much of
Fantastics fiction under house names over the next couple of years. but there was some inventiveness evident from newer writers such as
Robert Silverberg,
Harlan Ellison and
Randall Garrett. Fairman devoted the July 1958 issue of
Fantastic to the Shaver Mystery—a lurid set of beliefs propounded by
Richard Shaver in the late 1940s that told of "detrimental robots", or "deros", who were behind many of the disasters that befell humanity. Most of these stories had run in
Amazing, though the editor at that time, Ray Palmer, had been forced to drop Shaver by Ziff Davis when the stories began to attract ridicule in the press.
Fantastic readers were no kinder, complaining vigorously.
Goldsmith When Goldsmith took over as editor, there was some concern at Ziff Davis that she might not be able to handle the job. A consultant, Norman Lobsenz, was brought in to help her; Lobsenz's title was "editorial director", but in fact Goldsmith made the story selections. Lobsenz provided blurbs and editorials, read the stories Goldsmith bought, and met with Goldsmith every week or so. Goldsmith was not a long-time sf reader, and knew little about the field; she simply looked for good quality fiction and bought what she liked. In Mike Ashley's words, "the result, between 1961 and 1964, was the two most exciting and original magazines in the field". New writers whose first story appeared in
Fantastic during this period included
Phyllis Gotlieb,
Larry Eisenberg,
Ursula K. Le Guin,
Thomas M. Disch, and
Piers Anthony. Not all Goldsmith's choices were universally popular with the magazine's subscribers: she regularly published fiction by
David R. Bunch, for example, to mixed reviews from the readership. In addition to experimental work, White was able to obtain material by some of the leading sf writers of the day, including
Brian Aldiss and
John Brunner. Instead a four-page comic strip by
Jay Kinney appeared in December 1970; a second strip, by
Art Spiegelman, was planned, but never published. Eventually White was allowed to commission original cover art; he published early work by
Mike Hinge, and
Mike Kaluta made his first professional sale to
Fantastic. He tried to hire Hinge as art director, but this fell through and White filled the role himself, sometimes using the pseudonym "J. Edwards". Because of poor distribution,
Fantastic was never able to benefit from the increasing popularity of the
fantasy genre, though White was able to publish several stories by well-known writers in the field, including a
sword and sorcery novella by
Dean R. Koontz, which appeared in the October 1970 issue, and an
Elric story by
Michael Moorcock in February 1972. A revival of Robert E. Howard's character Conan, in stories by
L. Sprague de Camp and
Lin Carter, was successful at increasing sales; the first of these stories appeared in August 1972, and White reported that sales of that issue were higher than for any other issue of
Amazing or
Fantastic that year. Each Conan story, according to White, increased sales of that issue by 10,000 copies. White also published several of Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories, and added "Sword and Sorcery" to the cover in 1975. In the same year a companion magazine,
Sword & Sorcery Annual, was launched, but the first issue was the only one to appear. The quality of the magazine remained high even as the financial stress was mounting in the late 1970s. White acquired cover artwork by
Stephen Fabian and
Douglas Beekman, and stories by some of the new generation of sf writers, such as
George R. R. Martin and
Charles Sheffield. White departed in November 1978, but the first issue of
Fantastic under Elinor Mavor's editorial control was April 1979. Because White had returned unsold stories she had very little to work with and was forced to fill the magazine with reprints. This led to renewed conflict with the sf community, which she did her best to defuse. At a convention in 1979 she met
Harlan Ellison, who complained about the reprint policy; she explained that it was temporary and was able to get him to agree to contribute stories, publishing two pieces by him in
Amazing over the next three years. The January 1980 issue of
Fantastic (Mavor's fourth issue) was the last to contain reprinted stories. Once the reprints had been phased out, Mavor was able to find new writers to work with, including
Brad Linaweaver and
John E. Stith, both of whom sold their first stories to
Fantastic. The last year of
Fantastic showed "a steady improvement in content", according to Mike Ashley, who cites in particular
Daemon, a serialized graphic story, illustrated by Stephen Fabian. However, at the end of 1980
Fantastics independent existence ceased, and it was merged with
Amazing. ==Publication details==