Amazing Stories
Amazing Stories magazine, sometimes retitled Amazing Science Fiction, first published in April 1926, was one of the pioneers of science fiction in the U.S. Created by Hugo Gernsback, it was a classic pulp magazine, printed on cheap paper with lurid cover art and a much-imitated logo featuring the magazine name in ever-shrinking letters. Instead of presenting tales of detectives, girls or swamp monsters, as was the habit of pulps to that point, it was filled with stories of a style originally called "scientifiction," and so brought science fiction to the masses and launched many writing careers.In January 1930 it was faced with its first direct competition, Astounding magazine, which in 1937 came under the editorial direction of John W. Campbell, who insisted on "hard science", creating the paradigm for serious science fiction that holds to this day. For some years Amazing followed a less serious bent under editor Ray Palmer, achieving commercial success but critical derision for its "Shaver Mystery" stories of creatures allegedly inside the Earth.
The magazine continued publication more or less continuously from 1926 until the 1990s, under various editors, publishers and formats. During that decade it was published erratically, and eventually Wizards of the Coast shuttered a version edited by Pierce Watters.
In 2004 it was relaunched by Paizo Publishing.
The title was also used by director Stephen Spielberg for an American television show called Amazing Stories that ran from 1985 to 1987. Spielberg named it after the magazine, which his father had read since he was a child.