Having never seen the first issue anywhere, is there a way it could be posted on this site even if only for a short time? Of course a reprint (hint, hint) would be even better, but just looking at it would be cool. Any help/links from other fans would be welcome. Thank you in advance to all forum members, GVG, and/or other staff. (If this cover should happen to have a dragon on it, I ask that all artists develop potential tatoo stencils as I am sure Brian would like to get a full sleeve of this :)
F&SF Forum » The Process of Writing
First issue cover
(9 posts)-
Posted 3 weeks ago #
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Try...
sfcovers.net
or even ebay. I have two copies of the first issue. They are not hard to come by. The cover is pretty lame, even by 1949 standards. Damsel in distress from a stuffed tiny dragon. Her expression would best be described as "mildly agitated."
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
Posted 3 weeks ago #
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You can find all our covers here:
http://www.philsp.com/mags/fsf.htmland here at the aforementioned SFCovers.net site:
http://www.sfcovers.net/Magazines/FSF/intro.htm--Gordon V.G.
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
Thank you everybody. While not overly racy that cover did not strike me a tame either. That seems to be a lot of skin for 1949. Any owners know if that cover goes with any particular story?
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
Yes, it did. It's been a few years since reading it so I had to drag that issue out of the pile, but the story was "A Bride for the Devil" by Cleve Cartmill. While not a highlight of the issue, it had it's moments. Tony and Mick apparently got a chuckle out of it.
Quote "With its thick legs clamped about her neck, its clawlike paws tangled in her yellow hair, its heavy hairless tail lashing her across the flanks, the thing rode Mrs. Parkinson as a rodeo performer rides a bucking horse, rode her around and around the platform and then off through the air and out the skylight into the night."
So our sultry redhead on the front was actually supposed to be a blonde. Hmm.. The cover budget must have been tight.
The best stories in that premiere issue IMHO were Private-Keep Out (Stuart Palmer),The Hurkle is a Happy Beast (Ted Sturgeon) and In the Days of Our Fathers (Winona McClintic). Overall though, it was a strong issue and an appropriately respectable intro to the whole series.
Strange to think that, if the cover model is still among us, she would easily be over 80 years old. Not the best or worst of covers, I definitely prefer the George Salter work which followed.
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
In the realm of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she will always be 20
IRL she's probably dead, or just life-like artwork...
According to the Secret History of F&SF the model was a Van Gelder.
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
A bookseller in New England has told me she thinks her mother was the model for the cover---at least, that's what she was told. I think she implied that her mother had passed away, but I'm not sure.
Since I first saw it, I've thought the cover of the May 1950 issue of FANTASY FICTION (http://www.philsp.com/data/images/f/fantasy_fiction_195005.jpg) was uncomfortably similar to the cover of the first F&SF issue in terms of style and design. They only put out two issues, though.
---Gordon V.G.
Posted 3 weeks ago # -
On a similar note...once I was at a flea market selling comics and old SF mags,etc. I had a copy of Fate magazine for sale. A lady walked up and bought it because she was the model on the cover.
Posted 1 week ago #
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