Sword & Sorcery is published in many places but the magazines listed here, though not always big publications, were important to the sub-genre. Many of these magazines were championed by editors who saw a place for a modern tale of heroic adventure. In most cases, these publications survived by piggy-backing on other genres like Horror or Science Fiction.
WEIRD TALES (1923-1954)
The birthplace of Sword & Sorcery, Weird Tales featured Robert E. Howard and C. L. Moore’s first tales of Heroic Fantasy as well as later followers like Henry Kuttner, Clifford Ball and Nictzin Dyalhis. Working in a slightly different vein, Clark Ashton Smith also published his best work in WT.
STRANGE TALES (1931-1933)
This short lived competitor of Weird Tales managed to scoop a few gems away from WT with higher pay rates. These include Henry Kuttner’s Prince Raynor stories.
THE FANTASY FAN (1933-1935)
If you couldn’t get paid for it back in the early 30’s, you could always give it away free to this early fanzine published by Charles D. Hornig. Hornig published the only Conan story to appear outside of WT during Howard’s lifetime, “The Gods of the North”.
UNKNOWN (WORLDS) (1939-1943)
After the passing of the Weird Tales’s S&S crowd it was John W. Campbell’s Unknown that filled the void in the 1940s. Always being innovative, Campbell bred a new crop of writers who applied SF-style logic to their Fantasy, changing the mix with classics by Fritz Leiber, Norvell W. Page and Poul Anderson. Unknown was the birthplace of Fafhrd & Gray Mouser. Unfortunately, the paper shortage of WWII killed it.
AVON FANTASY READER (1946-1952)
Donald A. Wolheim was always a supporter of S&S. In the Avon Fantasy Reader he reprinted classics from Weird Tales, helping to keep Robert E. Howard’s work before the public. Donald continued his support when he formed DAW Books in 1971, perhaps the largest publisher of Fantasy and S&S anthologies in paperback.
FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION (1949-Present)
The Science Fictional minds at F&SF were not big on S&S, publishing what might be called “anti-S&S” through authors like Larry Niven (The Warlock Series), George Alec Effinger (“Maureen Birnbaum, Swordsperson series) as well as subtler forms of heroic fantasy with authors like Susan Petry. (Though this didn’t stop them from publishing “The Hall of the Dead”, a Conan pastiche!)
SCIENCE FANTASY/IMPULSE (1950-1967)
Companion to New Worlds, Science Fantasy (later renamed Impulse) was the first magazine to publish Michael Moorcock’s Elric stories. Thomas Burnett Swann also published his Greek Fantasies here.
Lester Del Rey edited this short-lived magazine from the publishers of Science Fiction Adventures. Featuring a lot of SF writers writing Unknown type fantasy, it also had some S&S, mostly by L. Sprague de Camp.
CELE GOLDSMITH’S FANTASTIC (1959-1965)
Outside of Weird Tales, the most important publisher of S&S is Fantastic. Under the editorship of Cele Goldsmith t, Fantastic published nearly all the important writers of the 1960s including L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter, John Jakes, Fritz Leiber, Avram Davidson, John Brunner, Michael Moorcock and many others. Though a soft SF mag, Sword & Sorcery was offered fairly regularly and even given covers.
WEIRDBOOK (1968-1997)
This small fanzine/semi-pro magazine published mostly horror in the Lovecraftian vein but it also allowed heroic fantasy versions of horror with the works of Brian Lumley, Charles R. Saunders, Richard L. Tierney, and others who would be big in the 1980s.
WORLDS OF FANTASY (1968-1971)
WOF was another soft SF magazine that featured Sword & Sorcery at the beginning but less so as it went on. The first issue has Robert E. Howard and J. R. R. Tolkien mentioned on the cover while the last has Clifford D. Simak and Theodore Sturgeon.
TED WHITE’S FANTASTIC (1969-1980)
Fantastic became a reprint magazine from 1965 to 1969. Ted white came in after Harry Harrison and Barry N. Malzberg and changed things again for S&S fans. Working with almost no budget, he still managed to publish major Fantasy writers and novels. White published the first stories of new writers like Glen Cook, Brian Lumley, George R. R. Martin, Keith Taylor (under the pseudonym Dennis More) and “The White Isle” by Darrel Schweiter. It also offered regular non-fiction and reviews of fantasy books.
MIDNIGHT SUN (1974-1979)
This small fanzine was dedicated to the works of Karl Edward Wagner and his Kane series.
THE DRAGON (1976-2007)
Though mostly a gaming magazine, the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons mag did occasionally use fiction by the likes of Roger Zelazny, Garner F. Fox, Elaine Cunningham, John Betancourt, Troy Denning, Tracy Hickman, R. A. Salvatore and Margaret Weiss. As TSR developed their own line of “fiction” the stories were phased out.
FANTASY TALES MAGAZINE (UK) (1977-1991)
In England, S&S was no stranger to the likes of Michael Moorcock, and the publishers of Fantasy Tales, a combined horror and fantasy magazine. FT published the early work of Brian Lumley, Adrian Cole, Ramsey Campbell as well as stories by veterans like Kenneth Bulmer.
WHISPERS (1978-1994)
Another hard to find but much-sought-after magazine was Stuart David Schiff’s Whispers which printed horror tales but also dark S&S from writers like Roger Zelazny, David Drake and Karl Edward Wagner.
FANTASY BOOK (1981-1987)
Published by Dennis Mallonee and edited by Nick Smith, Fantasy Book offered a mix of heroic fantasy as well as urban fantasy and even horror. Associate editors included Forrest J. Ackerman, Jessica Amanda Salmonson and Darrell Schweister. Authors included Katherine Kurtz, Esther M. Friesner, Jane Yolen, Harry Turtledove and classics by H. L. Gold, Robert E. Howard, Emil Petaja and A. E. van Vogt. The artwork was strong with works by George Barr, Leila Dowling, Charles Vess and Dave Carson.
MARION ZIMMER BRADLEY’S FANTASY MAGAZINE (1988-2000)
Like her anthology series, Sword & Sorceress, MZB Mag offered many different types of heroic fantasy, with many different perspectives (female, ethnic, etc.). Mercedes Lackey, Jo Clayton, Dorothy J. Heydt, Tanya Huff and many new authors got their first big exposure in MZBFM.
WEIRD TALES (1988-2006)
The reborn Weird Tales had its ups and down over the last decades. Publishing at Pulp size these magazines were much coveted by collectors. In 1994 the magazine was known as Worlds of Fantasy & Horror until 1998 before resuming as WT. This version of Weird Tales featured writers like Tanith Lee, Keith Taylor and Darrell Schweitzer.
REALMS OF FANTASY (1994-2011)
Shawna McCarthy of Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine ran this publication for almost two decades. Despite the S&S covers, it was a mixed bag of Horror, Heroic Fantasy and non-fiction.
ADVENTURES OF SWORD & SORCERY (1995-2000)
A daring attempt to create a magazine specifically about the “Sacred Genre” (as Lin carter called it). Published out of Ohio, distribution or poor sales probably killed it after only seven issues. Writers included Patricia Briggs, Jo Clayton, Robert E. Vardeman, Stephen Baxter with a few bones thrown in from pros like Mike Resnick.
Black Gate was a labor of love from editor John O’Neill. The magazine ran to fifteen issues before becoming a website of non-fiction about the genre. With authors like Martin Owton, Howard Andrews Jones, Charles Coleman Finley, Darrell Schweitzer, Charles deLint , it delivered a mix of Sword & Sorcery and other forms of Fantasy.
CURRENT S&S MAGS
There are always new magazines appearing (and usually dying shortly after). Here are some currently running publications that regularly or only occasionally feature Sword & Sorcery or Heroic Fantasy. (I’m not going to list any authors because I am hopelessly out-of-date on new writers.)
Originally subtitled “The Ezine of High Fantasy & Science Fiction”, the zine is currently edited by committee.
Edited by Neil Clarke, it features SF and Fantasy.
BENEATH CEASELESS SKIES (2008-
Edited by Scott H. Andrews. A more literary type of fantasy.
TOR.COM (2008-)
The book publisher TOR has its own online magazine that features all kinds of fantastic literature.
HEROIC FANTASY QUARTERLY (2009-)
The name says it all. Edited by David Farney and Adrian Simmons.
CIRSOVA (2012-) Edited by Philip Alexander Kimball.
Again the name tells you what you are in for. Grimdark is not so much a genre as an approach, which many S&S writers employ. Edited by Adrian Collins.
