Omni Reboot

When Omni hit the shelves in 1978 I was not a magazine reader. I'll give you that I was only a kid, so magazines were not exactly at the top of my reading list alongside the assorted comics, occasional issue of Eerie and my completely accidental exposure to Heavy Metal. What a ride that was, but that's a story for another day. The only magazines I'd been exposed to at that time, and came close to taking a liking to, were the copies of Popular Science and Popular Mechanics that the barber shop would have while I was waiting on a haircut. Every now and again, Bobby, the barber, would tell me to take one with me. I'd check out the pictures mostly and read an occasional article but none that made a lasting impression on me. 

And then there was Omni. A single word did not go unread. What flipped the switch for me?

Was it the artwork? That amazing blend of surreal and hard science? Sometimes risque, sometimes bizarre and always provocative to those long superseded and impressionable young synapses.

The fiction was amazing. My first exposure to a number of authors I now consider my favorites. Arthur C. Clarke, Ben Bova, Fritz Leiber, George R.R. Martin, Greg Bear, Gregory Benford, Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov, Joe Haldeman, Orson Scott Card, Philip K. Dick, Robert Sheckley, Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, Theodore Sturgeon, Ursula K. LeGuin and William Gibson.

And the ideas and visions of the future. Everything from concept cars to space elevators. Hmm. Although the space elevator might have just been part of an artwork spread. And again, the artwork. I connect stories with vivid imagery when I'm reading, when I'm writing. I still remember how disappointed I was when the novelization of Heinlein's Number of the Beast didn't carry the same style of artwork that accompanied the teaser excerpt from Omni. The humanity!

Sigh. Good memories. Many late nights reading through each and every word.

My collection is long gone after many moves while in the Navy and since, but browsing through Google's instant archive of cover images, I remember almost every one.

And now, thanks to Jeremy Frommer, editor Claire L. Evans, and a host of others my work will be appearing online under Omni's new mantle, namely, Omni Reboot!

Life is good.