Re: Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction--defunct?

Evelyn C. Leeper <evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com> wrote:

I still have the T-shirt they gave out (in 1982 at Chicon IV?) that says
"A SPACESHIP HAS LANDED ON EARTH / IT CAME FROM ROCKWELL" with a picture
of the shuttle on the front, and "OMNI / The Magazine of Tomorrow /
Charting Man's Progess / Through the 21st Century" on the back. In fact,
I wore it a couple of days ago. I also had some OMNI plastic bags (from
the same convention?), but I gave them out to the panelists on the OMNI
panel at LoneStarCon 3.

I remember the first two or three issues came out under the name NOVA and
then they had some legal issues with the PBS television program of the same
name and got renamed OMNI.  I cannot find any of the early NOVA issues online
anywhere.  I had all of them but my mother threw them out when I was in grad
school.

They were capitalizing on the big interest in science fiction among mainstream
audiences that was either created or unveiled by Star Wars.  It was a slick
magazine with slick magazine ads, but with pulp (or a slight step above pulp)
stories.

Some of the stories were from authors that never got seen anywhere else, and
who deserved to be seen elsewhere, like Steven Robinett.  And the Last Jerry
Fagin Show by John Morressy has been in my mind since it was published.  But
some of them were from big name authors who welcomed better pay, as well as
from folks like Spider Robinson who were on the way up.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."