SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Sunday 10 May 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 4 May 2026
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Conway, Gerard F
(1952-2026) US author informally known as Gerry Conway who began his career in Comics, writing some non-fantastic scripts for Marvel Comics, and editing the short-lived 1973 weird fiction magazine The Haunt of Horror and writing for the 1973-1975 anthology Comic Worlds Unknown. He also worked extensively for ...
Wood, George
(1799-1870) US government official in the Treasury Department and author; his Peter Schlemihl in America (1848) anonymous is derived from Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte ["Peter Schlemihl's Miraculous Story"] (1814; trans J Bowring as Peter Schlemihl 1824) by Adalbert Von Chamisso (1781-1838), a supernatural fantasy whose protagonist, having sold his shadow to the Devil, wanders the world in search of wisdom and knowledge, aided in his travels by ...
Sallis, James
(1944-2026) US musician, poet and author, briefly active in New Worlds during its Michael Moorcock-directed New-Wave phase; he began to publish work of genre interest in this context with "Kazoo" (August 1967 New Worlds) and co-edited the magazine 1968-1969. His clearly acknowledged models in the French avant garde and the gnomic brevity of much of his work ...
Pal, George
Adopted name of Hungarian film producer born György Pál Marczincsak (1908-1980), based in the USA since 1940. He is best known for his sf and fantasy films, for which he received a Nebula Special Award in 1976. Trained as an illustrator in Budapest, Pal decided to specialize in animation, and in 1931 moved to Germany, where he worked at the UFA studios. When Hitler came to power Pal went to Paris, where he soon became very successful with a series of ...
Tomb of Terror
US Comic (1952-1954). 16 issues. Harvey Publications Inc.. Artists include Joe Certa, Lee Elias, Moe Marcus and Rudy Palais. Scriptwriters include Bob Powell. 36 pages. four long strips and one (occasionally two) short text stories each issue; plus short strips and one-page, purportedly non-fiction, pieces as filler (we are assured Shangri-La exists, as do lost worlds with prehistoric monsters). / For most of its run Tomb of Terror published ...
Nicholls, Peter
(1939-2018) Australian editor and author, primarily a critic and historian of sf through his creation and editing of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction [see below]; resident in the UK 1970-1988, in Australia from 1988; worked as an academic in English literature (1962-1968, 1971-1977), scripted television documentaries, was a Harkness Fellow in Film-making (1968-1970) in the USA, worked as a publisher's editor (1982-1983), often broadcast film and book reviews on BBC Radio from 1974 and ...