I recently picked up a couple of old sci-fi magazines — The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (March 1969) and Venture Science Fiction (May 1969), chosen mostly based on their covers. I'll be doing mini-reviews when I get around to reading them. In the mean time, I'll share some pictures and information about each.

§The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March 1969

Founded in 1949, the venerable F&SF is still being published today. This issue features two novelets, five short stories, a cartoon, and Isaac Asimov's long-running popular science column. Asimov's column, coincidentally, began in the other magazine featured in this post (Venture Science Fiction) — it was a companion to F&SF, and the column moved to there with the end of VSF.

§Venture Science Fiction, May 1969

The horror-ish aesthetic of the cover made this one stand out and I was rewarded with some excellent illustrations by Bert Tanner. This issue is from VSF's second run, neither of which lasted long. The magazine did have some impact though: the first publication of Sturgeon's Law was in VSF, and Asimov's popsci column began here, as mentioned above. It also published Vonda N. McIntyre's first story, and an early story by James Tiptree Jr.