[1] Goldsmith helped to nurture the early careers of writers such as Roger Zelazny and Ursula K. Le Guin, but was unable to increase circulation, and in 1965 the magazines were sold to Sol Cohen, who hired Joseph Wrzos as editor and switched to a reprint-only policy.

White resigned shortly afterwards, and was replaced by Elinor Mavor, but within two years Bernhard decided to close down Fantastic, merging it with Amazing Stories, which had always enjoyed a slightly higher circulation.

[2] The number of science fiction magazines grew quickly, and several new titles appeared over the next few years, among them Fantastic Adventures, which was launched by Ziff Davis in 1939 as a companion to Amazing.

[7] Sales were very good, and Ziff Davis was sufficiently impressed after only two issues to move the magazine from a quarterly to a bimonthly schedule, and to switch Amazing from pulp format to digest-size to match Fantastic.

[12] In November 1955, Ziff Davis hired an assistant, Cele Goldsmith, who began by helping with two new magazines under development, Dream World and Pen Pals.

[13] Cohen also launched a series of reprint magazines, drawing from the backfile of both Amazing and Fantastic, again using the second serial rights he had acquired from Ziff Davis.

[18] White's unhappiness with his working conditions culminated in his resignation after Cohen refused his proposal to publish Fantastic as a slick magazine, with larger pages and higher quality paper.

[18] He spent some time looking for a new publisher—editor Roy Torgeson was one of those interested—but on September 15, 1978, he sold his half of the business to Arthur Bernhard, his partner.

Mavor had previously edited Bill of Fare, a restaurant trade journal, and was a long-time science fiction reader, but she had little knowledge of the history of the magazines.

[23] Science fiction bibliographer Donald Tuck dissents, however, regarding the first few years as containing "little of note",[24] and James Blish wrote a contemporary review of the second issue which found it lacking: Blish dismissed three of the seven stories in the Fall 1952 issue as being essentially crime stories written for the sf market, and commented that of the remaining four, only two were "reasonably competent and craftsmanlike".

[25] Other well-known writers appeared in the early issues, including Shirley Jackson, B. Traven, Truman Capote and Evelyn Waugh.

[8] Mickey Spillane had written a story called "The Woman With Green Skin", but had been unable to sell it; Browne offered to buy it on condition that he had permission to rewrite it as he wished.

[8] Some science fiction appeared as well in the first couple of years, including Isaac Asimov's "Sally", which portrays a world in which cars have been given robotic brains and are intelligent.

[7] In 1955 it was decided to move the focus from fantasy to sf: in Browne's words, "Stories of straight fantasy were largely eliminated and straight science-fiction substituted, cover subject matter became of a scientific nature, the words "science fiction" appeared under the title, interior artwork was tightened up to replace the loose, 'arty' kind of drawing we had been using."

[7] By the start of 1956 the fiction in Fantastic was, in the opinion of sf historian Mike Ashley, "[in] a trough of hack predictability",[27] but there was some inventiveness evident from newer writers such as Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison and Randall Garrett.

The experiment was repeated with the October 1956 issue, which again ran without "Science Fiction" on the cover, and contained stories on the theme of "Incredible Powers".

Goldsmith was not a long-time sf reader, and knew little about the field; she simply looked for good quality fiction and bought what she liked.

New writers whose first story appeared in Fantastic during this period included Phyllis Gotlieb, Larry Eisenberg, Ursula K. Le Guin, Thomas M. Disch, and Piers Anthony.

[31] Not all Goldsmith's choices were universally popular with the magazine's subscribers: she regularly published fiction by David R. Bunch, for example, to mixed reviews from the readership.

The reprints were well received by the fans, because Wrzos was able to find good quality stories that were unavailable except in the original magazines, meaning that to many of Fantastic's readers they were fresh material.

Harrison added a science column by Leon Stover, but was unable to change Cohen's position on the reprints, and so could not print much new fiction.

When Malzberg took over from Harrison he published John Sladek, Thomas M. Disch, and James Sallis, all of whom were associated with New Wave science fiction, but his tenure was too short for him to have a significant impact on the magazine.

For example, Piers Anthony had been unable to sell an early fantasy novel, Hasan; White saw a review of the manuscript and promptly acquired it for Fantastic, where it was serialized starting in the December 1969 issue.

White bought Gordon Eklund's first story, "Dear Aunt Annie", it appeared in the April 1970 issue and was nominated for a Nebula Award.

[32] In addition to experimental work, White was able to obtain material by some of the leading sf writers of the day, including Brian Aldiss and John Brunner.

White wanted to introduce established artists from outside the sf field, such as Jeff Jones, Vaughn Bodē, and Steve Hickman; however, the company was saddled with cheap artwork acquired from European magazines to be used for the cover and he was instructed to make use of them.

White acquired cover artwork by Stephen Fabian and Douglas Beekman, and stories by some of the new generation of sf writers, such as George R. R. Martin and Charles Sheffield.

At a convention in 1979 she met Harlan Ellison, who complained about the reprint policy; she explained that it was temporary and was able to get him to agree to contribute stories, publishing two pieces by him in Amazing over the next three years.

[20] Once the reprints had been phased out, Mavor was able to find new writers to work with, including Brad Linaweaver and John E. Stith, both of whom sold their first stories to Fantastic.

[20] The last year of Fantastic showed "a steady improvement in content", according to Mike Ashley, who cites in particular Daemon, a serialized graphic story, illustrated by Stephen Fabian.