The Starlog Project: Starlog #59, June 1982: Governor Schwarzenegger with an Axe

Arnold Schwarzenegger was just starting to hit it big with this starring role in Conan. It's also his first of many cover appearances on Starlog. Here he's pictured shirtless, holding his budget-cutting axe.

Starlog #59
68 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $2.50

This is more or less a classic movie preview issue, with Tron, The Thing and Stark Trek all featured and all destined to become favorites of millions of fans.

Publisher Kerry O'Quinn, a libertarian in the Ayn Rand mode, uses his From the Bridge column to mark her recent death and explain her philosophy; letters in the Communications pages include an attempt to explain how Indiana Jones stayed on the German sub, thoughts on Star Trek, a Zardoz correction, and more; Log Entries short news include an attempt to bring Norman Spinrad's Bug Jack Barron to the screen with a script by Harlan Ellison, Gene Roddenberry's speaking tour, Pioneer 10's decade in space, and more; and in the one-page Spotlight this month is Disney's Tron.

Ed Naha previews John Milius' Conan the Barbarian; Naha also looks at Paul Schrader's The Cat People; and Naha -- again -- interviews Kirstie Alley and Merrit Butrick, the two young newcomers to Star Trek: The Vengeance of Khan (as it was being called at that point) (and, for those keeping score at home, on page 33 in that article, a photo of the Enterprise is published upside down); the centerfold is the fourth Starlog "Science Fiction Classic" two-page poster, this time featuring Spock's extra-vehicular exploration of V'Ger from Star Trek -- The Motion Picture; Steve Swires interviews Dean Cundey, cinematographer for John Carpenter's The Thing; part two of John W. Campbell's "Who Goes There?" short story covers six pages; Bjo Trimble relates her involvement with the Star Trek Khan film; Paul Mandell writes the SFX article this issue, focusing on the special effects career of David S. Horsley (The Invisible Ray, This Island Earth, etc.); David Hirsch previews fantasy film Krull; Ron Miller's Futures Past column continues his look at "The Evolution of the Spaceship"; David Gerrold's Soaring column relates "Chtorran Jokes," referring to his upcoming epic series on the war against the Chtorr (of which we'll see much in future Starlogs); and Howard Zimmerman turns over his Lastword column to writer Norman Spinrad, who pens an obituary for Philip K. Dick, who had recently died at the age of 54.

"Why spurn the fantasy film crowd, one of the largest movie audiences in the country? ... 'We didn't want to court the horror movie crowd,' explains [Cat People director Paul] Schrader, ' because The Cat People is not a horror movie. It's an erotic fantasy."

--Ed Naha, writer, "The Cat People Conspiracy"

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