Anyone here remember OMNI magazine?
- Thread starter HAL.9000
- Start date
I remember browsing a few issues back in the day, might have an issue or two in storage.
No idea about anything these days, anything I read is online.
No idea about anything these days, anything I read is online.
I think I still might have a few issues, along with my old National Lampoon and Heavy Metal magazines.
I think I still might have a few issues, along with my old National Lampoon and Heavy Metal magazines.
That's because it was the other Bob Guccione magazine.
I remember Omni very well. We had a subscription in 1979, beginning with the fourth issue: I especially remember the article on the "First Pictures of the Atom".
Looking over the contents of issues from that year on this website, I don't remember most of the articles, but I'm surprised by the number of short stories I still recognize: I was only eleven at the time. The one that I remember most vividly is "Sandkings" by George R R Martin, which scared the crap out of me.
After our subscription lapsed, I kept reading it at the public library for years. In fact, I first read about the Y2K problem in Omni back in the 1980s.
Oddly, I don't remember any of the stories by William Gibson, even though I became a big cyberpunk fan by the end of the decade.
Looking over the contents of issues from that year on this website, I don't remember most of the articles, but I'm surprised by the number of short stories I still recognize: I was only eleven at the time. The one that I remember most vividly is "Sandkings" by George R R Martin, which scared the crap out of me.
After our subscription lapsed, I kept reading it at the public library for years. In fact, I first read about the Y2K problem in Omni back in the 1980s.
Oddly, I don't remember any of the stories by William Gibson, even though I became a big cyberpunk fan by the end of the decade.
I used to hang out at the library for hours as a kid perusing through back issues (I could never afford a subscription for very long)...
I miss it. I really loved it. It was a great mag. Always made me think and blew my little mind at times.
I remember that it tried to switch to a for-pay online format for a while, but it didn't work out.
Kinda ironic that, of all the magazines out there - Omni is the one that we *don't* have with us in "the future". I remember reading an issue about the book "Night as Frontier" that talked about this thing called "Compuserve" and how both online, and nigh-time 9the increase of all-night store and shops and businesses and jobs and a whole 24/7 community) where going to be the new frontiers of the 21st century...
(And I remember the faux issue in "2010" - date 2010 - with the Monolith on the cover...)
I miss it. I really loved it. It was a great mag. Always made me think and blew my little mind at times.
I remember that it tried to switch to a for-pay online format for a while, but it didn't work out.
Kinda ironic that, of all the magazines out there - Omni is the one that we *don't* have with us in "the future". I remember reading an issue about the book "Night as Frontier" that talked about this thing called "Compuserve" and how both online, and nigh-time 9the increase of all-night store and shops and businesses and jobs and a whole 24/7 community) where going to be the new frontiers of the 21st century...
(And I remember the faux issue in "2010" - date 2010 - with the Monolith on the cover...)
I certainly bought most of the issues in its first half of existence. I loved them - I'd typically read them while on my train rides from New London to Boston on my weekends in Maine in the late 70s/mid 80s. I'm perusing the OMNI webpage and those covers are a real happy trip down memory lane 
I remember the issue with "Sandkings." My family moved from Texas to California in the summer of '79, and I don't know how many times I reread that issue in the back seat of the car.
I started college that fall, and as I couldn't spare the money for a subscription, I spent a lot of time in the college bookstore each month when the magazine came out, paging through the new issue.
Great magazine--we had a subscription for a long time in the 1980s. Loved the short stories. I'm surprised they haven't done anything with the brand lately.
I agree. I am a particular fan of short stories. Why nothing has been done to revive this?
Well, I have a theory: seems good science fiction is a by- product of the 20th century. The century of massive technological advancement and the beginnings of the space age. It's time may have come and gone. I cant seem to find writers of the same caliber as Heinlien or Asimov anymore.
Consider this: If you could transport yourself into the world of Star Trek, what kind of "science fiction" do you think they have?
Probably none.
Same here, but I don't think I've picked one up in at least 25 years.