In yesterday’s Scroll I threw out this link with a challenge —
Look for the SF pulps! Photos of old newsstands.
Steve Davidson of Amazing Stories actually did it. Here are his results. The titles are flagged in red.
- Argosy
- Astounding, Amazing, and Weird Tales
- Planet Stories
- Weird Tales
- Wonder and Amazing
- Action Comics
I asked if Steve used a computerized microscope? He answered, “Nah, squinting and an intimate familiarity with pulp SF title fonts, lol.”
…and a couple of them I’d already been through previously. The second from the bottom is, I believe, a French newsstand; you can date the image to within a month or so by looking at the cover art to determine the issue.
That second to last I’m particularly fond of….
***
I happened to be in a BAM (Books-a-Million) yesterday and checked out the magazine rack: SciFiNow (two diff issues), Locus, Heavy Metal, several movie promo mags of ephemeral title, and Asimovs and Analog hidden away on an entirely different shelf from the eye-catchers.
Sad.
There was a time when even I could lament the lack of a dollar or two and would have to leave the stand without picking up every single SF title on the shelves….