WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERY NO. 5 (PART 1)

WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERY

Vol. 1 No. 5

January-February, 1971

Fantasy Publishing Company

Editor: Gerald W. Page

Staff artist: Steve Fritz

Cover: Jerry Burge (for "The Momentary Ghost")

Pages: 64

Cover price: 60 cents

In 1970, the writer Gerald Wilburn Page (b. August 12, 1939) purchased the magazine known as COVEN 13 from Arthur H. Landis and Camelot Publishing and renamed it WITCHCRAFT AND SORCERY beginning with issue #5. With the subtitle, "The MODERN Magazine of Weird Tales", there was little left to the imagination of Page's intent for the content of his new acquisition.

There are notable differences between this and its previous incarnation. Gone was the 132-page digest size and in its place became a full-size publication with less than half the page count, with cheaper, newsprint paper and lower quality printing. Also missing was Bill Stout's good-looking illustrations and designs. Steve Fritz took over as staff artist and the quality suffers, resulting in a more amateurish appearance. Artist D. Bruce Berry rescues some of the illustrations with his more capable work.

However, the stories are what saves this title and some of them are very good. Included is material by H.P. Lovecraft, E. Hoffman Price, L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter and A.E. van Vogt. Page contributes a story completed from a fragment by Robert E. Howard.