Extro
Entry updated 19 February 2024. Tagged: Publication.
Northern Irish SF Magazine, Slick A4 format. Published bimonthly by Specifi Publications. Edited by Paul Campbell (? -2021), with David Langford billed as nonfiction editor from #2. Three issues, dated February/March, April/May and July/August 1982.
During its brief slick-format existence Extro published fiction by Brian W Aldiss, Richard Cowper, Garry Kilworth, Christopher Priest, Bob Shaw, John T Sladek, Ian Watson, James White and others, along with Interviews, essays and book reviews, and even a comic strip by David Langford and artist Mike Barr (pseudonym in #2 of Jim Barker, who used his real name in #3). Inclusion of some of the older British sf authors, such as Edward Mackin with "Underpass" (April/May 1982), and artwork by Gerard Quinn, gave the magazine something of the flavour of an updated John Carnell-era New Worlds; but there was sufficient material by new writers, notably Ian McDonald with his first story, "The Islands of the Dead" (April/May 1982), to make the magazine feel contemporary. Advance notices of the fourth and fifth issues showed that strong plans were afoot; had the bank manager not dishonoured an overdraft arrangement, the magazine might have established a firm reputation.
Extro had a previous Semiprozine incarnation as Popular Music & Science-Fiction Journal (four issues, April-September 1979) and then a non-slick Extro (three issues in 1980), whose editorial consortium included Robert Allen. [MA/RH/DRL]
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