The amount of information about magazines that Jeff Canja has packed into these pages is truly impressive and not only words but 1800 covers (with 144 in color). The idea behind the book is a comprehensive listing of fiction periodicals and I reckon there are over 3900 issues here with the usual price, condition and date information but also an indication to the main fiction writers in each issue. The quoted prices have the added advantage of being the real ones that were paid for each title rather than an estimate common in other guides.
But the book is a lot more than just a price guide. What interested me in particular are all the covers (and what a shame they weren't in color). Publishers of these down-market titles knew that their one chance of a sale was a bright dramatic colorful cover, ideally with a dominant female and strong come-on cover lines. Canja has managed to devote forty-two pages for a portfolio of 126 named cover artists with three covers each. All the favorites are here: Norm Saunders; Earle Bergey; Peter Driben; James Bama; Robert McGinnis; Mort Kunstler and others. As well as pages of covers there is a quite succinct history of fiction magazines from their beginnings to the golden days in the thirties and forties and eventual decline in the mid-fifties.
The back of the book has pages of lists: titles; authors (sort of useful if your collecting someone in particular) cover artists; bibliography etc. You can cross reference stuff here for hours.
Fascinating, though all this information is I felt the book's editorial was slightly flawed, so four stars. On the one hand there is the comprehensive list of titles, prices, formats and more, which collectors' would no doubt find invaluable but this information only fills about a third of each relevant page, the remaining space is filled with six covers. It seems to me that the listings could well have been a separate publication because their actual text probably takes up less than a third of the book. On the other hand there is the history of fiction titles, the artists' portfolio pages, two eight page glossy paper inserts with color covers and the space taken up with all the covers on the listings pages all of which could have made a separate book, especially if the covers had been in color.
Overall an impressive survey (despite my editorial comment above) of the pulp magazine market that collectors' should find very useful.
