SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 16 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 14 July 2026
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Page, Spider
Pseudonym of US author Donald Graham Cormack (1909-2002), active in the Pulp magazines beginning with his first recorded sale "Revolt of the Circus Freaks" (October/November 1938 Horror Stories); his Blue Steel #1: The Ultimate Answer to Evil (1979) had originally been written as "Slaughter, Inc" in 1943 to continue the Spider sequence (see Norvell W Page) in Spider, but was not printed then due to ...
Comics Scene
US letter-size saddle-stapled Media Magazine printed on a mix of newsprint and better-quality paper. Published by O'Quinn Studios/Starlog Communications. Editor: David McConnell, others. 70 issues 1982 to 2000. Publication schedule was bimonthly or monthly. / This publication attempted to cover Comics in much the same way as its parent magazine Starlog did with sf films and ...
Niall, Ian
Pseudonym of Scottish author John McNeillie (1916-2002), most famous for the nonfiction The Poacher's Handbook (1950). His sf novel, The Boy Who Saw Tomorrow (1952), offers a quiet portrait of the effect on a small village of a young lad's Predictions of the Near Future. [JC]
Small Wonder
US tv series (1985-1989). Metromedia Productions, 20th Century Fox Television. Syndicated. Produced by Howard Leeds, Budd Grossman, Jean Hester, Bruce Taylor. Directors included Peter Baldwin, Linda Day, Leslie H Martinson. Writers included Dick Christie, Donald Ross, David Silverman. Cast includes William Bogart, Tiffany Brissette, Dick Christie, Alice Ghostley, Edie McClurg (first season only), Marla Pennington, Emily Schulman and Jerry Suprian. 96 30-minute episodes. Colour. / ...
Morons from Outer Space
Film (1985). Directed by Mike Hodges. Written by Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith; developed by Bob Mercer. Cast includes Paul Bown, Griff Rhys Jones, Dinsdale Landen, Jimmy Nail, Joanne Pearce and Mel Smith. 97 minutes, cut to 91 minutes. Colour. / Very stupid Aliens (identical in appearance and behaviour to humans) have rented a Spaceship to go on holiday. They crashland on a UK motorway and later become media stars. This ...
Clute, John
(1940- ) Canadian critic, editor and author, in the UK from 1969; married to Judith Clute from 1964, partner of Elizabeth Hand since 1996. He began to publish work of genre interest with an sf-tinged poem "Carcajou Lament" in Triquarterly for Winter 1960 [ie Autumn 1959]; he began consistently publishing sf reviews in his "New Fiction" column for the Toronto Star ...