M-M-Magic
- M-M-MAGIC - A black ink and black color pencil drawing on an 11 x 14 size coquille board. It illustrates the story, "M-M-Magic," by Rory Harper, in Fantasy Book, Dec.1981. It was reprinted in "Amazing, March, 1987" as part of a special "Fabian Art Folio" feature.
The "M-M-Magic" in science fiction pulp magazines began in 1926 when the first issue of Amazing Stories was published. The people who bought that magazine, as well as other pulp magazine titles, were born when there were no movie theatres to go to, no radio programs to listen to, and no TV shows to watch. The Pulps were their entertainment. And when that generation of people passed away, so did the pulps. The "golden Age" and the "Sense of Wonder" lasted for about 40 years.
Those who lived through that Golden Age saw the first airplanes fly across the sky, were awed when the first electric light bulbs lit the night, were thrilled at listening to voices and music come from a box called a "radio," and were amazed at being able to put a "record" on a turntable, crank it up and listen to music. They were excited about going to a "picture show" where they paid a dime to sit in the dark and watch the first silent motion pictures flicker on a huge screen. And when television was invented it seemed there was no end to the miracles that kept coming to them. They were a generation fortunate to witness so many "miracles".
But time marches on and things pass by to make room for the next generation of new "miracles". The ones we are living with today, like the computer and the internet. But that unique "Sense of Wonder" felt by so many during the Golden Age is gone. Present and future generations can never experience that same sense of wonder that they did, and that I did for a brief period of time during the last days of the pulps, the early 1950s. Sadly, though I can remember it, I can no longer feel it.
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