In this podcast, we will be looking at science fiction magazines, comic books and other graphic media during the mid-to-late- twentieth century, including works from Amazing Stories magazine and Galaxy Science Fiction, DC Comics, and Playboy Magazine. We will examine these texts in relation to the anxieties and issues in American society from the late 1940s to the early 1970s, looking at nuclear anxiety and fear of the atomic bomb and the possibility of nuclear war, as well as issues of female subjectivity in graphic media and the conformist attitudes of the Cold War era.
Lauren will firstly begin by looking at the brief history of science fiction in 20th century America, focusing on the first science fiction magazine and the nuclear anxieties from the late 40s onwards and the role science fiction played in it all.
Gráinne will continue discussing the atomic obsession and anxiety of the Space Age present in the pages of DC comic books during the 1950s and 60s as well as the Comic’s Code Authority and the conformity of the era.
And Lucy will finish off by discussing sci-fi publications in Playboy magazine, as well as the juxtaposition of gender and science fiction in this medium, and the prominence and portrayal of women in science fiction.
Further Reading:
Hugo Gernsback and Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories Magazine. Internet Archive. 2019.
https://archive.org/details/amazingstoriesmagazine
Berger. Albert I. “The Triumph of Prophecy: Science Fiction and Nuclear Power in the Post-Hiroshima Period.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 3, no. 2, 1976, pp. 143–150. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4239017.
Claire, Mollie. “Did the A-Bomb Cause Them?”. Amazing Stories Magazine. Internet Archive. Accessed 21 Mar. 2019.
https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v23n09_1949-09_cape1736/page/n59
Dick, Philip K. “Breakfast at Twilight”. Amazing Stories Magazine. Internet Archive. Accessed 24 Mar. 2019.
https://archive.org/details/Amazing_Stories_v28n03_1954-07_LennyS-cape1736/page/n23
Scholes, Robert, Rabkin, Eric S. “A Brief Literary History of Science Fiction”. Science Fiction: History, Science, Vision. Oxford University Press. p. 3, 1977.
Westfahl, Gary. “‘The Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Edgar Allan Poe Type of Story’: Hugo Gernsback’s History of Science Fiction.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 19, no. 3, 1992, pp. 340–353. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4240181.
Westfahl, Gary. “The Popular Tradition of Science Fiction Criticism, 1926-1980.” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 26, no. 2, 1999, pp. 187–212. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4240783.
DC Comics 1950s – 1960s
Eastop, Dinah. ‘Chapter 32: Conservation as Material Culture’. Handbook of Material Culture. Tilley, Christopher, Webb Keane, Susanne Küchler, Mike Rowland and Patricia Spyer. Eds.
London: Sage., 2006. 285-303, 516-533. Print.
Eisner, Will. Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative. New Jersey: Poorhouse Press., 1996. Print.
Gravett, Paul and John Harris Dunning. Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the U.K. London: The British Library Board. 2014. Print.
Prown, Jules David. Art as Evidence: Writings on Art and Material Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press., 2001. Print.
Sabin, Roger. Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art. London: Phaidon Press Limited. 1996. Print.
Silbermann, Herausgegeben von Alphons and H.-D. Dyroff (eds.) Comics and Visual Culture: Research Studies from ten Countries. München: K.G Saur. 1986. Print.
Whyte, William H. The Organisation Man. New York: Simon & Schuster., 1956. Print.
Prown, Jules David. (1982) ‘Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method’. Winterthur Portfolio, 17 (1):1-19.
Suvin, Darko. “On the Poetics of the Science Fiction Genre.” College English, vol. 34, no. 3, 1972, p. 372., doi:10.2307/375141.
Carter, Max. Dir. “Secret Origin: The Story of DC Comics [Documentary]”. New York: Warner Brothers Entertainment Inc. 2010.
Wise, Robert. “The Day the Earth Stood Still”. Los Angeles. Twentieth Century-Fox home Entertainment South Pacific Pty. Ltd. . 2007 [origin 1951].
Fun Comics #1. Jan 11 1935. “Jack Woods: Don Nogales, Cattle Rustler, Part 1.” Major Malcolm Wheeler Nicholson. Ed. Lyman Anderson. Artist. New York: National Allied Publications [later known as DC Comics]. Print.
Showcase #4 October 1956. “Mystery of the Human Thunderbolt” and “The Man who broke the Time Barrier”. Whitney Ellsworth. Ed. Carmine Infantino and Joe Kubert. Artists. New York: National Comics Publications, Inc. [DC Comics]. Approved by the Comics Code Authority. Print.
Showcase #8 May/ June 1957. “The Coldest Man on Earth”. Ira Schnapp. Letters. Carmine Infantino and Frank Giacoia. Artists. New York: National Comics Publications, Inc. [DC Comics]. Approved by the Comics Code Authority. Print.
Showcase #22 Sept / Oct 1959. “SOS Green Lantern” Julius Schwartz. Ed. Gil Kane. Artist. New York: National Comics Publications, Inc. [DC Comics]. Approved by the Comics Code Authority. Print.
Green Lantern #7 August 1961 “The Day 100,000 People Vanished!” Julius Schwartz. Ed. Gil Kane, Joe Giella and Jack Adler. Artists. New York: National Comics Publications, Inc. [DC Comics]. Approved by the Comics Code Authority. Print.
Green Lantern #13 June 1962 “Duel of the Super-Heroes! (Co-starring the Flash)”. Julius Schwartz. Ed. Gil Kane, Joe Giella. Artists. Ira Schnapp. Letters. New York: National Comics Publications, Inc. [DC Comics]. Approved by the Comics Code Authority. Print.
Green Lantern #16 October 1962“The Secret Life of Star Sapphire!” Julius Schwartz. Ed. Gil Kane, Murphy Anderson and Jack Adler. Artists. Ira Schnapp. Letters. New York: National Comics Publications, Inc. [DC Comics]. Approved by the Comics Code Authority. Print.
1st Issue Special #5 August 1975 “Manhunter”. Jack Kirby and Steve Sherman. Eds. Jack Kirby, D. Bruce Berry and Tatjana Wood. Artists. Joe Letterese. Letters. New York: National Comics Publications, Inc. [DC Comics]. Approved by the Comics Code Authority. Print.
The Flash: The Silver Age – Volume 1. June 21, 2016. California: DC Comics. Print.
The Flash: The Silver Age – Volume 2. October 3, 2017. California: DC Comics. Print.
The Flash: The Silver Age – Volume 3. April 10, 2018. California: DC Comics. Print.
Green Lantern: The Silver Age – Volume 1. October 11, 2016. California: DC Comics. Print.
Green Lantern: The Silver Age – Volume 2. November 14, 2017. California: DC Comics. Print.
Green Lantern: The Silver Age – Volume 3. April 24, 2018. California: DC Comics. Print.
1970s Playboy and Onwards
Atwood, Margaret. In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination. Hachette Digital, 2011.
Atwood, Margaret. Wilderness Tips. Hachette Digital, 2010.
Hollinger, Veronica, “Contemporary Trends in Science Fiction Criticism, 1980-1999” Science Fiction Studies no. 2, 1999, pp. 232-262.
Newell, Dianne and Lamont, Victoria. “Daughter of Earth: Judith Merril and the Intersection of Gender, Science Fiction, and Frontier Mythology”. Science Fiction Studies no. 1, 2009, pp. 48-66.
Langer, Emily. “Alice K. Turner, fiction editor at Playboy magazine for two decades, dies”. The Washington Post, 2015.
Le Guin, Ursula K. The Wind’s Twelve Quarters. HarperPrism, 1975.
Le Guin, Ursula K. “The Golden Age”. The New Yorker, 2012.
Vonnegut, Kurt. Breakfast of Champions, or, Goodbye Blue Monday. Vintage, 2000.
Science Fiction and Culture 