Out of Cal State's archives comes an unbelievably rare first issue of the first magazine to focus solely on science fiction, edited by Hugo Gernsback. Though not a zine, fan lore says zines arose out of the letter columns of pulps like Amazing. Readers formed fan organizations, such as the Science Correspondence Club, which published the first zine: The Comet, in May 1930, edited by Ray Palmer. Palmer edits Amazing from 1938-1949.
The earliest zine in Special Collections is this rare 1932 first issue of The Planetoid by Bob Tucker, one of the most important figures in sf fandom (a “BNF,” or Big Name Fan, in fanspeak). This is his first published zine, dedicated to "a future minded bunch of science fans--who work for one goal: scientificition." Gernsback coined the term "scientifiction" in Amazing No. 1, though the genre quickly came to be called "science fiction."
Bob Tucker wrote professionally as Wilson Tucker, but is best remembered for publishing important commentary on the developing sf genre (inventing terms like “space opera” along the way) in his well-respected and long-running zine, Le Zombie, which has issues published from 1938 to 2001!
This is the one and only issue of a very rare zine from 1933, edited by John Michel and Edward Gervais. Michel would go on to edit, and Gervais to write for, the next, and more prominent zine we have to show you, released just the following year. The three editors of that zine would be founding members of The Futurians, an influential group of sf fans whose members also include writers Isaac Asimov and Damon Knight.
We have the first two issues of this key sf zine from 1934. Editors John Michel, Frederik Pohl, and Donald A. Wollheim became highly influential fans, professional writers, and editors of science fiction.
Besides being founding members of The Futurians and being active in sf fandom (and its many disputes), these editors changed sf in other ways:
Michel proposed the first WorldCon, the first gathering of Science Fiction Fans, which gives out the Hugo Award, named for Gernsback. WorldCons continue to this day.
Pohl is a major writer of the field, elected a Science Fiction Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. He edited important early sf magazines Galaxy and Worlds of If.
Wollheim was the founding publisher of DAW, the first mass market sf publishing house. He was also inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.