SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Saturday 17 May 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.
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Fabian, Stephen E
(1930-2025) American artist, sometimes credited as Steve Fabian or simply Fabian. The self-trained Fabian first worked as an electronic engineer, but he began contributing art to Fanzines in the late 1960s and became a full-time professional artist in 1973. He did a number of covers and interior art for SF Magazines, mostly Amazing, Fantastic, and ...
Komatsuzaki Shigeru
(1915-2001) Japanese illustrator (see Illustration) and author, whose lurid images dominated sf publishing in Japan in the 1950s, before resurgent Cinema and the new media of Television and Manga changed the shape of the genre. / His first published work comprised illustrations for the serial "Shirogitsune Kidan" ["Mystery of the White Fox"] (1938 ...
Toombs, Robert T
(? - ) Almost certainly a pseudonym; no identity has been suggested for this name, which is attached to a series of five short Edisonades featuring Electric Bob, beginning with Electric Bob and His White Alligator; Or, Hunting for Confederate Treasure in the Mississippi River (1893 chap), in the New York Five Cent Library series of novellas published by Street and Smith. Electric Bob is a spoof ...
Newman, Paul S
(1924-1999) US author who scripted the first Tom Corbett comic strip, based on Tom Corbett: Space Cadet (1950-1955) and published on 9 September 1951. His novel Alien Missile Threat (1967) is an unremarkable Tie to the Television series The Invaders (1967-1968). His only recorded short sf is "Hill of the Flashing Light" in ...
Davies, Gruff
(1970- ) UK software designer, entrepreneur and author, developer of Kwiziq, a "language coach" for communicating with and instructing AIs. He is of sf interest for The Looking Glass Club (2010), which examines the consequences, twenty-five years into the Near Future, of a 2010 experiment in reality-manipulation (see Perception; ...
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 ...