SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 12 March 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 9 March 2026
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Axler, James
A House Name used by the Gold Eagle Books division of Harlequin Enterprises Ltd – Harlequin also published the Laser Books series in the 1970s – for various series, three of them of sf interest, two of these being extremely long. Deathlands (over 120 volumes) begins as a Ruined Earth sequence set 100 years after nuclear war has terminated civilization in 2001 in a ...
Lee, Stan
(1922-2018) US Comic-book writer, editor and executive, born Stanley Martin Leiber; his name was legally changed to Lee. Before World War Two he began to establish himself in the New York comics publishing world, in 1939 joining Timely Comics, Inc, the firm for which Jack Kirby invented Captain America in 1941. Lee remained with Timely – which soon became Atlas Comics, then ...
Abrams, J J
(1966- ) US creator of Cinema productions and Television series, including works of major genre interest in both categories. In a precocious debut at age 15 he wrote the music for the Horror in SF film Nightbeast (1982) directed by Don Dohler (see The Alien Factor). Early sf work as screenwriter includes the movies ...
Sheena, Queen of the Jungle
1. US Comic strip created by Will Eisner, S M "Jerry" Iger (using the pseudonym W Morgan Thomas) and possibly Mort Meskin, who was the artist for the early issues. Though American in origin, the strip actually debuted in the UK magazine Wags #46 (January 1938); stateside, Sheena first appeared in Jumbo Comics #1 (September 1938) and continued in every issue including its last, #167 in March 1953. The comic book series ...
Telepathy
Telepathy or mind-reading is the most popular and durable paranormal ability in sf; its hypothetical roots in scientific reality are discussed under ESP, as are instances of pre-Genre SF usage and various stories which deal with telepathy as part of a wider spectrum of Psi Powers. Roger Luckhurst's The Invention of Telepathy: 1870-1901 (2002) usefully ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...