So then Are Bert and Ernie Ex-Gay?

Responding to an online attempt to have Bert and Ernie get married, now that it's legal in New York, Sesame Street let it be known that Bert and Ernie are not gay. The couple – er, uh, roommates "remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation." Tell that to Tinky Winky.

Bert and Ernie have long been the targets of claims about their sexuality, so it's a surprise to hear that they have none. None. Perhaps they spent their summer recess at Marcus Bachmann's "clinic."

But Batman and Robin are still gay, right?

Batman Returns, and Returns, and Returns: The Starlog Project, Starlog #180, July 1992

For a record-breaking third issue in a row, the same movie is featured on the cover of Starlog: Batman Returns. And so he does.

A problem I've always had with superhero movies is that they often start out with one villain in the initial film; then in the second, they have two villains, and in the third, three, and so on. For a case in point, see the Spider-Man movies (if you count Harry in the second and third movies as a villain). It's a development that normally annoys me, because it always strikes me that the writers and producers don't have enough faith in their star character to continue to carry the films, as if we all are going to tune in merely to see a parade of disposable super-villains get vanquished (which, of course, they are).

Batman Returns is both a part of and a subverter of this form. There are indeed two villains: the Penguin and Catwoman. They are indeed both vanquished (oh, you knew that by now, didn't you?). But this movie is a better movie than the first, and the villains aren't your typical Batman and Robin-type villain teamup; they are complex and they're portrayed by top-flight actors. (Danny DeVito is particularly amazing and creepy.)

Does it deserve three consecutive covers in a row? Well, few movies do; but Batman Returns was the giant film of the time, and Starlog clearly knew what would get people to pick up a copy at the magazine racks. Like most magazines, they'd put a picture of a puppy licking Zac Efron's face on the cover every single issue if that's what would ensure big sales. (That is of course the reason Barack Obama showed up on so many magazine covers in 2008; he was newsstand gold. The closest to Efron-puppiness that the political world gets.)

Starlog #180
84 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

I've lost count. This is either the third or fourth issue of Starlog that includes a letter from yours truly. What got me to put pen to paper (or slip paper into typewriter, which for you kids was a mechanical device for creating documents that was not connected to the internet; sort of like a keyboard to nowhere) was actually more sequel concerns. Specifically, it was concern over the increasing trend of novelists to write series of books based in one world, multi-part books that never seemed to end, merely stringing you along to buy the next in the series. I certainly understood (and understand) the income-need by the writers and the publishers that fed this trend, and in many cases I understand the readers' needs to continue exploring a world they've come to love. But I thought the trend had gotten so far out of hand that readers were being fed never-ending pablum, and writers were sacrificing their role to tell an honest story. We all have to pay our bills, but it isn't out of bounds to occasionally remind ourselves that just because NCIS has been renewed for yet another season that we're not contractually bound to watch it.

The rundown: Michelle Pfeiffer and Danny DeVito share this month's cover, which also notes that it's the 16th anniversary issue of the magazine, though there are precious few reminders inside the issue that it's a special edition; heralding the return of former editorial staffer David Hirsch as a music correspondent, Star Trek VI's Valeris (Kim Cattrall) is featured on the contents page, which references Hirsch's interview with Trek VI's composer, Cliff Eidelman. In a shortened Medialog column, David McDonnell notes that George Lucas received the Irving G. Thalberg Award during the Oscars, and Marc Shapiro reports on an attempt to bring Robert Heinlein's classic Stranger in a Strange Land (which is mis-labeled Stranger in a Stranger Land) to the screen. This issue sees the return of another former Starlog editorial staffer, Michael McAvennie, who kicks off a new column called Gamelog, which reviews new video game releases; this issue, he reviews some Terminator games, among others.

The Communications section includes still more Trek-vs-Space: 1999 infighting, a vehement anti-Gene Roddenberry letter, memories of Irwin Allen, an absolutely brilliant letter critiquing multi-book novels, and more; David Hutchison's Videolog column warns us that Freejack has been released, among other genre titles; Booklog reviews Illusion, Gifts of Blood, Dragon Death, and The Missing Matter; Fan Network includes Lia Pelosi's fan club and publications directory, plus the convention listings; and in his From the Bridge column, former publisher Kerry O'Quinn actually references Starlog's 16th anniversary while sharing the story of a fan who made his professional science-fiction dreams come true.

Ed Henderson contributes his first article to the magazine, a look at the history of Godzilla on the big screen (with illustrations by Kevin Brockschmidt); Kyle Counts interviews actor and director James Darren, who discusses working on The Time Tunnel, Quantum Leap, and more; Marriette Hartley is called "one of TV's classiest actresses" as she's profiled by Lee Goldberg (after all, she didn't give the magazine the Terri Garr treatment); Batman Returns director Tim Burton is interviewed by Marc Shapiro, and he discusses how to assemble the best villainous roles for his superhero films; and Ian Spelling talks with genre favorite actor Lance Henriksen about his roles in Aliens and Alien3, Pumpkinhead, and other films.

The Star Trek interview marathon continues with Pat Jankiewicz's chat with director Gene Nelson, who discusses his episode "The Gamesters of Triskelon" (which Jankiewicz rightly calls "Star Trek as its most glorious and notorious"); Jean Airey interviews actress Judi Trott about her role in Robin of Sherwood; Tom Weaver and Paul Parla tag-team on a long Q&A with actor Ben Chapman, who portrayed the title role in Creature from the Black Lagoon; David Hirsch returns to the Starlog fold with his interview with composer Cliff Eidelman, who talks about working on Star Trek VI; and in his Liner Notes column, editor David McDonnell relates where former staffers have gone after leaving Starlog during its 16 years of publication (James Elrod is an electrician for the Metropolitan Opera, David Hirsch is an optometrist and a music journalist, Ira Friedman is producing a comics line for Topps, and so on).

"If you'll recall, the adventure of the original Star Trek is that the plots always led them to other planets. The surprise was, 'Who were they and what did they look like?' That was always fun, like in ["Gamesters"] – the alien characters were brains! We didn't show that until well after the middle of the episode, and all these other people involved weren't weird faces, like Angelique. Now [with Next Generation], there are no surprises. Whenever they come up with a new face, it either has one eye, two eyes or horns! It lacks the wonderful element of surprise the original had. Where their adventures led them was where the surprises came."

– Gene Nelson, director, interviewed by Pat Jankiewicz: "The Gamesters People Play"

For more Starlog, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit the Starlog Project's permanent site.

Batman Takes Over: The Starlog Project, Starlog #179, June 1992

We are still living in the wake created by the passage of Tim Burton’s bat-films through American film culture. Nearly 20 years later, the films in the cinemas might be by Christopher Nolan and a Christian Bale suffering from a speech impediment, but I think it’s safe to say that those movies would not have existed or would at least have been nowhere near as dark as they are if Burton hadn’t first paved the way with Batman and Batman Returns.

In fact, when his Batman originally came out, the talk about it was that his vision of Gotham City and its caped crusader was too dark – visually and thematically. For an aging Bat-audience that was still pining for Adam West’s camp version from 1960s television, it was the height of presumption on Burton’s part to recast the story in a darker, scarier, more violent direction. And “recast” was only part of the controversy; people howled at the casting of quirky (I mean that in the best way) actor Micheal Keaton as Batman.

Burton proved them wrong, and with the 1992 release of Batman Returns, he made a sequel that was arguably better than the first movie. With another casting twist that was laughed at before people saw the film, he picked Danny DeVito to portray the Penguin, and DeVito delivered a fireworks-and-send-them-all-home-happy performance.

Batman Returns was big, and Starlog plays it up big-time. This issue, the magazine includes a 16-page color portfolio of preproduction paintings from the film, plus other coverage. The movie is also on the cover for the second month in a row; in fact, I believe Batman Returns sets an all-time record with the next issue when it achieves a three-consecutive-months reign on the cover.

Starlog #179
100 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $5.95

Speaking of the cover, it’s actually a very striking photo they chose, with the raised bat-symbol shining out from under blowing snow. Were I designing the cover myself, I would have reduced the text below the image, because as it is now, it kind of detracts from the power of the photo. But it‘s still a strong cover that reflects the cold metal feel of the film.

The rundown: The Bat-cover kicks off the magazine, and Beauty & the Beast is featured on the contents page; David McDonnell’s abbreviated Medialog column warns us about The Forever King, featuring a reincarnated King Arthur who’s a “10-year-old Chicago boy and the proud owner of the Holy Grail”; Booklog reviews The Catswold Portal, Cloven Hooves, Mother Lode, Kalimantan, Bicycling Through Time and Space, Remaking History, The Trinity Paradox, and The Face of the Waters; the Communications section sprawls over seven pages and actually manages to include topics other than Star Trek, namely everything from Eerie, Indiana to Freejack to Time Tunnel to Highlander II to … well, Star Trek, plus there’s Mike Fisher’s Creature Profile of the Alien from the movie of the same name; David Hutchison’s Videolog announces the laserdisc release of the George Pal “ultra-classic” The Time Machine, plus other releases; and, in his From the Bridge column, Kerry O’Quinn highlights the High Fantasy Society, “ a live-action role-playing club” with fake swords.

Production designer Martin Asbury talks to Stan Nicholls about his designs for Alien3, illustrated with many of his storyboards for that underrated film; Marc Shapiro interviews Bo Welch, production designer for Batman Returns; Abbie Bernstein chats with actor Clive Mantle, who discusses his roles in Alien3 and Robin of Sherwood (and who utters the timeless words, “[F]or two episodes, I wore this wig. It had a personality all its own; it was like a dead poodle on my head.”); Lee Goldberg profiles writer Don Ingalls,who discusses his Star Trek scripts “A Private Little War” (which aired under a pseudonym) and “The Alternative Factor,” and he notes that he later worked with Shatner again on T.J. Hooker, but by then “the young eagerness of his Star Trek days was gone . … However, all stars over the years acquire a certain arrogance and sometimes lose a little of their acting edge by doing that. They become too confident.”; Kyle Counts interviews actor Bob Colbert about his career, in particular his starring role in Time Tunnel; a 16-page center section features preproduction designs from Batman Returns; and Rich Harvey makes his first appearance in the pages of Starlog with a look at the new Indiana Jones novels by Rob MacGregor.

Edward Gross interviews writers Linda Campanelli and Shelly Moore about their work on the late fantasy TV series Beauty & the Beast, and Gross co-writes a sidebar with Stephanie Wiltse about a possible Beauty & the Beast film; Marc Shapiro talks to B-movie star Tim Tomerson about his roles in Trancers, The Twilight Zone, and Quark (remember that late-1970s NBC SF sitcom?), about which he says, “It was a real wacky show. I would come in each week, take one look at the script and just die laughing.”; Sandra Brandenburg and Debora Hill contribute their first article to the magazine with an interview of fantasy novelist Katharine Kerr (The Dragon Revenant, Polar City Blues, and others); Pat Jankiewicz profiles television director Leo Penn, who talks about working on the original Star Trek series (and he has nice words about Shatner), as well as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (yes, girl), Lost in Space, and more; the Fan Network pages includes Lia Pelosi’s usual directory of science-fiction fan clubs and publications (including the German Terminator Fan Club), plus the convention listings; Pat Jankiewicz talks with director Herb Kenwith, another Star Trek vet (“The Lights of Zetar”); and ye kindly editor, David McDonnell, pens his Liner Notes column, a plug for Starlog contributor Will Murray’s Doc Savage novels.

“My take on Gotham City is as this hideous, grotesque thing laying beneath an infrastructure that’s overlayed on a legitimate city to hold it together. It’s a more American look that reflects bad zoning and decay sitting next to beauty. Gotham Plaza is a good example of what I’ve attempted to do with all of this movie’s architecture. It’s a caricature whose scale has been totally exaggerated. It also contains an idea I had: To combine neo-fascist and 1930s World’s Fair architecture. The result has been a city that literally overwhelms its occupants in a massive, dehumanizing way.”

–Bo Welch, production designer, interviewed by Marc Shapiro: “Dark Designs”

For more, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit the Starlog Project's permanent site.

He's Batman, and He's Returned: The Starlog Project, Starlog #178, May 1992

On page 26 of this issue, readers are invited to join Starlog's reader opinions panel. As I recall, sister magazine Comics Scene also announced one of these at this time, so probably did Fangoria. Such reader-input efforts are used by magazines all the time to help them guide editorial direction for the publication. It's just another method of finding out what will sell the magazine most effectively; magazines also do mail-order surveys, phone surveys, live focus groups, and – these days – web and e-mail surveys.

In the short questionnaire applicants are asked to fill out and mail to the Starlog panel, there is a section for them to choose their age bracket, ranging from "under 12" to "12-17" and so on, until it reached the upper limits: "40 or Over." Makes me feel old.

Here's something that will make you feel as "young as when the world was new" – a classified ad listed under the "Miscellaneous" category this issue: "PROPERTY DEEDS OF MARS! For FREE brochure, send SASE to ..."

Also this month is an ad for SFX magazine – no, not the UK science-fiction magazine that is still going strong. This SFX was a one-shot publication edited by David Hutchison that focused on special effects. I suspect it would have spawned a continuing series of SFXs, had it been a success. But alas, that was not to be.

Starlog #178
84 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $4.95

With the addition of four extra pages to the magazine, Starlog also converts four of its non-full-color pages to full color, so the higher cover price is finally starting to pay off for the readers. The magazine also rearranges where it places the uncoated (non-glossy) pages, and as a result it runs its first feature article right after the contents page and thus before the front-of-the-book departments. Not a big change, that, but I have dedicated this article series to chronicling the publishing as well as editing facets of Starlog over the years. Plus, I like to have an extra paragraph before I get to the article rundown. Speaking of which ...

The rundown: The second Michael Keaton caped crusader film, Batman Returns, takes over the cover, while Sean Patrick Flanery's Young Indiana Jones Chronicles assumes control of the contents page. Marc Shapiro interviews last month's cover boy, Chevy Chase, about his new film Memoirs of an Invisible Man; Communications letters cover the gamut from Star Trek to ... well, Star Trek, but at least Mike Fischer's Creature Profile cartoon steps out and features Quintopus, which I'd never heard of, and neither have you; David McDonnell's Medialog reports that Eddie Murphy's next movie, Boomerang, will feature Grace Jones and Eartha Kitt; Booklog reviews The Crafters, Earthgrip, Griffin's Egg, The Flies of Memory, and Elsewhere; David Hutchison's Videolog column announces the continued release of Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes on video; the Fan Network pages include Lia Pelosi's ongoing directory of science-fiction fan clubs and publications, plus the convention listings; in a one-page Tribute obituaries section, Anthony Timpone says good-bye to actor Angelo Rossitto, and John Sayers does the honors for Dame Judith Anderson; and Kerry O'Quinn's From the Bridge column returns to a theme that had been common in his columns years earlier: the need for SF fans to have more in their lives than just fandom.

Bill Warren interviews actor Rick Moranis about Honey, I Blew Up the Kid; one of the big-screen misfires of the early 1980s, Cool World, had enough star power behind it (director Ralph Baksi, stars Kim Basinger, Gabriel Burnes and Brad Pitt) to give it attention but not box office – nonetheless, Marc Shapiro goes behind the scenes to talk about the making of this film; British correspondent Adam Pirani visits the set of Shadowchaser, a killer-cyborg flick that might remind you of Terminator, sans success; a more successful film of the time, Barman Returns, is previewed with a set visit by Marc Shapiro and tons of color photos (just wait until next issue, though); Adam Pirani goes to see the filming of the Kim Cattrall-Rutger Hauer film Split Second; and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles writer Frank Darabont tells Bill Warren about the highly touted new series.

Ian Spelling visits the set of Star Trek: The Next Generation to get the behind-the-scenes take on the filming of an episode; Tom Weaver interviews actor Robert Cornthwaite, who speaks about the classic 1950s' film The Thing from Another World; Kim Howard Johnson looks at the making of the Dolph Lundgren/Jean-Claude Van Damme-starring punch-em-up Universal Soldier; and editor David McDonnell wraps it all up in his Liner Notes column, where he explains this issue's focus on behind-the-scenes reports on upcoming films.

"Another project that [Chevy] Chase claims is 'still a possibility' is a Roger Rabbit-type film with the working title of Bugs Bunny & Chevy Chase, to be directed by Richard Donner. Chase, surprised that anybody recalls that long-dormant concept, remembers: 'It was an idea of mine that I threw out on an airplane one day. Dick and a couple of Warner Bros. executives were sitting there and they all said it was a great idea. It's a lot like Roger Rabbit, half-animation and half-live action, that would be about Bugs Bunny and myself.'"

–Marc Shapiro, writer, "I'm Invisible and You're Not"

For more, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit the Starlog Project's permanent site.

The Starlog Project: Starlog #145, August 1989: Batman in Pink

The garish pink cover must have worked so well the last time Starlog used it that it's back, this time serving as the background for a decidedly dark and sort of aggressive-looking Batman.

But with this issue, we're clearly in the Age of Batman (circa Tim Burton), so get used to seeing him or his colleagues on the cover and heavily featured inside for the next few issues. And years.

As noted last issue, Starlog #145 sees the regular cover price leap from $3.50 to $3.95. The number of pages, amount of color, and quality of the paper remains the same.

Starlog #145
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $3.95

In an off-handed way, former publisher Kerry O'Quinn tells us that several years previously, he was given the green light to create a science-fiction anthology series for HBO. Like many (most, I assume) series plans, it never came to fruition, but in this issue he tells about how one of the stories from the series – an original Isaac Asimov story called "Teach 109" – had recently been made into a 30-minute short film. It was probably a bitter-sweet moment for O'Quinn: he didn't get to make that story into an episode of his series, yet his natural pleasure in seeing creative people succeed gets combined with the very positive reactions the short film gets from people in the industry.

The rundown: Michael Keaton's Batman is on the cover, looking pretty in pink. Also, this issue's contents page omits listing the departments and only lists the feature articles (against a dark background shot of Keaton's Batman). In his From the Bridge column, Kerry O'Quinn explains the genesis of the short film "Teach 109"; Communications letters cover everything from Star Trek to Doctor Who ... to Star Trek; David McDonnell notes the signing of Peter Weller to star in Roger Corman's Frankenstein Unbound, and other genre news, in Medialog.

It might be the Year of Batman, but it's also the Year of Star Trek V, and Starlog will be publishing the official, licensed movie magazine for William Shatner's feature directing debut, so they've got lots of access to the creators and actors to dole out every issue of Starlog. This issue, Marc Shapiro profiles actor Laurence Luckinbill, who plays Spock's odd half-brother; meanwhile, animated Star Trek episodes are being released on video, as David Hutchison notes in his Videolog column; in the second part of Marc Shapiro's interview with William Shatner, the director dodges questions about T.J. Hooker and Kingdom of the Spiders ("What can I say? Let's talk about Star Trek some more"); Kris Gilpin previews director Stuart Gordon's Robot Jox (sort of a very low-budget, live-action American Gundam); Dan Yakir talks with James Bond star Timothy Dalton; the Fan Network pages include winners of the magazine's Batman contest, plus a short item on Bat merchandising, convention listings, and more.

Jami Bernard interviews actor/comedian Rick Moranis about Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (co-written by former Starlog and Future Life staffer Ed Naha), Spaceballs, and Ghostbusters; Adam Pirani profiles Batman director Tim Burton; Peter Orr does a Q&A with cyberpunk author William Gibson, whose newest book, Mona Lisa Overdrive, is being given away to 50 lucky readers; Will Murray interviews actor John Rhys-Davies about his work in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Lee Goldberg talks with actor David Hedison about Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and James Bond films (in which he plays Felix Leiter); in the second part of David Hutchison's multi-part look at the special effects of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, we learn about the staging of the dueling ducks Daffy and Donald, and about Baby Herman; Bill Warren looks at the preproduction art of designer Ron Cobb for James Cameron's film The Abyss; and in his Liner Notes column, David McDonnell praises the magazine design work of Jim McLernon and Calvin Lee, both of whom are also on display in person in the Fan Network pages, where they are shown with two other staffers sporting Batman clothing (with Lee wearing a cowl).

"When I first saw [Clive Barker's] Books of Blood, I thought, 'Here's a guy coming from left field.' In those stories, you can feel him getting down in the basement of the generic form and kicking the s--t out of the foundations. [Laughs]. You can see Barker figuring out what horror stories do. Regular American horror fiction never made it for me. So many of the stories are structured like dirty jokes, you know, with the revelation of obscenity at the end. Those writers are so coy, with that deliberate and sometimes totally false naivete about the stories' sexual underpinnings, whereas Barker seems totally conscious of it. He forges ahead with the sexual material. It's interesting, but I wonder what effect it has had on the genre consumer, the guy who walks into the bookstore and says, 'Gimme the next third-rate Stephen King clone.'"

–William Gibson, author, interviewed by Peter Orr: "William Gibson, Neuromantic"

To see more Starlog issues, click on Starlog Internet Archive Project below or visit the permanent home of The Starlog Project.

The Starlog Project: Starlog #142, May 1989: Batman Arrives

In the 21st century, the talk is of the reimagined Batman starring a growling Christian Bale, taking the storyline in darker, more adult directions. Of course, those of us more than 25 years old remember that the 1989 Batman starring Michael Keaton was in fact considered to be taking the storyline in darker, more adult directions. If we keep going in this direction, in 10 years we’ll have Eli Roth’s darker, more adult Batman, in which he tortures his victims before dispatching them with a machete. Yes, Batman can always get grimmer.

Meanwhile, there’s some slight redesigning of the magazine’s departments this issue. The column names are reversed (white text against a black background) and a border outlines the pages. It’s part of a rolling redesign the magazine would undergo with art director Jim McLernan and senior designer Calvin Lee. Soon we’ll see them turn their attention to the contents page.


Starlog #142
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $3.50

Classified ad of note this month: “GALACTIC TREKFEST Apr 21-23 ‘89 GOH are Richard Hatch, Bill Mumy, Merritt Butrick. Dealers, Art Show, Panels, Gaming, Banquet. Info ...”

My favorite photo caption of the issue: “Second Sight is The Three Stooges Meets Ghostbusters repaved with a little bit of Aretha Franklin’s ‘Freeway of Love’”

The rundown: Michael Keaton is on the cover, looking all tough as Batman. In his From the Bridge column, Kerry O’Quinn writes about a science-fiction/horror fan who’s trying to pursue his dream of making films; the Communications section includes reader praise for the Nigel Kneale interview, further praise for the magazine’s coverage of some classics (E.E. Doc Smith, Phantom of the Opera), news from the head of the official Martin Landau fan club, and there’s lots of reaction to TV’s War of the Worlds; the Medialog section includes Marc Shapiro reporting from the Star Trek V press conference, and David McDonnell’s roundup of genre news includes the item that Terry Gilliam is planning to direct the film version of Watchmen.

It’s Indy time, and Marc Shapiro talks with writer Jeffery Boam about Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Desire Gonzales interviews one-named actress Terrylene about her role in Beauty and the Beast and the challenges of working as a deaf actress; Kim Howard Johnson talks with former Python Eric Idle about his work in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen; the Fan Network pages include a collection of photos showing science-fiction characters in unexpected places, short news bits on the next Star Trek fan cruise and a video contest, and more; Will Murray previews the John Larroquette and Bronson Pinchot-starring psychic comedy Second Sight; Murray also previews Millennium; Adam Pirani goes behind the scenes of Tim Burton’s Batman.

There’s even more from Will Murray, who interviews actor Dick Durock about his work in Swamp Thing, Battlestar Galactica, and even Ewoks – The Battle for Endor; Peter Bloch-Hansen interviews actress Lynda Mason Green of War of the Worlds; Jami Bernard talks with Muppetmaster Jim Henson; Steve Swires continues his talk with director Nathan Juran (First Men on the Moon, Jack the Giant Killer, Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, and more); discount Godzillas are unveiled in David Hutchison’s Videolog column; Kim Howard Johnson checks in with director George Pan Cosmatos about his deep-sea thriller Leviathan; Starlog carries the underwater page design elements along from the Leviathan article to a Scott Lobdell article on another deep-sea thriller, Deep Star Six; and editor David McDonnell wraps it all up by discussing how and why the magazine created last month’s Baron Munchausen cover, which involved expanding a tiny image 800 percent (and which resulted in a somewhat grainy cover photo).

“George [Lucas] has made a conscious decision to keep the Indiana Jones films similar. They’re not that open-ended and I knew going into the project that I couldn’t just do anything. I think I managed to get some different things in, but I also know that George vetoed a lot of my ideas. The Indiana Jones movies use the cliffhanger serial as a role model. It’s a unique formula but, bottom line, it’s a formula which means the writer is faced with a confined structure and a series of expectations that need to be met. Fortunately for everybody involved, this formula is a highly entertaining one.”

–Jeffrey Boam, screenwriter, interviewed by Marc Shapiro: “Indiana Jones Rides Again!”

To read previous Starlog issue descriptions, click on "Starlog Internet Archive Project" in the keywords below or visit the Starlog Project's permanent home.

Batman and Robin and Joker, Redux

Ahem. Okay, so I recently printed a correction on this blog after I incorrectly identified the Batman film that was represented in a life-sized costume displayed in downtown San Francisco's Bloomingdales. In that same post, I added a couple other pictures from the display, and identified the movies they were from.

And when I say "identified," I mean "misidentified." Seriously, you should expect that from me by now.

Fangoria.com's James Zahn wrote in to kindly point out that the Joker costume was indeed from the new Batman film, not the Tim Burton-era series. He writes, "The Bloomingdales displays are from a mix of films, but if you'll notice -- the logo plates in each display properly represent the film from which the costumes came. The Tommy Lee Jones piece clearly has the BATMAN FOREVER logo behind it, while the Bat & Joker suits have THE DARK KNIGHT logo behind them."

Er, "the logo plates in each display properly represent the film"? You didn't expect me to actually look at the photos before I posted them, did you? What do you think I am, Der Spiegel? Oh, well. On the bright side, I got at least one out of three movie ID's correct. That'd be a good percentage in baseball.

If you're still curious about the Bloomie's displays, Zahn points us to a press release that explains the movie costume promotions.

So a big (albeit sheepish) thanks to James Zahn -- who, BTW, is also creator of the nifty Fangoria Graphix comic Death Walks the Streets.

And I'll end this with the final store display photo ever on this blog. Today, while catching lunch in San Francisco's Clement Street area (if you're in this city and wondering where to escape the tourists but still have authentic Chinese food, leave Chinatown and take a cab to Clement Street), I caught site of this fellow in a model shop's front display window.

This, of course, was the costume worn by Lauren Bacall in the Tokyo-crushing scene of the 1944 Howard Hawkes film To Have and Have Not.

Or maybe not.

Various Batmans Galore, Good and Bad

In the comments to my recent post about the Batman costumes at the local Bloomingdales, the claim is made that the photo of Batman's costume is from the Christian Bale pix and not the previous series of Bat-flix started by Tim Burton and run deep into the ground by Joel Schumacher.

I might be wrong about the Bat-costume. Okay, I probably am. As I now recall, the longer the Schu-flix continued, the more hard-core and nipple-endowed the Batman and Robin costumes became. Strange, then, that that the other costumes at Bloomies were these two pictured here. One is from Burton's Batman, and the other is from Batman Forever. Riddle me this: Does Bloomies know its superheroes or not?

Batman Shops at Bloomie's, Apparently

After taking in the Autumn Moon Festival Street Fair in San Francisco's Chinatown this past Sunday, I sought refuge from the awful heat by heading into an air-conditioned mall downtown.

In the fourth-floor entrance to Bloomingdales, I noticed this fellow in life-size form and had to take a picture. There were also glass-encased statues of several other Batman movie characters. I'm not sure what the promotion was for (especially because these statues were from the previous series of Batman movies, not the Christian Bale ones).