The Starlog Project: Starlog #36, July 1980: Four More Years!

Starlog celebrates the completion of its fourth year of life (and success) with another 100-page "SCIENCE FICTION SPECTACULAR," as it announces on the cover, before it starts loading on the exclamation points. Just like its third-anniversary issue, #24, this is a jam-packed magazine with the normal coverage of upcoming and current SF movie, TV, graphic, and literary efforts, along with a special 34-page color section that examines the past year in the genre.

Starlog #36
100 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $2.95

The cover design is a repeat of the blocked-photo layout last seen on the third-anniversary cover. We get another two-page From the Bridge column by publisher Kerry O'Quinn, but there's not a repeat of the two-page table of contents. (There is, however, another of Howard Zimmerman's photo collages illustrating the contents page.) Today it is not unusual for a niche-market magazine to have 100 or more pages in every issue (especially if it's published in the UK), but in 1980, it was a rare thing, certainly in the science-fiction media magazine field. So this special issue was an annual event.

Kerry O'Quinn's extra-long From the Bridge editorial looks at opening up avenues of exploration and intellectual stimulation — it's vintage O'Quinn, and in only the third issue of the magazine since I'd become a reader, it confirmed in my mind that this was my magazine, speaking to 12-year-old me; letters in the Communications section range from praise for the Tom Baker interview to comments on women in SF to follow-up on Rocky Jones to a high school mainframe computer user who discusses his Star Trek game; short news items in Log Entries include Star Wars characters guest starring on The Muppet Show, Bob Burns' time machine, Dr. Joseph Veverka on solar sails, an update on the Heavy Metal movie, first word on The Quatermass Conclusion, and more.

David Houston interviews Gary Kurtz, producer of The Empire Strikes Back (and who actually told Starlog, "Here's how it goes. There are nine stories: three trilogies of three stories each. Star Wars was the first story in the middle trilogy." Oops.); David Gerrold's Rumblings column "The Write Way," offers writing suggestions -- and he begins by relating his rejection of a young writer who asked for help, saying he can't offer it, yet then he goes on to offer writing help -- vintage Gerrold; Karen E. Willson interviews Star Trek's Nichelle Nichols; Willson also interviews Glen Larson, producer of Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (I'll bet he leaves Galactica 1980 off his resume).

In the special anniversary section, Samuel J. Maronie provides an overview of science-fiction television in the 1979-1980 season; there are photo reviews of recent films Alien, Star Trek -- The Motion Picture, The Black Hole, Saturn 3, Moonraker, and The Empire Strikes Back; there's a two-page SF collage by Howard Zimmerman (a detail of which was shown on the contents page); famous science-fiction professionals send in their anniversary congratulations to the magazine (such as illustrations by Jack Katz and Howard Cruse or Buster Crabbe's "Congratulations on your first four years. Yours has been an excellent job"); Jonathan Eberhart writes about the future of exploration in the solar system; a four-page space art section highlights some beautiful paintings by artists David Hardy and Gary LaSasso; Karen Willson and David Heath provide a roundup of upcoming science-fiction and fantasy offerings from the various production studios; Susan Adamo and John Clayton (who would soon be named the magazine's staff photographer, but is only listed as a contributor this issue) provide a three-page topic index to the last year of Starlogs.

Susan Adamo also interviews Durinda Rice Wood, the costume designer for the Battle Beyond the Stars motion picture; Gerry Anderson's Space Report completes its look at "The Mysterious Unknown Force," this time by printing letters from readers offering their interpretations; David Houston interviews Tom Leetch, co-producer of the Disney movie The Watcher in the Woods, starring Bette Davis; Samuel J. Maronie interviews Yvette Mimieux, star of The Black Hole; David Prowse (aka Darth Vader) is back for his third Starlog interview, armed with more complaints against the producers -- this time he's interviewed by David Hirsch; Frank Winter explores "Ye Olde Space Music," scores for classic SF films; an unbylined article examines science-fiction games; Al Taylor, Bill Hume and Mike Smith team up to write "Alien Worlds: Science Fiction Radio Rides Again"; David Houston's Visions column continues his look at "The Visual Art of SF Cinema" by examining the art of freeze frames ("... single shots that contain so much information, or information of such startling quality, they seem to slam right into the subconscious center of emotions"); and editor Howard Zimmerman uses his Lastword column to offer the First Annual Zimmerman/SF Awards (let's just say that Meteor does not fare well).

"Starlog, from the very start, set as one of our prime editorial goals, to be an intellectual inspiration to our readers. ... [W]oven into the fabric of the magazine, is an attitude toward new ideas, toward intellectual explorations, toward creativity and a bold, positive approach to life. This attitude is a vitally important ingredient of our publishing philosophy and, I believe, of our success."

--Kerry O'Quinn, publisher, From the Bridge: "Opening Doors"

To view previous Starlog issue descriptions, click on "Starlog Internet Archive Project" in the keywords below.

The Starlog Project: Starlog #24, July 1979: Third Anniversary Celebration

The magazine publishes its first 100-page issue, celebrating its three-year growth into a behemoth in the niche that is the science fiction magazine publishing world. It includes a rare two-page table of contents, a buxom (I'm running out of adjectives) two-page publisher's column, a bunch of extra color pages, and a look back at the previous year in science fiction. In short, it's a muscle-flexing issue that tells the SF world that Starlog's the new measure of success and quality. Of note: For the first time, we see that sister magazine Fantastica has been renamed Fangoria.

Starlog #24
100 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $2.95

The double-sized contents page includes a collage of science-fiction images, created by editor Howard Zimmerman (something he would continue for the next couple anniversary issues). The cover is also the blocked-photo design the magazine's annual birthday parties would retain for nearly a decade.

Kerry O'Quinn jump-starts the party by retelling "The Roots of Starlog," how it was born in a manger... wait, that's not it. Actually, two art directors start their own business, and after a number of publications, attempt to put out for another publisher a one-shot magazine devoted to Star Trek. That publisher was unable to get his distributor to agree to a Trek-themed magazine, so Norman Jacobs and O'Quinn rethought the entire concept, making it an ongoing science fiction magazine that would cover many topics. "We decided that what was needed was a beautiful magazine (to help pull SF out of the pulp ghetto) with full-color art and photos -- an authoritative magazine featuring expert columnists, writers, and researchers -- an informative magazine including speedy news and behind-the-scenes interviews and articles," O'Quinn remembers. They eventually convince their distributor to carry the magazine, which quickly became a collectors item. O'Quinn, of course, doesn't neglect the proliferation within the Starlog family: trade paperbacks, records, Future/Future Life, SF Color Poster Books, Cinemagic, and Fangoria. Unmentioned in this column are the other titles produced by their company, such as Daily TV Serials (a soap-opera publication that lasted quite a few years in the 1970s and was briefly revived in the mid-1980s) and specials such as Hollywood Musclemen, The Fab 50s, and licensed movie magazines and posterbooks (there's an ad on page 71 of this issue advertising "official movie posterbooks" for Moonraker and Rocky II. Licensed movie magazines would become a very lucrative business for the company in the 1980s, when the company would reign as the number-one publisher of licensed movie publications in the country.

Now, on with the issue! The letters in Communications range from arguments over socialism and capitalism to news about model kits to a follow-up for the "Statues of the Gods" spoof article, and more; short news in Log Entries includes an SF and fantasy art gallery in Los Angeles, an update on Superman II, SF-themed pinball games, David Gerrold wins the Skylark award, and more. David Gerrold's State of the Art column features a grab-bag of news and notes, including a literal note that George Lucas passed along explaining his use of "parsec" as a time measurement instead of a distance in Star Wars, and the column ends with Gerrold's announcement that this is "the last State of the Art column that I would write." William G. Fowler compiles a seven-page index to Starlog's first 22 issues; a one-page "Space-Age Spaceware" looks at SF toys and games; Susan Sackett's Star Trek Report presents a roundup of news, including the item that "Bill Shatner is also active on our softball team." Speak of the devil! Barbara Lewis interviews Shatner (his third talk with the magazine in its short life so far, by my count).

A 32-page color anniversary section is fronted by a reprint of the Star Trek art from the cover of Starlog #1. Included inside is a photo-heavy recap of recent big SF events: Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Buck Rogers, Starcrash, a roundup of other films, some classic films, a "Best of SFX" section, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Space: 1999, a roundup of other TV programs, three pages of space art, and Jonathan Eberhart on the photographic results of Jupiter probes.

Barbara Lewis also brings back Leonard Nimoy for another Starlog interview ("He Is Spock"); Allan Hendry gives advice for making photographs of things you think are UFOs; David Houston describes an SF-themed radio program called Hour 25; a four-page "Anniversary Salute to Starlog" prints birthday congratulations from the SF famous (such as this from Arthur C. Clarke: "I'm still in a daze this morning having just spent two hours on the phone with Carl Sagan, Ray Bradbury and the Voyager team, as the closeups of Jupiter arrive at J.P.L. in Pasadena. Now there's some spectacular artwork for you to publish and, I suspect, where the action is in the centuries to come. Best wishes to Starlog." Or this from Harlan Ellison: "Starlog deserves to flourish. ... You deserve praise and support because you fight the good fight, trapped between your own lofty ethics and your need to purvey cheap thrills to get [readers'] attention. It cannot be an easy task ... and I applaud you."). Bob Martin explains the Moonraker story; Fredrick King previews The Cry of Cthulhu; David Hutchison goes behind the scenes of the Major Mars film, which was to be part of the Intergalactic Picture Show, Starlog's never-realized feature film that was supposed to come out in the autumn of 1979; Bob Martin returns with an interview of Alien producer Walter Hill; David Houtson's Visions continues his look at Charles Darwin's influence on science fiction; and Howard Zimmerman's Lastword urges readers to be discerning in their appreciation of film and TV during this boom period in the genre.

"Starlog, with three years behind it, is a lusty young giant, symbolic of the new stature of science fiction in the visual media. May you and SF continue to grow and may humanity enter a good science-fictional world of space exploration for a growing and united world."

--Isaac Asimov, author, "An Anniversary Salute to Starlog"

To view previous Starlog Archive issues, click on "Starlog Internet Archive Project" in the keywords below.

Remembering 9/11 in New York

This morning, President Barack Obama is leading observance of the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that killed several thousand people and destroyed the World Trade Towers in New York. I can only imagine what this time of the year is like for the people who lost loved ones in those plane hijackings and the destruction of the office towers and part of the Pentagon.

My connection to it is merely one of my memory starting with walking to work in Manhattan. The offices for Internet World magazine were located just a couple blocks north of Union Square, which means that if one went to a north-south street, one could count on seeing the twin towers. I had a nice four-mile walk from my li'l apartment further north, coming down Second Avenue, eventually cutting in toward Park Avenue South so I could stop at my favorite bakery. This is not just hindsight: I clearly remember thinking that morning as I headed to the office that it was an incredibly beautiful morning, just the perfect New York City weather to me. Warm enough that you didn't need a jacket but probably wore a light one anyway; cool enough that the air was dry and refreshing. Not many clouds, but not bright sunshine hurting the eyes. Just incredibly blue sky over a great city humming away as it got to work in the morning.

I've always tended to get to work 30 to 60 minutes before most of the rest of the staff, and as the office eventually filled up, we got a call from our web architect that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. We started following it on the online news sites, which were too slow to do much more than choppy video and intermittent reports, but it was enough for us to realize something awful had happened. And then the second plane hit, and we all knew this wasn't just a terrible plane accident. Rumors of the White House being hit (false, of course) and the Pentagon (true) and a fourth plane crashing (also true, alas) spread quickly.

Again, I knew no one who was hurt in the attack. But I worked with one woman who lived in New Jersey. She and her husband went to the train station together every morning, and got on separate trains -- hers heading to midtown Manhattan and his ... to the World Trade Center station. Her train was already underway when the attack happened, and she got to the office fine. But the cell phones had become unusable after the attack, so she couldn't get through to her husband. She spent a panicked morning trying desperately to get any information about the trains or get through to him. In one of the few fortunate stories about that day, she eventually heard that her husband's train had just gotten started when the attack came, and it was called back; he was safe.

The rest of the day was a strange one. Our editors, publishers, and ad reps who lived outside of Manhattan had to scramble to get hotel or other lodging in the city for the night. A group of us IW editors went to a nearby pub to watch CNN and fret. Eventually, we started streaming home -- to actual homes or to their temporary overnight lodging. I walked up Park Avenue South -- everyone walked, no one drove -- with a colleague who lived near me. People walked in the streets, like a post-industrial city; they also walked on the sidewalks; they said "Excuse me" if they accidentally bumped into each other; and otherwise they didn't talk much.

My colleague's boyfriend (later husband), a city police officer, got through to her cell phone and told her to get off Park Avenue; try to stay away from high-profile landmarks. So we switched over and walked up Second Avenue, I think. As we passed the entrance to the Queens/Midtown Tunnel, we saw a building with a long line wrapped around it. Many residential towers in New York have large grocery stores in the basements, so our first assumption was one of disappointment: People were already hoarding food.

But as we walked further north, we saw the side of the building where the line entered, and it wasn't a grocery store. It was a blood donation center, and people were lined up around the block to give blood at this horrible time in the city's life. That scene choked me up, and it still does, because it shows New Yorkers at their best. Shaken, but not deterred from doing what's right.

September 11 was an awful time, and much of what has happened since has also been awful. But thank god it hasn't been repeated. It might well be; there are people who are willing to hurt any number of other people in their efforts to get what they want. No religion or country has a monopoly on such madness. But I remember one headline in the week that followed 9/11, though I don't remember where it was, so I'll just paraphrase it. It said that people really wanted it to be 9/10 again. Remembering my walk to work in that stunning blue-sky morning of 9/11, I can understand that desire.