Space Opera is a generic term for adventure Science Fiction that was originally coined by Wilson Tucker. It was not meant to be a compliment. Today this would include Star Trek and Star Wars as the most obvious examples in media. Both shows feature aspects familiar to the Pulp audiences of the 1930-1950s. The John Hansen stories of Sewell Peaslee Wright feel like Star Trek. The drinking establishments of C. L. Moore’s Spaceways are immediately familiar to fans of Star Wars. The sub-genre dates back to at least 1901’s A Honeymoon in Space by George Griffith, an English writer, but you can make the case that Space Opera is an American invention. I have included interplanetary romance, ala Edgar Rice Burroughs, material here too. Also check out Masters of Pulp Science Fiction. For our take on Space Opera, go here.
The Aliens of Gerry Carlyle, Interplanetary Huntress
Alien Space Bats & Science Fiction Vampires
Allen Steele Talks Captain Future
The Amazing Adventures of Buster Crabbe
Astro-Adventures: A Blaster From the Past
Before Star Trek There Was Pulp
Beyond the Farthest Star: The Comic
Buck Rogers, The First Space Hero
Buck Rogers: The Golden, Silver and Bronze Age Comics
Bumheads! Big Brain Aliens: A Gallery
Charlton’s Space 1999: The Comic Book
Charlton’s Space 1999: The Magazine
Condemned to the Prison Planet
Cosmic Carson: The Early Jack Kirby
Cracking the Colour Code of Mars
The Creatures of Neil R. Jones Part 1
The Creatures of Neil R. Jones Part 2
Debt’s Honor by Jack Mackenzie
Edmond Hamilton’s Interstellar Patrol
Empire of Evil: Space Opera Duo
Espers in Space: Edmond Hamilton’s Legion of Lazarus
First Issues: Amazing Stories, April 1926
Flash Gordon: The Golden, Silver and Bronze Age Comics
Forgotten Comics: Space Voyagers
Frank Belknap Long’s Solar System
Gallileo Seven and Edmond Hamilton
The Gear Crew by Jack Mackenzie
Hand-Held Thunder: the History of he Blaster
The Homo Sol Trilogy of Isaac Asimov
How Bug-Eyed Was Your Monster?
Hugo Gernsback’s Interplanetary Content 1931-1932
Hugo Gernsback’s Monsters From Wonder Stories
Hugo Gernsback’s Monsters From Wonder Stories II
The Interplanetary Graveyard: The Sargasso of Space
Interplanetary Graveyard of Comics
John Carter and the Robots of Mars
John Hanson of the Space Patrol
John Wyndham’s Planet Plane and The Sleepers of Mars
Knight’s Science Fiction of the 1930s
The Legion of Space: Lest We Forget
Llana of Gathol 1: The City of the Mummies
Llana of Gathol 2: Black Pirates of Mars
Llana of Gathol 3: The Yellow Men of Mars
Llana of Gathol 4: The Invisible Men of Mars
Lost in Space is Found – Again!
Marc Scott Zicree of Space Command
The Martian Riding Beast & Other Forms of Transportation
The Master Minds of Mars by C. H. Claudy
Military Science Fiction of The Books With the BFGs
The Monsters of Jack Williamson’s “The Moon Era”
Moon Laughs: Comedians in Space
O Green Man: The Visual History of the Thark Part 1
O Green Man: The Visual History of the Thark Part 2
Planet Stories: Swimming Against the Tide
The Prowler in the Wastelands: Vincent and Van Vogt
Ray Bradbury in Planet Stories
Retro Review: 4-3-2-1 Mission Stardust
Scott Rand in the World of Time
The Space Heroes of Planet Comics
Space Opera From the Big Four: Cube From Space
Space Opera From the Big Four: The Raider of the Spaceways
Space Opera From the Big Four: The World With a Thousand Moons
Space Operas You Might Have Missed I
Space Pirates in the Golden Age
Space Pirates in the Silver Age
Stranded on a Fearsome Planet: Two Novels of Survival
The Strange Moon Saga of Edgar Rice Burroughs
Tweenies of Venus: The Early Isaac Asimov
Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction
Valerian: Spatio Temporal Agent
V. E. Thiessen & Leigh Brackett Mystery
The Visual History of the Banth
What the %&*# is Perry Rhodan?
When Planets Clashed: War in Space