SF Encyclopedia Home Page
Thursday 11 December 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.
Site updated on 8 December 2025
Sponsor of the day: Paul Giamatti
Half Japanese
American lo-fi punk band (sometimes written as ½ Japanese), formed in 1974 by the brothers Jad and David Fair. In their early days they were a shambolic but enthusiastic duo, comprising drums, electric guitar and strangulated vocals, with songs usually 1-2 minutes long; their first vinyl release, the 45rpm "Calling all Girls" (1977), had eleven tracks. Gradually they became more polished – or more studiously shambolic – adding further band members and longer songs; though Jad ...
Vampirella
Letter-size black-and-white Comics format magazine printed on newsprint-quality paper. Publisher: Warren Publishing. Character created by Forrest J Ackerman; costume initially designed by Trina Robbins, who repudiated its later, pornotopic iterations. Editors included Archie Goodwin, Billy Graham, Louise Jones and Bill Parente. Artists included José ...
Ghidalia, Vic
(1926-2013) US publicist for ABC TV who in his spare time co-edited eight genre Anthologies with Roger Elwood, from The Little Monsters (anth 1969) to Beware More Beasts (anth 1975). He was also the solo editor of several further anthologies published from 1971 to 1977, as detailed in the Checklist below. [JC/DRL]
Jarre, Jean Michel
(1948- ) French composer and performer of electronic synthesizer pieces. There is no explicit sf content to the instrumental suites Oxygene (1976), Equinoxe (1978) and Les Chants Magnétiques (1981) but it is hard to escape the sense that these bleepy, throbbing, soaring soundscapes are aural SF. Jarre is certainly fascinated by space. The last track of Rendez-Vous (1986), "La Derniere Rendez-Vous" is dedicated ...
Cramer, Kathryn
(1962- ) US critic and editor; daughter of John Cramer, married to David G Hartwell from 1997 until his death in 2016, who began publishing fiction of genre interest with "Forbidden Knowledge" in Mathenauts (anth 1987) edited by Rudy Rucker; she has been involved in various capacities with the ...
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 ...