SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 29 July 2026
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for what we mean by Science Fiction; here for the masthead; here for some Statistics; here for the Acknowledgments; here for the FAQ; here for advice on citations. Find entries via the search box above (more details here) or browse the menu categories in the grey bar at the top of this page.
Site updated on 27 July 2026
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Corpse Vanishes, The
US film (1942; vt The Case of the Missing Brides). Banner Productions. Directed by Wallace Fox. Written by Harvey Gates from a story by Sam Robins and Gerald Schnitzer. Cast includes Tristram Coffin, Bela Lugosi, Frank Moran, Angelo Rossitto, Elizabeth Russell, Minerva Urecal and Luana Walters. 63 minutes. Black and white. / As she says "I do," a bride collapses and is declared dead; the mortuary staff arrive, to be told the body has already ...
Lights Out
US tv series (1946-1952). Sponsored by the Admiral Corporation, others, for NBC-TV. Produced by Arch Oboler, Herbert B Swope Jr and Ernest Walling. Directors included William Corrigan, Kingman T Moore, Grey Lockwood and Delbert Mann. Writers included Fred Coe, George Leffert, Ernst Kinroy and A J Russell. Narrators: Jack La Rue, Frank Gallop. 160 30-minute episodes. Black and white. / This anthology series was among the first regular ...
Stelle, Dr Robert D
(1881-1952) US author, active as an author of nonfantastic Western stories in the early 1930s. His sf novel, The Sun Rises: The Story of the Formation of the First and Greatest Civilization on This Earth as it Actually Occurred 70,000 Years Ago (1952), is a narrative crudely definable as Prehistoric SF, but one whose depiction of the Lost World of Lemuria adheres with some fidelity to the history of the world as ...
Geigley, Vance A
(1907-1996) US author and businessman involved in mining, building and real estate investment, whose solitary sf novel is Will It End This Way? (1968). [JC/DRL]
Supervillains
Supervillains (see Villains) were an inevitable consequence of the emergence of Superheroes in Comics and other media, since it quickly became apparent that the pioneering superhero Superman (see DC Comics) and his similarly powerful counterparts could as a rule encounter no meaningful opposition from ordinary criminals to create ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book ...