Galactic Journey

Website
Name:	Galactic Journey
Owner/Maintainer:	Gideon Marcus
Dates:	Oct 22, 2013 - present
Type:	blog, online fanzine
Fandom:	science fiction fandom
URL:	http://galacticjourney.org/
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Galactic Journey is an online fanzine in blog format, written by "The Traveler," a science fiction time-traveling fan who "lives 55 years ago" and publishes a blog today. It provides its users with information on science fact and fiction, reviewing SF pulp magazines (Analog, Amazing, F&SF, etc.) and movies, along with commentary about technology and occasionally other news.

Its icon is Dr. Martha Dane, the protagonist of H. Beam Piper's 1957 Analog story, "Omnilingual."

The Traveler attends many conventions, both contemporary and (fictionally) historical; reviews and photos are posted on the blog. Here's an excerpt from the post that covered the release of Fantastic Four #1, posted in 2016:

The other day at the local newsstand, a new comic book caught my eye. It was a brand new one from Marvel Comics, the spiritual successors of Atlas Comics, which went under late last decade. Called The Fantastic Four, and brought to us by the creator of Captain America (Jack Kirby), it features the first superheroes I’ve seen in a long time – four, in fact! We are introduced to the quartet in media res on their way to answer a call to assembly: Sue Storm, who can turn invisible at will; her brother, Johnny Storm, who bursts into flame and can fly; Ben Grimm, a hulking, orange rocky beast; and Dr. Reed Richards, who possesses the power of extreme elasticity.

...

I note several points of interest. First, the featuring of the deadly belts of radiation girdling the globe, which are quite real (though they likely won’t have quite the same effects on humans as shown in the comic). Second, I was happy to see a woman member of the team. Of course, her talent is already shared by most of her gender – that of being invisible. On the other hand, it’s nice to see a female character who, by definition, cannot be objectified for her appearance! Third, I liked the rationale for the Mole Man’s powers – plunged into the lightlessness of the Earth’s interior, he developed acute senses to replace his vision, much like the cave-dwelling humans of Daniel Galouye’s recent book, Dark Universe.

Oct. 7, 1961: That’s Super! (Marvel Comics’ The Fantastic Four)

Ties to a Print Zine in 1967

Galactic Journey also publishes The Tricorder, a quarterly Star Trek: TOS zine first printed in "August 1967," as the Journey calculates time. (August 2022 for everyone else.) Gideon Marcus was the editor, and the publisher was "Galactic Journey." The contents and formatting were restricted to what was known and available to fandom at the supposed time of publication.

In that zine, Marcus wrote: "We are very excited about the second season, which will be starting in Just one month!"

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History

In April 2015, it started on Dreamwidth. It was there when i09 picked it up.

In 2016, Galactic Journey received a Serling Award from the Rod Serling Memorial Foundation.

On June 18, 2017, Galactic Journey held its first "Tele-Conference," a webinar attended by several staff members and over a dozen fans. More are planned, but a schedule has not been decided.

Galactic Journey was a Hugo Awards finalist for "Best Fanzine" in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, and 2023.

Staff/Editors

The Traveler is aided by several associates, some of whom occasionally write posts.