1993: A GUIDE TO AVENGERLAND by ANTHONY and ANNETTE McKAY.

From March 1993: A GUIDE TO AVENGERLAND, a spin-off from TIME SCREEN magazine.

Avengerland, as the back cover explains, is that oh-so-familiar part of England in close proximity to London and - more importantly - Elstree studios.  That location and ease of access (plus: it gives a mix of rural and urban locations and productions can nip into North London if necesary) means that the area has been heavily featured in TV shows and films for decades.  They heavily featured in THE AVENGERS and the various 'action factory' ITC shows of the Sixties and Seventies.  Which is where this book comes in.

I love location spotting so this is the sort of publication that is right up my street.  Other books and publications along similiar lines have included a professionally published book dedicated to AVENGERS locations by Chris Bentley (which i have just looked up on Amazon... copies seem to go from around the 46 quid mark... which is nuts as I picked up my copy from Borders back in the day!), a fan-produced guide to DOCTOR WHO locations and a professionally published equivilant (priced today at a more reasonable 15 quid).  The latter two published before the series went back into production.

1993: THE UK TELEFANTASY YEARBOOK 1992/ 1993

From 1993: THE UK TELEFANTASY YEARBOOK 1992/ 1993, published by the fanzine Metamorph in 1993.

This was a cracking A4, b&w 'zine that - as the title suggests - looked back on the previous year's small-screen genre offerings.  And it was a pretty cool list of new and repeated shows.  And - best of all - this was just before the schedules (and the genre press) were overwhelmed by THE X-FILES, BABYLON FIVE and the wave of 1990s (mostly) syndicated and cable shows.

Both 'V' and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA were in reruns that year.  As was KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER (I rewatched the pilot of the revival show again this week... it's OK but completely lacks the charm of the original).  THE TOMORROW PEOPLE was the then-current Thames revival... which made more sense than the recent, rather confused, American reboot.

This was a mail-away 'zine which - I'd guess was advertised in either DWB/ DREAMWATCH and/ or TV ZONE.  or I may have seen the advert in another fanzine and sent off my cheque.  Those were the days...

1993: RICHARD HATCH INTERVIEWED IN STARLOG MAGAZINE

From November 1993: Richard Hatch discusses BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in the pages of STARLOG MAGAZINE issue 196.

1993: CELESTIAL TOYROOM CELEBRATES 30 YEARS OF DOCTOR WHO

From 1993: Westminster Bridge in happier times... CELESTIAL TOYROOM 201 marks the 30th anniversary of DOCTOR WHO with this wraparound cover recreating the Dalek invasion of the capital... and Earth in general.  

From memory, I think this shoot was for the THIRTY YEARS IN THE TARDIS TV documentary (subsequently released on tape, in an alternate/ superior edit, as MORE THAN THIRTY YEARS IN THE TARDIS) although the images were widely circulated at the time (becoming the iconic image of the anniversary year) so I may be wrong.

CT was published by the DOCTOR WHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY.  I was never a member (DWM and DWB, along with the VHS releases, were sufficient to keep me WHO happy throughout the 1990s) but I did find a stack of old CTs, for 50p each, at a con years ago and made a point of snapping them all up.  Looking at them now, they are a fascinating reference point for when the show existed only thanks to fandom's ongoing commitment.  

1993: THE OFFICIAL STAR TREK FAN CLUB OF THE UK MAGAZINE ISSUE 1

From the summer of '93: the first issue of THE OFFICIAL STAR TREK FAN CLUB OF THE UK magazine, dedicated almost entirely to STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE (as well as, borrowing from the US club, an extensive mail order section for punters to order assorted Trek tat direct from the club).

I don't know much about the history of this one although I seem to recall that the club (or a different incarnation of it) was plugged heavily a few years later in the Titan magazine (indeed I have a vague memory that Titan may have had the license to run the club at some point).

This is, for me, another exampe of the sheer abundance of different Trek magazines, albeit with slightly different distribution routes (I don't recall ever seeing this one, unlike the American version, on sale in any retail outlets and I'm not sure if the cover price is intended to create the illusion of value or whether this did sneak into stores) that were compeating for the attention - and cash - of Trek fans during the Nineties boom in both the franchise and publishing.

1993: GHOST RIDER AND THE MIDNIGHT SONS MAGAZINE: A MARVEL AGE SPECIAL (MARVEL COMICS)

From December 1993: More Halloween scarefare... GHOST RIDER AND THE MIDNIGHT SONS MAGAZINE, a behind-the-scenes/ promotional one-shot mag spun off from the pages of MARVEL AGE.

It's a reminder of a time when Marvel's horror and supernatural books were briefly in the ascendance in the early 1990s boom times. The Bullpen, on a mission to flood the market, quickly built a family of horror books to max out reader interest in the genre sparked by the initial success of the Ghost Rider revival. Once interest waned, the line was once again slimmed down to the core books.

1993: UK STAR WARS FAN CLUB MAGAZINE ISSUE 8

From Autumn 1993: the 8th issue of THE UK STAR WARS FAN CLUB magazine, available to club members.

This issue marked the 10th anniversary of the release of RETURN OF THE JEDI.

1993: THE UK STAR WARS FAN CLUB MAGAZINE ISSUE 7

From Spring 1993: the seventh issue of Britain's unofficial UK STAR WARS FAN CLUB magazine, celebrating the tenth anniversary of REVENGE RETURN OF THE JEDI.

1993: THE DWB COMPENDIUM

From 1993:THE DWB COMPENDIUM - THE BEST OF DWB, a softcover book collecting many of the best articles and features (some updated or - at the very least - with new formatting and layouts to compensate for the mag's sometimes primitive production values) from the fanzine/ magazine's first 100 issues in print.

This - and the companion compilation of the best interviews - were offered for sale through the magazine and (I think) through shops as well. I have an idea that I picked up my copies several years later as remaindered stock. DWB itself was still trying to shift unsold copies way into the DREAMWATCH era. Copies seldom seem to surface now (although I don't attend any WHO conventions... which may be awash with copies for all I know) which suggests that limited initial interest has translated as scarcity in the secondary market.

Both are well worth grabbing if you find copies. The emphasis is on WHO (of course) bua t there is enough other telefantasy in both to generate a bit of diversity.

1993: STAR WARS TECHNICAL JOURNAL ISSUE 3 (STARLOG PRESS)

From 1993: the third and final issue of Starlog's STAR WARS TECHNICAL JOURNAL, dedicated to the tech and hardware used by the forces of the Rebel Alliance.

I'm not quite sure how Leia's slave girl outfit ticks the tech box but presumably the edit was apply the same logic thst demands beautiful ladies must be photographed close to inanimate hardware.

1993: CAPTAIN SCARLET ISSUE 1 (FLEETWAY)

From October 1993: the first issue of Fleetway's CAPTAIN SCARLET revival, timed to coincide with the arrival of reruns on BBC TWO.

The series had last been seen in the UK roughly a decade esrlier when ITV had bought a package of Gerry Anderson shows (including Thunderbirds, Stingray, Scarlet, Joe 90 and even Fireball XL5) to play in daytime and at weekends.

The BBC were able to make a similiar deal in the early 1990s because ITC were no longer affiliated to ITV and were free to seel their back catalogue of ATV/ ITC series and movies to any UK broadcaster (a large package wss also sold to cable/ satellite outfit Bravo). Latterly they returned to the fold when Carlton acquired the business.

The Fleetway fortnightly comic, which used strips originally created in the 1960s, ran for only 14 issues before folding into the pages of THE NEW THUNDERBIRDS COMIC from issue 67 (May 1994).

Scarlet returned to comics in 2005 to tie-in with the CGI revival. Poor scheduling of the TV show also helped the seal the early fate of the new title.

1993: STAR WARS TECHNICAL JOURNAL ISSUE 2 (STARLOG PRESS)

From 1993: the second (of three) issue of STAR WARS TECHNICAL JOURNAL, dedicated to the Imperial war machine.

These were a series of squarebound mags (we'd probably call them bookazines today) with various gatefold pages inserted between yer more usual vertical A4 (or thereabouts) pages.

The all-new content overlapped with the similar in-universe stuff being pioneered by West End Games, although the Lucasfilm continuity police were presumably keeping things consistant. I'm not expert enough to know for sure.

The third volume - which I'll post soon - covered (surprise) the hardware of the Rebellion. The content of all three were subsequently collected into book form. The UK edition was from Boxtree and I have a battered copy somewhere.

The first edition, published the same year, and featured in a previous post, covered Tatooine.

1993: RAVER BY STAR TREK'S WALTER KOENIG ISSUES 1-3 (MALIBU COMICS)

From 1993: Walter Koenig keeps the cash coming in between STAR TREK movies by penning RAVER, a three-issue comic book oddity from Malibu Comics.

Koenig had previous for lending his writing star power to an episode of Trek's animated series (compensation for being squeezed out of the cast for financial reasons: Filmation couldn't afford to reunite the entire live action cast and Chekov - as a latecomer - was deemed least essential), his well-worth-reading behind the scenes account of the making of THE MOTION PICTURE (his updates also appeared in the early issues of STARLOG) and a standalone Chekov tale (notable for being set in thst nebulous period after TMP) for the first run of the DC Comics Trekathon.

Malibu (note the logo change mid-run) went on to gobble up the DS9 and VOYAGER (although the latter appeared under Marvel's banner post takeover) comics rights and their brief but prosperous run included several Trek celebrity contributors.

I can't claim to have actually read these but I spotted them in the 50p bin and thought they were too tempting a target to pass up.

I'm not sure if the title meant the same thing in the States as here in the UK... but it seemed an odd choice to me.

1993: AMAZING HEROES INTERVIEWS ISSUE 1

From June 1993: AMAZING HEROES tries (and broadly fails) to find a new niche in the changed comcs press landscape by returning (the regular run ended in June 1992 after 204 issues) with a new remit: longform interviews.

The reboot moved it out of the territory thst had been captured by WIZARD, HERO ILLUSTRATED and all the wannabes but placed it in direct competition with the (already struggling) COMICS INTERVIEW. That long-runner folded after 150 regular issues in 1995.

Only four issues of this revival made it into print. Subjects festured in the rest of the run included Todd McFarlane (2), Jim Shooter (3) and Trek's DeForest Kelly (4).

1993: RED DWARF SMEGAZINE VOLUME 2, ISSUE 1 (FLEETWAY)

From May 1993: The RED DWARF SMEGAZINE blasts back with a rebooted second volume which capitalised on the transition from comic to magazine (with comic strips) that took place across the first fourteen issues.

This boasts one of the most unfortunate (in retrospect) cover lines to grace a genre mag.

It came with a couple of free postcards... which had long-since parted company from this 20p back issue.

1993: RED DWARF SMEGAZINE ISSUE 14 (FLEETWAY)

From April 1993: the first volume of the RED DWARF SMEGAZINE (formally MAGAZINE) bows out after 14 issues. But it wasnt't the end... a reboot was on the way.

1993: BABYLON FIVE VHS RENTAL RELEASE

From 1993: the first UK VHS release for BABYLON FIVE.

This is the sleeve for the original rental release of the feature-length pilot episode (aka The Gathering) which was released before the series arrived.

That's because there was a gap between PTEN (Prime Time Entertainment Network - the fancy name for the package of first-run syndicated teleflicks and series Warner Brothers sold to local stations) making and airing the movie and the series proper being given the green light.

I picked this up from the Oxford Circus branch of HMV (they occasionally carried tapes intended for the rental market) and was initially not that impressed. I could see the potential byt the cast seemed a little - ahem - underwhelming in their abilities and some if the creative decisions seemed a little ill-judged (like the Command Centre that seemed to be lit like a night club). But I could see the potential.

Many of those problems were fixed when the series itself launched. And it continued to improve across seasons 1-4 before loosing it in the fifth and final year.

1993: DC COMICS NEWSTIME MAGAZINE MARKS THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN

From May 1993: Remember when Doomsday killed SUPERMAN... the first time?

DC made the most of the media hoopla around the death of the Man of Steel (the same mass media that was also suckered into thinking every comic book published that year was a surefire investment opportunity... suckers!) by publishing this in-universe current affairs mag (the title is a clue) giving a DCU perspective on the loss and the aftermath.

It's a fun read - complete with spoof ads and articles - that complemented events in the main comic books. As far as I know, it has never been reprinted and remains an interesting oddity.

1993: COMIC SPECULATOR NEWS ISSUE 10

From December 1993: the tenth issue of British fanzine COMIC SPECULATOR NEWS, surely the quintessential boom years mag.

This was a COMICS INTERNATIONAL wannabe that distilled the rampant collecting-for-investment frenzy fuelled by WIZARD and the Movers & Shakers section of CI into one black & white, desktop-published compilation of news, features and - most importantly of all - which recent comic books were shifting at more than cover price (clue: you will find most of them in the 50p boxes today) and - more importantly for the fevered collector - which upcoming books might set you up for life.

By the time this issue appeared, the bottom had already dropped out of the market and publishers and shops were starting to shutter in unprecedented numbers. Unsurprisingly, it didn't last much longer.

Issue 12 was the last issue you had to pay for. Plans were announced that the title was going to switch to being a freebie but I don't honestly remember if that happened.

Investors take note: Copies are now (ironically) hard to come by.

1993: COMICS SCENE ARTICLE ON MARVEL UK'S SUPER SOLDIERS

From May 1993: COMICS SCENE issue 33 previews MARVEL UK's SUPER SOLDIERS, one of the burgeoning number of UKverse books to hit in the booming months of early '93.

The book eventually ran for eight issues before being cancelled suddenly in the Genesis Massacre (the sudden decision, in the face of plummeting sales across the industry, to withdraw the British Bullpen from the US market).

The first issue, enhanced with a silver foil cover, shifted more than 200,000 copies. Issues can still be found in retailer dump bins to this day.

Issues 9 &10 were announced in the pages of MARVEL AGE MAGAZINE but never appeared. The eighth issue was the only part of the REDMIST 2020 crossover/ launch that actually made it into print. The other three books (DEATHDUTY, BLOOD RUSH and ROID RAGE) were all scrapped at the last possible moment.