SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Wednesday 9 July 2025
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 7 July 2025
Sponsor of the day: Andy Richards of Cold Tonnage Books
Slam Bang Comics
US Comic (1940). Fawcett Publications Inc. 7 issues. Artists include Jack Binder, Gus Ricca, Hal Sharp and Mike Suchorsky. Scriptwriters include Jack Cole, Mort Weisinger and apparently Manly Wade Wellman (see below). 68 pages, with seven long strips and a short text story each issue; plus short gag, fiction or non-fiction pieces as filler. The strips feature a ...
Stein, Benjamin
(1944- ) US actor (as Ben Stein), lawyer, journalist and author, an advocate of intelligent design in Evolution, apparently arguing that a proper understanding of the theory of evolution showed that it led inevitably to Eugenics and the excesses of Nazi Germany. His first novel, On the Brink (1977) with Herbert Stein, depicts a ...
Sutton, Lee
(1916-1978) US librarian and author of Venus Boy (1955), a Young Adult tale set on Venus; its young protagonist, the first human born on the planet, establishes a close relationship with a Venusian "bear", and save each other from predators, both native and imported from Earth. [JC]
Grzędowicz, Jarosław
(1965- ) Polish writer, editor, and translator who debuted in 1982 with two short stories in the regional literary magazine Odgłosy. The first was the sf "Azyl dla starych pilotów" ["Asylum for Old Pilots"], about a retired astronaut; the second was "Twierdza trzech studni" ["A Fortress of Three Wells"], considered to be the first Polish work in the fantasy genre, although it arguably has some sf elements and could be termed ...
Topol, Allan
(1941- ) US lawyer and author, usually of nonfantastic (though occasionally implausible) political thrillers; of sf interest is The Fourth of July War (1978), a Near Future tale in which America, threatened by attempts by OPEC to jump up the price of oil (again), mounts a successful Invasion of the Middle East, and saves cheap oil for the world. [JC]
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 ...