SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Monday 5 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 3 June 2023
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Outer Space
US Comic (1958-1959). Charlton Comics. 9 issues (numbered #17-#25), but see the final paragraph. Artists include Steve Ditko, Rocco "Rocke" Mastroserio, Bill Molno and Charles Nicholas. Most of the scripts were by Joe Gill. Usually 4-6 comic strips per issue and a two page text short-story, mainly sf. / Under a banner "The New Frontier!" the first issue (#17) ...
Pomerleau, Luc
(1955- ) French-speaking Canadian physics graduate, technical translator, editor of the French-language Quebec sf magazine Solaris since 1986, and sf and comics critic. He wrote the section on Francophone sf in the Canada entry of this encyclopedia's second edition. [PN]
Genre SF
By this term, used widely in this encyclopedia, we mean sf that is either labelled science fiction or is instantly recognized by its readership as belonging to that category – or (usually) both. The implication is that any author of genre sf is conscious of working within a genre with certain habits of thought, certain "conventions" – some might even say "rules" – of storytelling. These conventions are embedded primarily in a set of texts which are generally agreed to ...
Schachner, Nat
(1895-1955) US chemist, lawyer and author, known mainly for biographies of US historical figures, who began publishing work of genre interest with "The Tower of Evil" with Arthur Leo Zagat (it was also his first publication) for Wonder Stories Quarterly, Summer 1930. His collaboration with Zagat lasted over a year, all Schachner's first eleven stories being done with him, including a novel-length tale, ...
Kimagure Robot
Japanese animated webseries (2004; vt The Capricious Robot). Studio 4°C. Based on the stories of Shinichi Hoshi. Directors include Yasuhiro Aoki and Yasuyuki Shimizu. Voice cast comprises Toshiyuki Itakura (all male voices) and Megumi (all female voices). Ten two-minute episodes. Colour. / Sometime in the future, The Doctor – a partially Cyborged, slightly ...
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 ...