Odyssey, “The Young People’s Magazine of Astronomy and Outer Space,” ran from 1975 through 1991. Originally published by AstroMedia Corp., the magazine was sold to Kalmback publishing in 1985. I don’t have any issues from the later period, but I’ve seen some for sale, and it looks like the format changed slightly. I bought a good run from ’81 and ’82 and plan to post selections from each issue.
Kids used to be excited about space travel and the stars. Consequently, they were excited about science. Funny how that works. The magazine is excellent quality, even if some of the science is outdated. Above you’ll find an article on Voyager’s Golden Records, and instructions on how to build a Jupiter Theater (if anyone gets it done, send me some pics and I’ll show them off.)
A number of regular features are below. The first two feature Odyssey‘s robot mascot, Ulysses. The third is even better: kid art depicting space themes. The theme for this issue is “Future in Space.” Along with the letters printed at the beginning of the issue, the drawings were sent to President Reagan, who was threatening to cut NASA’s budget at the time.
The blurbs accompanying the art are brilliant. Talk to me, Christina Chin: “I would like to see the United States launch a shuttle to other worlds and galaxies and find beings that live there.”
Amen.
Or how about John-Charles Panosh’s “Norris 3,” an asteroid colony orbiting Jupiter? Pretty cool. Do you think it’s named after Chuck Norris?
The back cover is a surreal ad for TSR’s Escape from New York board game. In fact, every issue of my run has a TSR ad on the back cover.
2 Warps to Neptune 
Wow.. the TSR ads on the back just made it that much nerdier. I don’t remember this magazine, but I would certainly have read it at the time.
Nerd: “I’m really into astronomy and Dungeons & Dragons!”
Jock: “Let me give you a tour of the inside of your locker, asshole…”
Great to see ol’ Ulysses again! Looking forward to more.
Talk about dredging up things I’d completely forgotten. I know I had a subscription for a year or two in the early 80s. I remember they ran a project based on the Eratosthenes method of determining the Earth’s circumference, where all the kids would take local angular measurements using a cut-out they provided (and pasted to a popsicle stick), and the magazine compiled them all and did the calculations.
And if there were TSR ads on the back, it’s very likely that was one of the first places I heard of D&D.
I was a subscriber to Odyssey also! I won first runner up at my science fair by building a project that came from the pages of Odyssey. I know I submitted several drawings to the magazine, but I can’t remember if anything was published.
First runner up, Mikey? You’re slipping! I’ll keep an eye out for your art…
Man, I have been looking around the internet for this for freaking YEARS now. Used to love this magazine and the comic strip.
Unfortunately as a byproduct of looking for this, I now know it shares the same name with a gay porn magazine.
Ha. Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be posting more issues (of the astronomy mag, not the gay porn mag). I just haven’t had a lot of time lately.
Man. I subscribed to Odyssey in the late 70s, and I even had a letter published in it at some point complaining about my subscription or something. Pretty sure all the issues are long gone, though. Hadn’t thought of it in many years.
It’s been really hard for me to find more issues of Odyssey. I got one lot (a big one, thankfully) for next to nothing, and for almost a year now every issue I see is at least 20 bucks.
I don’t recall saving any, but stranger things have turned up in my hoard. If I ever unearth any issues, I’ll certainly let you know.
Thanks for posting this. I’ll periodically look for the Ulysses comic, and this is the first time I’ve been able to find it (not sure when I never found this site before, since this post is a few years old). Besides the gay porn magazine, searching for Odyssey Ulysses doesn’t exactly reveal a lot of results for an old kids magazine.
I hope you get time to post some of those other magazines before too long.
Met lots of friends through the pen pal section of this magazine. Still have all of their letters and pictures! Great magazine! Man, I miss the 80’s!!!