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And now -

THE TOP TEN COOLEST

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SF PULP MAGAZINE

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SPACESHIPS

I love spaceships.??Find me a science fiction fan who?doesn’t.? Such a creature does not exist.?

Next to B.E.M.s, rayguns and scantily clad women in peril (there’s a new SF acronym for you – SCWIPs!), spaceships are about as iconic as you can get.

I went through a lot of agony whittling this list down to just ten.? I could have put a hundred up here and still had some left over, but whittle I did.? Not enough to get?down to only ten though, so I had to break things up into a Pre-’50s Top Ten?and a Post-50’s Top Ten (TWO top ten lists for the price of one) and here they both are, starting in chronological order:?

The Top Ten (Pre-1950) COOLEST?SF Pulp Magazine Spaceships -

Amazing Stories February 1928

The FIRST death star.? Proportionally about the same size too.? Hmmmm.

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Science Wonder Quarterly Fall 1929

Pretty – and note the ship’s name – ferryman of the styx.? (The scale is revealed by the astronaut walking ON the hull.)

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Amazing Stories April 1943

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I love the sense of scale in this cover.? The robot isn’t too bad either.

Astounding Stories August 1934

You simply CAN NOT talk about spaceships without at least one mention of the Skylark – the worlds first interstellar cruiser!

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Astounding Science Fiction July 1938

I featured this cover in my Pulp Comic Fairy Tale.? Obviously it has made an impression.? I think there are two elements that do it for me – first, the sheer size of the ship itself and second, the contrast of this enormous space liner dwarfed by the starfield behind it.

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Astounding Science Fiction February 1939

No gallery of pulp cover spaceships is complete without a CRASHED spaceship.? I like the detail of the grave and the angled escape ladder.

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Dynamic Science Storires February 1939

I loved this image the minute I set eyes on it.? This is, in fact, the cover for the first pulp I ever purchased.? Nearly 70 years later the colors are just as vibrant as the day it first hit the stands.

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Startling Stories November 1939

What are spaceships for but to escape the dying Earth (or colonize new worlds)? This issue of Startling is most notable for the appearance of Weinbaum’s first (and most famous) story.?

I like how over-sized the lions on the left are.? I guess the people up front don’t have tickets.

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Astounding Science Fiction May 1945

I think this cover appeals because the story it depicts is one of my all time favorites – THE seminal tale of our first contact with an alien species.? Which of the two ship’s do you think is the Terran one?

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New Worlds January 1949

This is such a pulpy spaceship. The sense of power, and the sense of wonder come right through.

Later today – Post 1950s Spaceship covers.

Stories, articles, pictures and such are all available on David Kelleher’s Bertram Chandler website. In particular, you’ll find this autobiography of John Grimes of particular interest, since it provides some detail about Grimes’ career prior to the first published story about Grimes (The Road To The Rim).? Although it’s not the character’s first appearance.? More about that in a bit.

You might also want to listen to the South African radio program SF68’s production of The Cage.? Unfortunately, I can’t give you a legal link to this one – but it is out there.

Baen Books has his much anthologized story Giant Killer on line as well and, if you are looking for reads that are almost as cheap as buying Chandler used on line, you can check out Baen’s e-books.

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A necessary part of the concordance process (Rim Worlds Concordance) is determining which of an author’s stories are part of the canon.? An inevitable part of that task is to work things into some kind of order, presuming there is one.

I’ve got a whole page on the concordance site devoted to the Rim Worlds stories (of which Grimes tales are a major portion) presented in their presumed correct order, with plot synposis.? Be warned as that is?spoiler material.

If you want to get the whole Rim Worlds feel, you really need to start at the beginning, during the 2nd Expansion of mankind to the stars. The first expansion featured frozen-sleep slowboats to the stars, a fact that we only learn about when it comes in to play in later stories.?

The 2nd Expansion utilized a true FTL drive – the Ehrenhaft Drive.? The first two stories (chronologically, not the first two published or authored) are identified as such by the use of this FTL drive in the stories.

Both are relatively early Chandler and feature his penchant for ’shaggy dog’ tales – literary puns. The first is The Left Hand Way (also published under the title Naval Engagement) and the other is Fall of Knight. You can hunt up TLHW here.? FOK is, unfortunately not available on line, but the magazine it originally appeared in – Fantastic Universe (June, 1958), an anthology of stories from that magazine The Fantastic Universe Omnibus and the anthology Rulers of Men (both books edited by Santesson) are usually readily available at ABE and frequently on EBay.

If you don’t want to to start with Rim Worlds tales and just want to dive into the life, time and crimes of Commodore John Grimes, planetary governor, space privateer, lady’s man and interstellar delivery boy, you’ll need to read that autobio piece I mentioned above and then pick up the NESFA Press publication Up To The Sky In Ships, (or buy a copy of New Worlds magazine, #81, March 1959 issue) a commemorative collection of Chandler stories which includes Close Encounter, the first published story wherein Grimes makes a cameo appearance.? To throw a little confustion into the mix though, this particular story actually takes place very late in the Commodore’s career.

If you want to read the saga in chronological order, obtain a copy of The Road To The Rim. Grimes appears as a wet-behind-the-ears shave tail, loses his virginity and offs space pirates in that one. Abe or EBay – I just got another copy for a buck on EBay.

One?subject that has persisted for a century is that of a view of Earth from space.?

To give you some idea of how much that image has changed over the course of 100 years, here?are the covers of The Electrical Experimenter, 1915 and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 2002, presented side-by-side.

It wasn’t until we actually put cameras into space that we realized that clouds work both ways…

To make a finer point of it – here is one of the few pulp covers that depicted Earth in anything other than a North American – centric presentation -

And here is reality, what the Earth really looks like from the surface of the moon, courtesy of NASA and Apollo 8:

and a close-up, as presented by Apollo 17 and NASA:

?As our understanding of the cosmos and our ventures into space progressed, so did the depictions of the planet on the covers of the magazines – but it wasn’t until images of the real thing started coming back that the artists got it right.? Which gives you some small idea of how reality and SF intersect.

Despite having gotten it wrong most of the time, there was one thing the artists did get right. Bad things can happen to planet Earth in an eye blink.? So here are ten of the worst things that could happen:

#10: A spaceship could miss the stop sign:

#9: That giant Near Earth Asteroid we’ve missed because of lack of funding could be REALLY big -

#8: Mars could get really pissed off about at all of the itchy landers we’ve been sending there and decide to zap us with electricity -

#7: Aliens could invade for real.?Aliens that don’t care one gribblefarb for our stereotypes and just want all of our water -

#6: Giant aliens could invade and use Earth as an exercise ball -

#5: The sun could flare and cook everything -

#4: That nuclear Armageddon thing could still happen -

#3: It could spontaneously combust -

#2: Earth could just get sick and tired of us screwing everything up and try to spin us off -

#1: But the number one Worst Thing That Could Happen To Planet Earth is – we just keep on doing what we’re doing.

My choices are highly subjective and have little to do with the contents of the various magazines and almost everything to do with the artwork.???

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?Honestly, this is a pretty bad cover – but I like it.? Woefully inaccurate also, but the sense of adventure and strangeness manages to come through.

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I think the Science Wonder cover appeals because there are two different styles of spaceship (or maybe its just Freudian). Scoops, well, giant robots running amok is just classic. (Note that the victim is in his PJs.)

Those poor tiny people.? I don’t think a pistol is going to do much good against those robotic deathrays.? Or maybe that robot thing is actually trying to rescue the minis?? (Great Weinbaum novel in that issue btw.) The Dynamic cover is just so… dynamic; my copy still looks newly printed and it was the first collectible I ever purchased.

A world in flames (I love apocalyptic things) and those taloned hands. This premiere cover for JW Campbell’s mag was a perfect visual representation of the title.? Super Science appeals because I’m intrigued by the people seen through the viewport.? Are they the cause of the destruction or trying to prevent it?

The Earth split asunder. Well, it couldhappen.? Stirring’s cover was cheap, but I like the work-a-day feel to it. Besides, leather space helmets are?cool.

The Weird Tales Canada issue just has some way cool alien/monster creature things?on it. I really like the way one of them is looking right at you. Oops. It saw me. Better run. Futuristic Tales? Apparently I have a thing for giant robots. Apparently so do British cover illustrators.? At least these guys got dressed for the occasion.

New Worlds is actually the second cover used for the first issue, and is far superior to the first one in my opinion.? Spaceships meeting in the deeps of space says SF to me, I guess.? The Fantasy cover, while cheap nevertheless intrigues. There’s a scene from Galaxy Quest that reminds me of this cover (spaceships and fireworks).

The Science Fantasy cover is obviously Kobold pre-Niven.? I wonder if Larry unconsciously had this mag in mind when he created it?? Ten Story Fantasy?? Well, I’ve got a bigger thing for half-naked women and whips than I do for giant robots.

Half naked women and whips again.? (Even though there aren’t any whips in the picture, you just know there has to be one close by.)? Finlay’s cover for this re-titling of Marvel is classic Finlay – a typically classic SF scene rendered surrealistic.

Great ship. Great planetary background. Great bra.? Science Stories’ cover?is the perfect evocation of a “scramble” using spaceships instead of B-52s.

SF Adventures was a pretty crude rag, so far as contents went, but this cover is one of the best, with the entire story reflected in the bell of that raygun. Science Fiction (another retitling of Future) is another great apocalyptic image. The creature is exactly the kind of thing you’d expect to see crawling out of a bomb crater.

Crashed spaceships – especially ones that have been buried for a long time – are a standard feature of SF iconography. The FU cover is just a great Bonestell-like planetscape.

IF’s UK debut is another planetary scene. Maybe if you enlarged the Fantastic Universe cover, you’d see these guys somewhere in there… F&SF from Australia – great scene of a crash at the rocket field.

Star, Fred Pohl’s major editorial contribution to the field, features a great Powers cover. The Vanguard image is probably one of the most brutal ever depicted. Whoever is in the control room is about to start having a very bad day.

This retitling of Amazing (Science Fiction to Stories) riffs on the Bonestell moon lander. Worlds of Fantasy, a sister mag to Worlds of Tomorrow shows us what happens to the children of people captured by the creatures featured on the Weird Tales cover.

TMTSFET depicts quicksand in space.? You’d think they’d have known something was up before getting out of the ship… SF Monthly from the UK was a noble attempt at an art mag and was filled with posters.

UWOSF was a great comics mag. This cover is a great nightmarish image of alien invasion.? Heavy Metal? Well, its got almost?giant robots and a kinda half naked woman and sorta whips.

Future has another Bonestell rendition and the (brief) re-issue of Galaxy has a great steampunk/giant robots pastiche.

There you have it.?

I had the pleasure of meeting and greeting Michael years ago when he did an appearance and signing at the original SF Bookstore in NYC.? (I loved that store; it was tiny, dark and smelled of pulp. It was jam-packed with SF goodness and I never failed to find something to read.)

Mr. Moorcock certainly deserves to be elevated to SFWA’s pantheon; he was one of the pillars of the new wave/British invasion of the 60s, edited Britian’s most influential magazine (New Worlds), championed the cause of many who would become well-established authors in their own right and has provided us with a huge body of work that almost defies description:

The Elric stories, the Jerry Cornelius stories, the Oswald Bastable stories, Behold the Man (which I first read as a graphic tale in the comic book Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction – while studying for my religious education degree – talk about synergy…), An Alien Heat, Gloriana and so much more.

Moorcock plays with myths and archetypes, time and reality like no other.? Much of his work (The Cornelius Chronicles in particular) can be described as psychedelic fantasy.? You have to be careful when reading him, as he has a way of getting inside your head and twisting things in strange ways.? Its best to make sure you’re firmly grounded in reality before cracking open one of his tales, because you are going to go on a trip, man!

If you are new to Grandmaster Michael Moorcock and wondering how and why someone you may never heard of, someone with such an outrageous last name could win SFWA’s highest honor – now is your excuse to read some of his stuff.? If you’re an SF fan, I’d ease into him with Warlord of the Air, The Land Leviathan and The Steel Tsar, three interconnected ‘alternate reality’ tales.? For more advanced readers, start with Behold the Man, his award-winning novel.? If fantasy is your game, pick up Stormbringer, the first of the Elric of Melnibone novels.

If you’re totally whacked, or want to be, try and read the Cornelius Chronicles(fans of Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner will feel right at home).

Congratulations Michael!