"Searching for an Old Cartoon" Topic

OK, it's not game-related, but it is SF media, and I'm running out of options. The ancients among us remember that IF Magazine, AKA Worlds of IF, folded in 1974. Not long after, one of the surviving SF magazines ran a cartoon of an alien laying flowers by a tombstone which was the IF logo. If you looked at the cemetery beyond, every tombstone was the logo of a defunct SF magazine. (No doubt the cemetery has since had to purchase adjacent land.)

For no actual cash, but the serious gratitude of a fellow TMP member, can anyone name that magazine? Or find the cartoon, which I'd like to frame?

Thanks.

Tall order.

Without knowing the name of the magazine, you're asking if anyone remembers a specific single panel, wordless cartoon from forty nine years ago. Oof.

My only advice is…

…to search for a list of SF magazines published at the time and see if you can narrow down the candidates.

…look at archive.org – they have a *lot* of old material. Searching that site takes some learning, but everyone should explore it because someday it *will* have what you want and it's impossible to describe what it has. There are vast swaths of old software and emulators to run them (play all the Atari games!), there are a million old magazines, there's video, it just goes on and on. Popular Electronics from the '70s? It's there. etc. If you are ever going to find this cartoon, this is probably where you'll find it.

…find all the nostalgia sites that discuss the history of those magazines, and email the people who run those sites.

Good luck!

Archive.org has 199 issues of If magazine from 1952 to December 1974. If the last issue was December 1974 it seems likely the cartoon was published in 1975.

Wikipedia has a list of SF magazines, but since neither IF nor Worlds of If are on the list it's not complete.

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (isfdb.com) has a better list…

link

I don't know where to go next. The Archive does have metadata, and if something is mentioned in a magazine you can find that magazine. However, I think that's limited to major articles, not every cartoon. Someone is just going to have to remember which magazine it's in, then we can search for that magazine. Since we only have to search 6-12 issues you could conceivably search a dozen magazines, but not all of them.

If was published by Galaxy magazine so I would guess your best bet would be to search for cartoons from Galaxy.

Thank you Both. I've actually ordered the January 1975 Galaxy, which is the most probable candidate. If that fails--well, as you say, a long search, which was why I was hoping for a shortcut. Someone who could remember that very memorable cartoon and a short story in the same issue could trim days or weeks from the hunt.

As you say, the Wikipedia list is a disgrace. In a happier era in Wikipedia's history, I'd be helping to fix it. Not much to be done under the present editors.

That issue has some good stuff in it. Wait 'til you see what's on page 95. But I didn't see the cartoon.

You could check the other 1975 Galaxy issues on archive.org.

Not in 1975 – 2, 3, or 4.

Not a lot of cartoons, generally. Could it be in a different magazine?

Not in 6 or 7.

Could it be in a different magazine?

Possible. But I bought Galaxy with fair regularity back in the day, and I remember thinking of the alien laying flowers as Alter--and alternate personality of Richard Geiss who was their critic/reviewer. And my other regular tipple (Analog) was even less prone to cartoons. I shall persist, but it would be nice if I had some clever way to do so. Brute force and ignorance takes so long.

Analog does not appear to be on archive.org

sad face emoji

Checked 1974 = 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12

1975: 9, 10

Could it have been in a fanzine or APA?

You know, one fanzine would seem like a possible--Jan Howard Finder's Spang Blah. But I still have all the issues I ever owned. No soap. If it was something the Fickle Finder of Fate had framed on a wall almost 50 years ago, and I've mentally moved it to a magazine, it's hopeless.

Thanks for looking.

I doubt it would be in Analog. I had a subscription at that time. Never saw any comics. Funny stories yes.