# I miss Omni **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 17, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551 "2010-08-17T18:49:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/1 "2010-08-17T18:49:52Z")
[_Omni_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omni_(magazine)) was published from 1978 to 1995. It’s somewhat possible I have all of the issues except for the first one, packed away in a box somewhere. (It’s also possible they’ve been lost.) I think it was the second issue that had an article on Burt Rutan’s Vari-EZ. I remember reading it on my way up to Tahoe for my fateful ski trip. Oh, how I wanted one of those! (Still do, but there are more practical – for me – aircraft out there.) I liked the speculative science articles. And then there were the science fiction stories. I missed out on the heyday of _Amazing Stories_ and _Analog_. _Omni_ was my introduction to SF short stories published in a magazine. I remember the photo of Ben Bova they’d have in each issue. I’d always wanted to draw him as a cow and caption the cartoon ‘Ben Bovine’. Great 'zine. Some of the later issues were a little fantasical (at least, ISTR they were), but I’d love if publication was restarted. Up until very, very recently, there was an OMNI sign (rack, bike rack, something) outside of a local 7-11. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/2 "2010-08-17T19:19:58Z")
Yeah, me too. At least through the mid- to late-80s. I stopped reading it after that, but I don’t really recall why. Someone started a site devoted to scans of the covers and promised to eventually post scans of the full content of each issue, but they never got far enough to get shut down, as best as I can tell. I’d actually pay real money for digitized back issues. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/3 "2010-08-17T19:20:39Z")
I also loved Omni and purchased every issue until sometime in 1990. For some reason, I never got a subscription and purchased every issue from the newsstand every month. Go figure. I also have all of them boxed up in my basement. I kind of lost interest when I went back to school, but yeah, good stuff. I should crack open a few just to see how far sci-tech has evolved. Omni was first published before the first personal computers were available to the general public, wasn’t it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/4 "2010-08-17T19:25:41Z")
I remember [_Omni_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omni_(magazine)) – lots of good SF published there. But yes, it did get kind of focused on pseudoscience toward the end. > [@](#): > > OMNI developed a dual personality during its life. In its early run, its high circulation (permitting payment for stories many times higher than that of other science fiction magazines), coupled with some outstanding fiction editors, allowed it to attract prominent sf and fantasy writers, and it published a number of stories that have become genre classics, such as Orson Scott Card’s “Unaccompanied Sonata”, William Gibson’s “Burning Chrome” and “Johnny Mnemonic”, Harlan Ellison’s novella “Mefisto in Onyx”, and George R. R. Martin’s “Sandkings”. The magazine also published original sf/f by William S. Burroughs, Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Carroll, T. Coraghessan Boyle, and other mainstream writers. The magazine excerpted Stephen King’s novel Firestarter, and featured a short story, “The End of the Whole Mess”. OMNI also brought the works of numerous painters to the attention of a large audience, such as H.R. Giger and De Es Schwertberger. > > OMNI entered the market at the start of a wave of new science magazines aimed at educated but otherwise “non-professional” readers. Science Digest and Science News already served the high-school market, and Scientific American and New Scientist the professional, while OMNI was arguably the first aimed at “armchair scientists” who were nevertheless well informed about technical issues. The next year, however, Time introduced Discover while the AAAS introduced Science '80. Advertising dollars were spread between the different magazines, and those without deep pockets soon folded in the early 1980s, notably Science Digest, while Science '80 merged with Discover. OMNI appeared to weather this storm better than most, likely due to its wider selection of contents. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/5 "2010-08-17T19:26:46Z")
> [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > I also loved Omni and purchased every issue until sometime in 1990. For some reason, I never got a subscription and purchased every issue from the newsstand every month. Go figure. I also have all of them boxed up in my basement. I kind of lost interest when I went back to school, but yeah, good stuff. I should crack open a few just to see how far sci-tech has evolved. Omni was first published before the first personal computers were available to the general public, wasn’t it. It ran from 1978 through 1995, so, yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/6 "2010-08-17T19:28:47Z")
My only real recollection of _Omni_ was sitting in the school library, thinking I was reading a run-of-the-mill sci-fi story, only for the whole thing to suddenly go Penthouse Forum. Considering who the magazine was owned by, I guess that shouldn’t have been a surprise. I suppose our school didn’t exactly do much vetting of what reached the magazine rack. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/7 "2010-08-17T19:58:57Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > Yeah, me too. At least through the mid- to late-80s. I stopped reading it after that, but I don’t really recall why. Didn’t Larry Flynt take it over in the mid-80’s, and make it over? I still remember King’s story, “The end of the whole mess” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/8 "2010-08-17T20:06:53Z")
No, I don’t think Flynt had anything to do with it. It was all Guccione and his wife Kathy Keeton, and they pulled the plug on the print magazine and put it online, where it lasted a few more years. Ellen Datlow did a terrific job as editor, and Omni was the heart of the cyberpunk movement in the 80s. Its stories won a bunch of Nebulas in that time frame.\* Here’s [a very nice appreciation](http://www.slate.com/id/2239740). \*It helped that they sent copies of all their nominated stories to all members of SFWA. It wasn’t asking for votes, but it did allow them to read everything in the magazine of import; in any award, the more people who see the work, the better your chances. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/9 "2010-08-17T20:18:46Z")
That Slate article doesn’t mention it, but Kathy Keeton - Bob Guccione’s wife, who had taken over running the magazine - turned all her time and money to Longevity magazine when she went nuts over alternative medicine. Longevity started in 1992. Omni was undoubtedly doomed by then, but that was the final nail in the coffin. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/10 "2010-08-17T20:22:24Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Here’s [a very nice appreciation](http://www.slate.com/id/2239740). Robots that clean the rug! Preposterous! Next you’ll tell me that people will use their super-8 and VHS cameras to make home movies of cats riding on top of them! ---
**Author:** ![Huerta88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/82dd89/32.png) [@Huerta88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Huerta88)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/11 "2010-08-17T20:30:10Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > That Slate article doesn’t mention it, but Kathy Keeton - Bob Guccione’s wife, who had taken over running the magazine - turned all her time and money to Longevity magazine when she went nuts over alternative medicine. Longevity started in 1992. Omni was undoubtedly doomed by then, but that was the final nail in the coffin. Yeah, what little I remember of Omni had to do with a bunch of you-can-live-forever stuff that ISTR it having. ---
**Author:** ![Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/face_intentionally_left_blank/32/288_2.png) [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Face_Intentionally_Left_Blank)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/12 "2010-08-17T22:35:41Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > No, I don’t think Flynt had anything to do with it. It was all Guccione and his wife Kathy Keeton, and they pulled the plug on the print magazine and put it online, where it lasted a few more years. > > Ellen Datlow did a terrific job as editor, and Omni was the heart of the cyberpunk movement in the 80s. Its stories won a bunch of Nebulas in that time frame.\* > > Here’s [a very nice appreciation](http://www.slate.com/id/2239740). > > \*It helped that they sent copies of all their nominated stories to all members of SFWA. It wasn’t asking for votes, but it did allow them to read everything in the magazine of import; in any award, the more people who see the work, the better your chances. Ahh, I confused my pornographers. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/13 "2010-08-17T22:48:58Z")
The closest thing we have now is _Wired_, but they’re always playing around with the style of the magazine from issue to issue. Some here undoubtedly disdained the drift towards pseudoscience after its “resurrection.” ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/14 "2010-08-17T22:59:03Z")
I remember the cool sci-fi and futuristic artwork they featured. One series in particular were hypothetical tourist art posters from a commercial space travel agengy. One such poster was about a vacation on mars and it’s moons championing the low gravity for tourist hijinks. I still remember the poster tag line: Visit Phobos, it’s one Hot Potato! ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/15 "2010-08-17T23:00:40Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/LDiDK_yBCw0/hqdefault.jpg "The Future Soon") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDiDK_yBCw0) Jonathan Coulton wrote The Future Soon as a kind of tribute to being a kid, and reading Omni at home in your bedroom and dreaming about the future. It fits. Me, I remember devouring every issue… and then learning about this hot new wave thing called Cyberpunk… and realizing it was all the stories I loved most from Omni. Yeah, there was a lot of psuedoscience, but a lot of it was inspirational anyhow. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/16 "2010-08-17T23:04:57Z")
I subscribed to it for many years, and still have the first issue, in pristine condition. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/17 "2010-08-18T00:45:20Z")
> [@Face\_Intentionally\_Left\_Blank](#): > > > [@RealityChuck](#): > > > > No, I don’t think Flynt had anything to do with it. It was all Guccione and his wife Kathy Keeton, and they pulled the plug on the print magazine and put it online, where it lasted a few more years. > > > > Ellen Datlow did a terrific job as editor, and Omni was the heart of the cyberpunk movement in the 80s. Its stories won a bunch of Nebulas in that time frame.\* > > > > Here’s [a very nice appreciation](http://www.slate.com/id/2239740). > > > > \*It helped that they sent copies of all their nominated stories to all members of SFWA. It wasn’t asking for votes, but it did allow them to read everything in the magazine of import; in any award, the more people who see the work, the better your chances. > > Ahh, I confused my pornographers. I’m impressed. It takes a **lot** to confuse your pornographers. Ron Jeremy, Ginger Lynn and Traci Lords managed it once, but it took all three of them and they were all tripping balls during the shoot. Gerard Damiano was strangely quiet for some time afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/18 "2010-08-18T03:12:24Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I’m impressed. It takes a **lot** to confuse your pornographers. Ron Jeremy, Ginger Lynn and Traci Lords managed it once, but it took all three of them and they were all tripping balls during the shoot. Gerard Damiano was strangely quiet for some time afterwards. Good lord, man, don’t stop there. Was it [Susie Superstar II](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132540/) or [Kinky Business](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087562/)? Inquiring minds want to know! ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/19 "2010-08-18T03:28:08Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > > [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > > > I also loved Omni and purchased every issue until sometime in 1990. For some reason, I never got a subscription and purchased every issue from the newsstand every month. Go figure. I also have all of them boxed up in my basement. I kind of lost interest when I went back to school, but yeah, good stuff. I should crack open a few just to see how far sci-tech has evolved. Omni was first published before the first personal computers were available to the general public, wasn’t it. > > It ran from 1978 through 1995, so, yeah. And personal computers like the Apple ][, Commodore PET, and Radio Shack TRS-80 were available at that time. So… no. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2010, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551/20 "2010-08-18T03:29:03Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > > > I’m impressed. It takes a **lot** to confuse your pornographers. Ron Jeremy, Ginger Lynn and Traci Lords managed it once, but it took all three of them and they were all tripping balls during the shoot. Gerard Damiano was strangely quiet for some time afterwards. > > Good lord, man, don’t stop there. Was it [Susie Superstar II](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0132540/) or [Kinky Business](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087562/)? Inquiring minds want to know! _Gorgeous Babes Who Wouldn’t Give You the Time of Day in Real Life but You Can Pay Good Money to Watch Them Getting Fucked in a Movie IV._ [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-miss-omni/550551.md?page=2)