Art on the Margins: Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, 1978-1981

Coming from the same territory as my two posts (here and here) about decorative art in The Magazine 0f Fantasy and Science Fiction, “this” (ta-da-dumm!!) post covers the same topic for an entirely different publication: Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine.

Unlike the posts about MF&SF – which involved examining all issues of the magazine published from 1949 through the mid-1960s, this exploration of decorative art in IASFM is of a more limited scope. Well, make that a very limited scope. On further thought, make that a very narrow (!) scope: A few random issues which I acquired from 1978 and 1981. (Which “dates” me!) While certainly not representative of the magazine’s interior art throughout its continuing existence, it does give a glimpse of the artistic thinking prevailing during that limited time-frame of almost five decades ago. As such, the illustration from February, 1981 is particularly evocative, what with a cathode ray tube computer, push-button corded slim-line phone, and computer utilizing magnetic tape in a reel-to-reel system.

Akin to MF&SF, none of the illustrations below, all perhaps one to two inches wide, have any relation to the stories that appeared in the relevant issues of IASFM. Rather, they’re purely thematic in nature, their purpose being to impart a sciency and spacey “air”, or “theme” to magazine. (Except for Jack Gaughan’s art for the February, 1981 issue. That’s connected to a story by Rand B. Lee.) The “same” illustration – whatever it might be – appeared multiple times in successive issues of the magazine. In general, four themes are evident, fewer than in MF&SF. These are planetscapes, space and space exploration, and technology. This directly reflects MF&SF having encompassed – as evident in its very title – fantasy as well as science fiction (though it was initially entitled The Magazine of Fantasy).

I’ve not been able to identify the artist who created these delightful, imaginative, striking and typically intricate and complex drawings. A clue: The logo “S.” is discretely tucked away on the periphery of the compositions.

As far as the magazine itself? I never developed interest in or enthusiasm for it, reflective of my greater (yet certainly not exclusive) interest in science fiction from the 40s through the early 60s, well before I was born. My strongest memory is John Varley’s “The Barbie Murders“, from the magazine’s issue of January / February 1978, which I found to be as underwhelming as it was simply strange. (Or was it as strange as it was underwhelming?) Not “strange” interesting, either. (Which is fine.) Just strange as in odd.

These images were found by scouring the issues in my possession to find the best example of these illustrations (the specific issue is listed in each caption, and, scanning them (typically) at 400 dpi. The detail’s crisper that way. I “cleaned” them to make them a little bolder and a lot less fuzzy.

Finally, as you’ll see from the “logos” below the images, this work was done way back in 2017-land: eight years ago. So, I do have a bit of a back-log with this blog. Albeit the time lag’s not superluminal.

Enjoy the images.

Planetscapes

January 1978, p 117