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Magazine/Anthology, Science Fiction/Fantasy

[May 12, 1970] War and Peace (June 1970 Fantastic)

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black and white photo of a dark-haired white woman with vampiric eyebrows
by Victoria Silverwolf

These are troubling times.

We are all still recovering from the shock of the killing of four students and the wounding of nine others by Ohio National Guard troops at Kent State University on May 4.  A mere four days later, construction workers and office workers clashed with anti-war protestors in New York City.

A black and white photograph of a group of white men marching down a city street.  Some are are chanting and/or holding poles.  The poles extend out of frame so we can't tell if they have signs or flags attached.  Some of the men are wearing construction outerwear and hard hats, others are wearing dress shirts and ties.
Due to the distinctive headgear worn by some of the construction workers, the incident has become known as the Hard Hat Riot.

In the chaos that ensued, with an estimated twenty thousand people in the streets near Federal Hall, the counter-protestors attacked the anti-war demonstrators while police did little to stop the violence. 

The pro-war crowd later marched up Broadway and threatened to attack City Hall.  They demanded that the building's flag, flown at half-mast in commemoration of the Kent State killings, be raised to full mast.  In an example of grim irony, the hard hats and their allies also attacked nearby Pace University, a conservative business school.

About one hundred people were injured, including seven police officers.  Six people were arrested.  Only one of them was a construction worker.

With all of this going on, it's tempting to escape from the real world and allow our imaginations to run wild.  As we'll see, however, the latest issue of Fantastic contains as much violent conflict as reality.

The cover of Fantastic magazine. The title appears near the top in yellow-green block capitals.  Above, Always the Black Knight: A new kind of Fantasy Novel by Lee Hoffman is written in orange serifed font.  Down the left of the cover are listed the short stories included, with authors in orange and titles in yellow: Into the Land of the Not-Unhappies, by David R Bunch; I of Newton, by Joe W. Haldeman; Communication by Bob Shaw; Psychivore, by Howard L. Myers; The Time, by David Mason; The Prince of New York, by Benford & Littenberg.  Underneath is written Beginning in this issue: Science Fiction in Dimension, a new column by Alexei Ranshin.  To the right of the short stories list is a picture of a the Black Knight against an orange background. He is wearing black armor and gauntlets and a face-concealing helmet that resembles an insect head with pincers at mouth level. The main part of the helmet is black. The face has red decorations in an X shape that crosses at the nose and ends in the pincers.  The eyes are also outlined in red and above the X there are two small red circles on the forehead. he is holding a sword out toward the viewer, held upward in salute. In the bottom right corner two much smaller people are looking up toward the Black Knight as though he is on a giant poster. One is a white woman with brown curly hair wearing a short burgundy tunic and belt.  Her legs are bare.  She is holding her right hand to her mouth in surprise.  Behind her, a brown-haired white man in a short yellow tunic is staggering in shock.  His right arm is against his forehead in a fainting pose, and his left hand is clutching the upper arm of the woman in front of him.
Cover art by Gray Morrow.

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