Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories

The post-war revival of Columbia's two main SF titles has a tangled history. They were revived as a combined title, starting the numbering over at volume 1 #1. Science Fiction Stories was separated from Future and published two issues to test the market for a conversion to digest size. The results were apparently encouraging and shortly afterwards Future changed to digest size. §§After three issues the publisher apparently decided that Science Fiction Stories was the stronger title; Future was discontinued with the October 1954 issue and replaced with Science Fiction Stories. However, Future's numbering was continued in the new series of Science Fiction Stories. §§Ordinarily this would be considered a simple title change but, to further confuse things, about a year after the title change the publisher revived Future again as a separate title, with a parallel numbering that was also derived from the October 1954 issue of Future. To emphasize this fissioning of one title into two, we have separated the post-1954 issues of Future into a separate listing; see the entry for Future Science Fiction.

Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories

• 1950: May/Jun; Jul/Aug; Sep/Oct; Nov
• 1951: Jan; Mar; May; Jul; Sep; Nov

Future Science Fiction Stories

• 1952: Jan; Mar

Future Science Fiction

• 1952: May; Jul; Sep; Nov
• 1953: Jan; Mar; May; Jul; Sep; Nov
• 1954: Jan; Mar; Jun; Aug; Oct