Introduction

Images of Interzone are reproduced with the kind permission of David Pringle, editor and publisher up to issue 193. The new Interzone web-site is now found at http://www.ttapress.com/IZ.html

Interzone is currently Britain's leading and longest-running science fiction and fantasy magazine. At the time of writing, its most recent issue was January-February 2005, #196. It was founded by a group including David Pringle, its first issue in Spring 1982 listing no less than eight co-editors. From #26 to #193, Pringle was publisher and sole editor. Pringle stood down in 2004 and publication was taken over by TTA press. In longevity, it approaches "New Worlds" - 201 issues over 25 years, if you exclude the later paperback and fanzine incarnations - and the British edition of "Astounding", 222 issues over 24 years. Interzone started quarterly, went bi-monthly in 1988 and monthly from May 1990, which it remained until 2001, though its schedule slipped to ten issues in 2002, then became more erratic in 2003. TTA is aiming for a bi-monthly schedule.

Any British SF magazine has to find a way to live in the long shadow of "New Worlds" and has, in particular, to find a way of balancing radical literary innovation with readability. Interzone has trodden this tightrope, uncomfortably at times, but successfully for more than twenty years now. It has occasionally been accused of not being radical enough, but it has fostered a new generation of British SF talent while maintaining a reasonably broad appeal. Under the new ownership, it does have a distinctly different look and feel and it remains to be seen how appealing this is to its readers.

It has, moreover, always been much more difficult for a specialist SF magazine to survive in the UK than in the United States, with a home market only one fifth the size. Precise circulation figures are not easy to come by, but the most successful US magazines at their peak probaly had paid circulation in excess of 100,000. Through the 60s, when US magazines were required to publish annual figures, the leading magazines reported circulations of 50-60,000. Now, it is more likely 20-30,000. The best clue to Interzone's circulation is given in the small ads column, where it is claimed that the ads will "reach 10,000 people". Since it is common to assume that each copy is read by several people, it is unlikely that the actual number of copies circulated is more than half that and its paid circulation probably peaked at 4-5,000. Interzone's continued survival and success is all the more remarkable, therefore. On a strictly commercial basis, the magazine would probably have struggled, but under the Pringle regime it did receive some funding from the Arts Council of Great Britain. Because of its modest circulation, it is classified by the World Science Fiction Society, the organisers of Worldcon and the Hugo Awards, as a "semi-prozine". In that category, it won the Hugo in 1995 - look at the covers for issuess 99 - 111.

Interzone has undertaken some interesting experiments at times. In 1991, for example, it made an unusual reciprocal arrangement with Aboriginal Science Fiction. Interzone #47, May 1991, was essentially the May-June issue of Aboriginal, #27, in an Interzone cover. Likewise, Aboriginal #28, July-August, was a re-badged version of Interzone #48 of June 1991. The idea was to introduce the readers of each magazine to the other and, one assumes, to boost the readership of both. At that time, Aboriginal claimed to be the fouth best selling SF magazine in the United States, presumably after Analog, Asimov's and Fantasy & Science Fiction. It is easy to see what the potential benefit was for Interzone. With a circulation of 22,000, Aboriginal out-sold Interzone many times over, and Interzone gained access to this vastly greater reader base. It is harder to divine what was in this arrangement for Aboriginal. In fact, as history records, Interzone is still here after 184 issues and Aboriginal ceased publication in Spring 2001 with #65 - actually after 49 issues, as 16 were dual-numbered "double issues".

Interzone tried a similar experiment later that year with a magazine called "Million - the Magazine of Popular Fiction". Interzone #51 was a cover wrapped around issue #5 of Million. It contained just one story, otherwise only reviews and features. "Million" was at other times sub-titled "the Magazine about Popular Fiction", which perhaps more accurately dsecribes its orientation. It was a sister magazine to Interzone and was also published by David Pringle. At the time of this joint issue, it had a subscription base of only 500, a quarter of that of Interzone, and this must presumably have had the object of introducing it to a wider market. This innovation was less than warmly received by Interzone readers, if subsequent letter columns are anything to go by, and there was a suspicion that it might have had something to do with production problems Interzone was suffering at that time. The Aboriginal effect did not rub off on "Million". It never achieved a viable circulation and folded after fourteen issues.

With #88, the October 1994 issue, Interzone absorbed the short-lived British magazine Nexus published for three issues by Paul Brazier. #88 appeared with the Nexus title prominently down the left hand side of the cover, as well as the regular Interzone title bar, and was nominally Nexus #4 combined with Interzone. Brazier was commissioned to modernise the appearance of Interzone, though the changes were mainly internal at first and did not noticeably affect the cover until a new title design was adopted with #100. Brazier remained on the Interzone editorial team responsible for graphic design and typesetting until the change of ownership, though a new team has now taken over and the covers, typography and internal appearance are now quite markedly different.

Interzone Artists

Dominic Harman is by a fair margin the most prolific of Interzone cover artists, painting 29 covers since 1997. Roy Virgo has done 21 over a similar period, and SMS 17. Then come Jim Burns with 11 covers, David A Hardy with 10 (though none since 1996) and Jason Hurst with 8. Both covers of the new TTA edition have been by Ed Noon.

Sources of Images

The images come from three main sources: