1983: COMICS COLLECTOR ISSUE 1

From the Spring of 1983: another oft-overlooked fanzine of the period... the first issue of COMICS COLLECTOR.

This was a semi-professional mag with glossy colour covers and presentable interiors. 

They wisely decided to celebrate SUPERMAN's 45th anniversary because (maybe) they knew they wouldn't be around five years later for the big one. 

CC was one of several comics based magazines conceived in the early Eighties to take advantage of the growing Direct Sales market. Not only did it make targeted niche distribution easier byt the new comic book stores also concentrated readers in the same place for the first time. 

1993: STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE ASHCAN EDITION from HERO ILLUSTRATED (Malibu Comics)

From July 1993: The comics premiere of STAR TREK DEEP SPACE NINE, courtesy of a floppy inserted premium bagged with the first issue of HERO ILLUSTRATED.

Not only was this the first comic (although its more of a tease) based on the new TREK TV show (and one that turned out, after a duff start, to be a franchise highpoint) but it was also the first Trek comic published by young contender Malibu Comics... And also the first time that Paramount's (no doubt very busy) merchandising department had split the license.

DC Comics (owned by rival media conglomerate Warner Communications) already (with the occasional hiccup) published books based on the two existing branches of the show so it was a natural assumption they would flex to accommodate this one. But the studio decided to make things interesting... And put DC on notice.

Apparently Paramount were so smitten with the Malibu operation that when it hoisted the "for sale" sign as the market sagged, the studio considered buying it and using it as a starter for its own publishing venture. Paramount passed and, after DC started showing a little too much interest (a consolidation that would push Marvel out of the coveted 'biggest beast' slot, vital for maintaining the floundering share price and stock market credibility) Marvel's owners swooped. 

That purchased open channels between Marvel and Hollywood and led to Marvel launching the Paramount Comics line which was essentially a vehicle for pulling all the Trek licenses back under one banner (and expanded the line to unprecedented size) but also allowed Marvel to publish low profile tie-ins with other Paramount franchises (MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE), also rans (CONEHEADS) and semi-obscure animated shows. 

The deal eventually floundered when sales of the TREK line failed to justify the cost of the license, a situation exhaserbated by the financial woes that also saw Malibu wither and die.

Under Marvel ownership, plans were also hatched to publish the Stan Lee created EXCELSIOR COMICS line and even a line of soft core adult titles (a rival to the lucrative PENTHOUSE COMIX offering) under the PLAYBOY banner. Neither materialised. 

HERO ILLUSTRATED was the highest profile of the WIZARD contender titles which, unfortunately, spelt the end of the previous generation of comics magazines like COMICS INTERVIEW and AMAZING HEROES. It went toe-to-toe with its rival with an all but identical formula and battled for readers with exclusive covers, trading cards and these PREMIERE EDITION inserts.

The collapse of the hype fuelled collectors market ended the need for two near identical offerings and HI shuttered after some two years.

Ashcan editions were a long-standing tradition of US publishing to secure ownership of a particular idea or title by printing a small number of copies purely to register ownership ahead of a full launch. They were not intended to be seen by the public. This type of teaser, often promoted (of course) as a "hot collectable" borrowed the name, and the smaller dimensions and page count, but weren't Ashcan Editions in the true sense. 

1979: AFTA REVIEWS BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

From 1979: I'd not previously encountered AFTA (brilliantly subtitled the magazine of temporary culture) before but I recently stumbled across this lone and random issue in a second hand bookstore in London.

It's a fascinating (albeit challenging on the eyes)  insight into US contemporary culture, but it was the reviews, and connected news clipping, for BATTLESTAR GALACTICA which I thought worth sharing.

I'd not previously heard the story of the kid that suffocated on the plastic bag and the blame apportioned to Larson's space epic. It sounds a pretty tenuous connection to me as I wouldn't (and didn't) associate the Cylons with shopping bags.

That would take the BATTLESTAR death toll to three. Far more widely reported (and with good reason) was the toddler that choked on the firing missile feature on Mattel's Viper toy (some contemporary sources attributed it to the Raider toy, although the description of the nose-mounted missile being like a gun seems to confirm that the Colonials were to blame).

A US teenager committed suicide, by jumping from a bridge, after ABC canned the show later in '79, and blamed the network in his suicide note.

1985: FANTASY EMPIRE Issue 15

From May 1985: The cover of US magazine/ fanzine FANTASY EMPIRE issue 17, plucked from the "random scans" file.  

Colin Baker (why did we think he looked fat?  In retrospect he looks perfectly average.  Or did we all just get bigger in the intervening decades?) accompanies the news that DOCTOR WHO was on an eighteen month hiatus as BBC management unsuccessfully tried to dump the unloved show.  It would take them another four years (and a more nuanced and less fan-baiting strategy) until Mission: Accomplished.   

The writer Tanith Lee died last month at the age of 67.  I had a quick flick through the issue to see whether the piece was worth scanning and posting... but I couldn't actually find any reference to her and her work inside.  I guess I wasn't looking closely enough.  Sand, her script for BLAKE'S SEVEN's finale season, remains one of my favorite episodes of the whole run.  

1989: DWB Issue 62

From February 1989: Issue 62 of the pro-zine DWB, edited and published by Gary Levy (aka Gary Leigh).

Launched as DOCTOR WHO BULLETIN circa 1983, DWB went from strength-to-strength throughout the Eighties and had become one of the preeminent zines by the end of the decade. 

However, its success, and antagonistic attitude to the show, its producer and BBC, made it a sitting target for BBC Enterprises to try and shut it down.  It's success, and relatively high production values, meant that it could easy encroach on the officially licensed DOCTOR WHO MAGAZINE.  

So, although WHO remained dominant, Levy/ Leigh switched gears at the end of the decade and relaunched it as (subtle difference) DREAMWATCH BULLETIN with a remit to cover a much broader range of shows.

This may have also been partially prompted by boredom on Levy/ Leigh's part.  The declining fortunes of the show, and the number of episodes being shot, certainly gave less scope to cover current production.  It's also possible that he guessed/ was told that the show's days were numbered and wanted to broaden the scope to ease the transition. 

I picked this issue up quite recently but I started reading regularly later in 1989 anyway and I still have my collection stashed in a box somewhere.  DWB was always a compelling read, particularly because of its vitriolic hatred of John Nathan-Turner and his interpretation of the show.  With the benefit of hindsight, it's amusing (and slightly distasteful) to see how much venom was unleashed.  JNT was, afterall, a jobbing BBC producer fighting against a tide of indifference and restructuring.  Neither of which favored him or his show.  

The motivation for Levy's attitude can be found in the pages of the excellent THE LIFE AND SCANDALOUS TIMES OF JOHN NATHAN-TURNER by Richard Marson.  

DWB was relaunched as DREAMWATCH (it was never as good) and subsequently acquired by Titan.  It's now defunct. 

1978: COMIC MEDIA NEWS INTERNATIONAL Issue 36

A semi-random scan from June 1978: COMIC MEDIA NEWS INTERNATIONAL issue 36, edited and published by Richard (Burt) Burton... future staffer at the Annex of Ideas and Tharg's Command Module. 

1996: DARK STAR Issue 13

From 1996: The thirteenth issue of Rob Dyer's fanzine DARK STAR.  

I found this random issue in a store recently.  I don't remember seeing this particular issue back in '96 but - prior to that - I have a hunch that the Forbidden Planet branch on London's New Oxford Street used to carry copies when they still had a fanzine section in the basement.  Looking back... I wish I'd paid more attention (and had more money) to sample the collective wares. 

I know very little about DARK STAR so there's not a lot of background or context I can add.

I suspect the cover feature comes off the back of the late Michael O'Hare's visit to the UK after he bowed out of BABYLON FIVE after the first season.  I remember him doing the rounds of various stores signing stuff (in these more innocent times he would rock up to one of the organized events and charge a fortune each time he picked up his pen).

He also made a personal appearance at a long-defunct SF cafe just off London's Tottenham Court Road.  They had a lecture theatre/ screening room upstairs and he gave a talk and Q&A.  This was also filmed and later sold on VHS tape.  I think I have a DVD dub of my original VHS somewhere...

O'Hare (who, it seems, had a more troubled private life than anyone was privy to at the time) came across as being more relaxed and likeable than he ever did on screen.  It was always tricky to know whether his performance was because he saw the character as by-the-book and unemotional or whether he just wasn't a terribly good actor.  

I assumed, at the time,  his replacement on the show, Bruce Boxleitner, was drafted in by the studio after season one to raise the show's game. He was a more established acting talent and also able to boost the show's appeal to wavering station managers and groups by parachuting in a known star who had already anchored several network dramas.  

O'Hare suffered from mental illness for some twenty years but died of a heart attack, aged sixty, in 2012.  The B5 cast has been particularly cursed and other talented members who are no longer with us also number Richard Biggs (who was only 44 when he died), Andreas Katsulas and Jeff Conaway. 

1982: FANTASY ADVERTISER issue 72

From March 1982: another random-scan from the back-issue box... FANTASY ADVERTISER (Incorporating MASTERS OF INFINITY) Issue 72. 

1974: THE MARVEL SUPER-HERO INDEX

From March 1974: THE MARVEL SUPER-HERO INDEX, published by Alan Austin.

Remember when the Marvel Universe was a far more simple place?  With only a decade of appearances and (relatively) coherent internal continuity?  

This British produced guide is a throwback to that time.  I found it in my local comic book store recently.  

I've also been picking-up various Marvel first issues lately, often from the 1990s (the impending volume in their nice series of FIRSTS trade paperbacks has suddenly switched from overpriced trade (as per the previous versions) to £100 hardback whopper... which means its cheaper to raid the 50p boxes.  And, the book still only has a smattering of the myriad of launches from the time), and it struck me that indexing and cross referencing the 1990s would be a heck of a lot more complicated than tracking Marvel's first ten-or-so years.  

And today's relaunches and reboots just leave me thinking "meh". 

1982: FANTASY ADVERTISTER issue 71

From January 1982: Issue 71 of the British fanzine FANTASY ADVERTISER. 

1984: TITAN DISTRIBUTORS ADVERT from FANTASY ADVERTISER

From October 1984: a list of UK comics specialist stores serviced by Titan Distributors.  

It's not a very long list... but the industry had yet to reach its peak (fast-forward about nine years) and Titan (now part of Diamond) wasn't the only player in the field.

This appeared on the back cover of FANTASY ADVERTISER issue 87.

1988: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in GALACTIC JOURNAL - PART TWO

This wraps-up yesterday's BATTLESTAR GALACTICA post taken from the 1988 fanzine/ magazine (it sits somewhere on the cusp) GALACTIC JOURNAL.

1988: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA in GALACTIC JOURNAL

I don't mind telling you, this copy of the first issue of weighty US fanzine (bordering on pro-zine) GALACTIC JOURNAL was one of the most -if not THE most - important fanzines I ever bought.

When BBC TWO started rerunning BATTLESTAR GALACTICA around this time (its first outing since ITV first aired the show in the early 1980s... and its first networked slot in the UK) I was fairly scornful at first... but I also made sure that i never missed an episode in its Wednesday at 6 slot.  By the time the run had reached War of the Gods (skipping Saga of a Star World, The Living Legend and Fire in Space along the way) I was hooked.

But - pre-internet - there were very few sources of hard-and-fast information out there.  I wasn't even sure how many seasons (note: I'd automatically assumed it had run for at least a few years.  Oops) it had originally aired.  I did sign-up to join Britain's THE THIRTEENTH TRIBE (see here for a partial newsletter cover gallery) but - and I think this was a fundamental flaw with the club - it didn't produce a "Bluffer's Guide" type fact sheet for new members.  They just assumed you knew... and I didn't.

So - imagine that woohoo moment when I found a copy of this fanzine on a dealers table at the old Westminster Comic Mart at Westminster Methodist Hall.  I can't remember how much I paid for it (budgets were tight in those days) but I devoured the lengthy Battlestar piece... and never regretted the purchase.

The author, Steven Simak, revisited the Galactica universe for several similar articles which appeared over the next decade-or-so.  The lengthy pieces, which appeared in NOT ON THIS EARTH and SCI-FI UNIVERSE (I think), went over some of the same ground but were significantly different enough t not feel like a straight rehash.  Steven: let me take this moment to salute you for writing about the show I grew to love when no-one else was.  Thanks.

The article is a long one so I've decided to post it over two parts.

The rest of the issue is devoted to an equally lengthy overview of the first episodes of STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION's inaugural season.  It hadn't reached British TV at this point (although, I may have seen the rental release of Encounter at Farpoint) so any writing on the show was welcome but - thanks to the official Starlog magazine (later reprinted in Marvel UK's indifferent STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION comic) - it was already starting to feel familiar.

I have no idea what happened to GALACTIC JOURNAL.  I've never seen another copy of this issue... or any subsequent issues again.

- TO BE CONTINUED - 

1978: BILL MANTLO on THE MICRONAUTS

This is a nice little two-page article - by prolific Marvel scribe (and - for a long time - their go-to guy for licensed properties) - Bill Mantlo, first published in THE COMICS JOURNAL issue 40 (June 1978) on the origins of THE MICRONAUTS.

As I've noted in various different posts, the diminutive warriors of the Microverse were Marvel UK mainstays between 1979 (when Dez Skinn launched them as a regular supporting feature in STAR WARS WEEKLY) and 1984 (their final regular appearance was their four-part team-up with the X-Men, reprinted in THE MIGHTY WORLD OF MARVEL volume 2 13-16).  Along the way, they also appeared in STAR HEROES WINTER SPECIAL 1979, STAR HEROES POCKET BOOK and FUTURE TENSE.

1979: COMIC BOOK SALES CHARTS from THE COMIC READER (Fanzine)

How the mighty do fall.  I found these sales charts in copies of the seventies/ eighties US fanzine THE COMICS READER.  I thought they made interesting reading.

The first is from June 1979 (issue 169) and is the earliest I could find (and - I think - the first published).    The top five make for interesting reading and really capture the STARLOGGED vibe.  The X-Men and Spider-man are there (of course) but so are The Micronauts (1), Star Wars (2) and and the 4th issue of Battlestar Galactica (4).  Hurrah.

By way of a comparison, the second Top 100 is from February 1981 (issue 188) shows that the 23rd - and final - issue of BATTLESTAR had plummeted to 32nd place.  No wonder Marvel decided to cut their losses once the TV show bowed-out (save for GALACTICA 1980 and the syndicated cut-and-shunt teleflicks) back in the summer of '79.  The 'nauts and Star Wars (now joined by Star Trek and Rom) were - in comparison - faring much better.  Also lurking - towards the bottom - of the 1981 chart are the likes of Buck Rogers (73) and Battle Of the Planets (75) amongst a bunch of other books for younger readers which must have had limited appeal to comic store patrons.

It's worth noting that these charts were compiled in a different way than similar charts you see today.  The sample is based on a small number of comic book stores at a time when the bulk of sales were still via traditional (although declining) outlets.  We were still a little way away from the first Direct Sales comic (Marvel's DAZZLER issue 1, 1981) and the wholesale shift in sales over the first part of the eighties.  These charts were also based on actually sales rather than retailer pre-orders from their distributor.  As such, they give a more honest picture of what was really selling as opposed to what retailers anticipated selling.

1980: ROM THE SPACEKNIGHT from THE COMIC READER (Fanzine)

Here's a great full-page ROM piece, as published on the back cover of issue 169 of the US fanzine THE COMIC READER.

The piece is credited to John Romita Jr. and Marie Severin.

1981: DEZ SKINN DEPARTS MARVEL UK (THE COMICS JOURNAL)

In a sequel to yesterday's post from THE COMICS JOURNAL on Dez Skinn and his Marvel Revolution, here's how it reported Dez Skinn's departure from MARVEL UK in 1981.

The full-page post was penned by Richard Burton, fanzine editor and Skinn's former righthand man at Jadwin House.  He later went on to be Tharg.

As revealed in previous posts, I think it's safe to say that Dez departed under something of a cloud.  Something that's not really reported in this piece.

1979: MARVEL UK in THE COMICS JOURNAL (Fanzine)

I've inadvertently given Dez Skinn's 'Marvel Revolution' a lot of coverage in STARLOGGED.... that's more accident than design and mostly because there was a lot of good ol' Marvel hype about it at the time.

What I wasn't expecting to find was coverage of MARVEL UK in the seminal US fanzine THE COMICS JOURNAL.  So, imagine my surprise when I found this full page article from issue 45 (cover-dated March 1979).

1976: ENTERPRISE INCIDENTS Issue 1 (Fanzine)

Here's the front and back cover of the second printing (with added colour and some slight tweaks to the interior text) notable seventies US STAR TREK fanzine ENTERPRISE INCIDENTS.

Published in 1976, this was when Trek's pre-movie fandom was in full swing, celebrating a series that had premiered a decade earlier.

The 'zine's title comes from the third-season episode The Enterprise Incident.  Between '76 and cancellation around 1985, it evolved into a professional magazine targeting largely the same fandom market - with similar mixed-media contents - as the Log/Burst double-act.

1979: CEREBRO: THE OFFICIAL X-MEN CLUBZINE (Fanzine)

Copies of the British X-MEN fanzine CEREBRO don't come to market very often (and seem to command a hefty premium online) so I was surprised to find this stash of five issues at a comic book store recently... and chuffed to see they were only a pound a time.  Needless to say, I snapped them up.

Cerebro, named after Professor X's mutant-finding gizmotron, was published by THE OFFICIAL X-MEN FAN CLUB, presumably with Marvel's blessing.  I recall the club recieved a mention in one mid-eighties British Bullpen Bulletins.

These issues hail from the period 1979-81.  I believe that it was published (roughly) bimonthly which - I guess - means the club was inaugurated late in '78 or earlier in '79.

Each issue is A4 and stapled along the left hand side.  The cover is printed on colour paper using coloured ink (the result is quite satisfying, in a low-fi way) whilst the interiors are mostly black print on white paper with the occasional colour sheet tucked in.

The page count - and thus cover price - varies considerably from issue-to-issue.

Contents included the latest X-news (its worth remembering that Marvel's mutant ambitions at the time were limited to the core monthly title, the occasional outing of a character in MARVEL TALES and assorted crossovers, guest slots and cameos), extensive letters of comments from club members, fan-penned articles and extensive fan art.  The fourth issue also premiered a new section which profiled a single character (beginning with the Angel although I don't know if subsequent issues followed an alphabetical pattern).

The club's launch would have - roughly - coincided with US editions of the comic book going (to use collectors parlance) "non-distributed" (ND in the price guides) at the request of Dez Skinn to avoid competing with the New X-Men reprints running in Marvel UK's RAMPAGE monthly.  One of the club's services was the ability to subscribe to the US editions through the club.

The 100th member signed-up just in time to get their name into the 4th issue.

Cerebro was obviously sent out to club members (members names, when published, would always be followed by their membership number) but - I think - it was also sold in selected comic book shops.  I remember finding a stack (or box) in Bristol's FOREVER PEOPLE store (the one that had a mezzanine floor which made it seem like the geek equivalent of a department store) in the mid-eighties and picking-up several copies (none of which I managed to keep... doh!).  Whether this was a one-off or not, I don't know.

I'm not sure when the club folded but it must have kept a (very) low profile by the end of the eighties as I don't recall ever seeing it mentioned in other fanzines.  A successor, MUTANT MEDIA, appeared during the boom years of the early nineties by which time there were oodles of X-titles and copious crossovers.  I'll get around to posting those here sometime.

I briefly posted about the 'zine once before.  See here for another cover.

1979

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1980

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1981