SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Friday 2 June 2023
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for 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 29 May 2023
Sponsor of the day: Terrence Somerville
Lars of Mars
US Comic (1951). Two issues (numbered #10 and #11). Ziff-Davis. Artists include Allen Anderson, Murphy Anderson and Gene Colan. Four long comic strips per issue, three involving Lars; plus a two-page text story and three brief science-related articles. Lars was created by Jerry Siegel and artist Murphy Anderson; it is probable that Siegel wrote the scripts. / Millions of years ago the Venusians (see ...
Greene, Joseph
(1914-1990) US author, editor and author for Comics from the late 1930s, scripting various series, including (it has been claimed) various DC Comics Superhero productions such as Superman and Wonder Woman; much of his work was either anonymous, or under variations of his own name or pseudonyms such as Joe Green, Joseph Lawrence, ...
Owen, Eric R
(? -? ) UK film director, cameraman and author, active from about 1918 in the cinema, primarily with Gaumont British News and British Movietone News 1933-1947. He is credited with the publication of several novels, perhaps some of them pseudonymous as none have been identified beyond Dr Zollinoff's Revenge: A Mystery and Detective Novel (1937). The eponymous Mad Scientist of this efficient tale uses his ability to ...
Packard, Frank L
(1877-1942) Canadian author known almost exclusively for the Jimmy Dale the Gray Seal sequence of thrillers, beginning with "The Gray Seal" (May 1914 People's Magazine), which was later assembled with other stories as The Adventures of Jimmie Dale (coll of linked stories 1917), several further volumes following until 1935. With his secret identity, his "Fortress of Solitude", his hidden wealth, his moral imperatives and his remarkable physical skills, Jimmy Dale ...
Nuclear Winter
The possibility that smoke and dust from a large nuclear exchange (as in most models of World War Three) might bring about drastic Climate Change was advanced by scientists in 1982; Carl Sagan was part of a team which conducted computer modelling of atmospheric effects and published the admonitory paper "Nuclear Winter: Global Consequences of Multiple Nuclear Explosions" (23 December 1983 ...
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 ...