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Wednesday 22 April 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.
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Watson, Ian
(1943-2026) UK teacher and author who lectured in English in Tanzania (1965-1967) and Tokyo (1967-1970) before beginning to publish sf with "Roof Garden Under Saturn" for New Worlds in 1969; he then taught Future Studies for six years at Birmingham Polytechnic, taking there one of the first academic courses in sf in the UK; he became a full-time writer in 1976, publishing around 200 short stories since 1969 at a gradually increasing tempo and with visibly ...
AC Comics
US publisher of various Comics titles, founded in Florida in 1969 by Bill Black, known originally as Paragon Publications and from 1982 to 1984 as Americomics. While primarily publishing a great deal of 1940s Golden Age comics material in various genres, AC Comics is best known for its female Superhero titles. The most famous of these is Femforce (1985-current), believed to be the first all-female superhero team in US comics. ...
Island at the Top of the World, The
Film (1974). Walt Disney Pictures (see The Walt Disney Company). Produced by Winston Hibler. Directed by Robert Stevenson. Written by John Whedon based on The Lost Ones (1961; vt The Island at the Top of The World 1968; rev 1974) by Ian Cameron. Cast includes Agneta Eckemyr, David Gwillim, David Hartman, Mako, Jacques Marin, Gunnar Öhlund and Donald Sinden. 93 minutes. ...
Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine
1. US Digest-size magazine. 4 issues, irregular, September 1953 to July 1954, published by Star Publications; edited by L B Cole. This was an unremarkable magazine of moderate standard which published no memorable fiction; the actual editing was done by Laurence M Janifer at the Scott Meredith Literary Agency. Meredith had arranged a packaging deal with a number of publishers to produce crime, mystery and sf magazines ...
Diary of Tortov Roddle, The
Japanese animated film series (2003); original title Aru tabibito no nikki. Robot Communications. Created, written and directed by Kunio Kato. Nine 2-6 minute episodes (including three OVAs). Colour. / Tortov Roddle is a lanky young man in top hat, scarf and black coat: his diary records "One day I travelled to the northern plains"; he does so riding a pig whose elongated legs recall Salvador Dalí's Los Elefantes (1948). He witnesses ...
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 ...