Amra

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The journal of the Hyborian Legion, Amra was devoted to Sword and Sorcery and published by George Scithers and edited by Scithers, Liz Wilson and Dan Adkins, and many others. (Amra liked to print long lists of editors, some with fanciful titles, or to simply credit the "Editorial Horde", so it's usually not clear just who the editors -- other than George Scithers -- were.)

The Scithers Amra ran from Vol II, No. 1 to Vol II, No. 71, from 1959 to 1982. It was "Volume 2" because starting in April 1955 George Heap published a fanzine which was probably a direct predecessor. It had few issues. Some early issues of V2 were reprinted at least once.

According to Scithers, "Amra is about various heroic heroes, mostly of swordplay-&-sorcery stories set in fantasy worlds." Subjects and characters of interest included Robert E. Howard's Conan, Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp's Harold Shea, Michael Moorcock's Elric, and Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter.

Amra was printed by offset lithography, with high-quality artwork, including by Roy G. Krenkel, Gray Morrow, and Jim Cawthorn.

The written content was impressive too. Amra published articles, criticism, discussions of medieval and ancient history, weaponry, and technology (by writers such as de Camp, Poul Anderson, Frank Herbert, Jerry Pournelle, and Leigh Brackett), book reviews (including by Harry Harrison, Buck Coulson, de Camp, and Leiber), poetry (translations from the Old Norse by Poul Anderson; limericks (some of them quite good) by many hands; and poems by Roger Zelazny and Lin Carter). It also published fiction, including a number of pieces by Ray Garcia-Capella and things like "Six Scenes in Search of an Illustration", where six writers (de Camp, Dick Eney, Leiber, Katherine MacLean, Moorcock, and John Pocsik) wrote story vignettes around a centerpiece foldout illustration by Krenkel.

Awards and Honors

Amra Fanthologies[edit]

Jack Chalker's Mirage Press published several nice hardcover volumes of articles and artwork from Amra: The Conan Swordbook (1969), The Conan Reader (1968), and The Conan Grimoire (1972). They were edited by de Camp and Scithers.

Issues[edit]

Issue Date Pages Notes
V1 #1 April 1955 2 Published by George Heap in as a single sheet folded in three. This was the sole issue.
V2 #1 January 1959 20 Essentially new publication under the editorship of George Scithers which was numbered as "Volume 2"
2 1959 20
3 May 1959 24
4 June 1959 28
5 July 1959 24
6 September 1959 28
7 November 1959 16
8 December 1959 20
9 January 1960 20
10 April 1960 20
11 April 1960 24
12 September 1960 16
13 1960 16
14 January 1961 28
15 May 1961 24
16 July 1961 24
17 October 1961 20
18 December 1961 16
19 February 1962 20
20 April 1962 20
21 June 1962 20
22 July 1962 20
23 January 1963 24
24 May 1963 20
25 June 1963 20
26 October 1963 20
27 November 1963 20
28 June 1964 20
29 August 1964 20
30 September 1964 20
31 December 1964 20
32 March 1965 24
33 April 1965 24
34 May 1965 20
35 July 1965 20
36 September 1965 20
37 January 1966 20
38 February 1966 20
39 March 1966 20
40 June 1966 20
41 July 1966 20
42 September 1966 20
43 March 1967 20
44 October 1967 24
45 December 1967 20
46 April 1968 20
47 August 1968 20
48 August 1968 20
49 August 1968 20
50 May 1969 20
51 November 1969 20
52 April 1970 24
53 September 1970 24
54 April 1971 24
55 December 1971 20
56 June 1972 20
57 June 1972 20
58 January 1973 20
59 February 1973 20
60 September 1973 24
61 March 1974 20
62 October 1974 28
63 April 1975 20
64 October 1975 20
65 April 1976 20
66 April 1976 20
67 February 1977 20
68 July 1978 20
69 January 1981 20
70 September 1981 40
71 July 1982 40



Publication 1955????
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