Starlog is Back – On Your Back, As a T-Shirt

From small beginnings ...

Fangoria magazine, the sole survivor of a small but prolific magazine publishing house, has teamed up with Fright Rags to sell t-shirts emblazoned with the logos of Fangoria, Gorezone, and Starlog.

Starlog, as every reader of this blog knows, is the dearly departed science fiction magazine that died a sad death two years ago. It continued as an online-only product for less than a year before that, too, was shuttered, and Starlog.com is no more. Much has been written about Starlog's print and online existence – and much of it by me – but there's as yet no indication that the magazine will return to print soon or ever. So this t-shirt might be no more than an exercise in keeping legal control of a logo and name. But one never knows; Gorezone was a short-lived horror film sister magazine to Fango, and it is being resurrected in July as a special best-of one-shot, with the tantalizing possibility of a full-scale rebirth, depending on customer response, no doubt. So readers can hope that Starlog has a future life, too, and that it will be done well.

Either way, I'm still happy to see Starlog's appearance on clothing – and yes, I'm glad they used the classic logo for the magazine, the logo that was used almost until the very end of the publication's run, when it was replaced by a less dramatic, less graceful version. They made the correct choice for the shirt.

You'll also notice below that the Fango shirt uses the old logo for that magazine. This version was actually the second version of Fangoria's logo, appearing from the second issue until it was changed a few years later to the version that lasted a couple decades. The magazine has been switching back and forth with this classic logo and the current logo on its covers lately, so it's an open question which logo will be the long-term winner.

The shirts are only $19.95 each. And you know I'll be ordering the Starlog shirt. Order yours, if you're interested.

Fangoria Announces Bloody Best of Gorezone Special Edition Magazine

In its weekly newsletter, horror magazine Fangoria announced a sort-of resurrection of Gorezone magazine, a dormant sister publication published by the Fango staff in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The Blood Best of Gorezone magazine will feature reprinted articles from the dead (now undead?) magazine. But don't rush to your local Barnes & Noble; the magazine will only be available at Comic Con and through the Fangoria web site.

Gorezone was one of the horror magazines – along with the even shorter-lived Toxic Horror – that Fangoria's former publisher, Starlog Group, produced in an attempt to suck up newsstand space from competitors. Gorezone (not to be confused with the unrelated British Gorezone magazine that is published today) was sort of like Fango's messier little brother, covering more edgy and bloody films than even Fango covered (which is saying something, because Fangoria earned its fame by being the bloody, new wave horror film mag of the 1980s). Aside from the requisite film reports, it included some things Fangoria didn't, such as posters, short fiction, and a number of critical columns.

According to Fangoria, this Bloody Best of Gorezone is the brainchild of current Fango editor Chris Alexander, who had teased the project on his Facebook page a while back. It's just the latest welcome thing Alexander has done to shake up the Fangoria franchise.

Will it lead to a full-scale, ongoing return to print of new Gorezone issues? Fango didn't say, but its reception at Comic Con and online could be a good indicator to the current publisher of reader appetite for the magazine.

Hint, hint.

Starlog and Fangoria: Still Growing in One Area

Horror seems to be the lively side of the science-fiction/horror duo that is Starlog Group. What I mean by that is that while Starlog gives ground unnecessarily (see my long post describing Starlog's challenges and suggesting remedies), Fangoria is growing and innovating.
First, there's the announcement that the company is relaunching its late-80s, early-90s horror movie magazine Gorezone. Gorezone concentrated (and reportedly will concentrate) on harder-core horror than Fangoria.
Second, the company announced the release of digital versions of the entire run of the newspaper-format horror publication The Monster Times, which was published by a different company from 1972 to 1976. Apparently a complete rights purchase has been made, because the announcement also promises new Monster Times content (whether in print, online, or both is not specified), focused in a more "family friendly" direction.
These two moves (in addition to the beginnings of the digitization of the Fangoria magazine archives, an ongoing weekly radio program, a lively web site, original videos, and comics) demonstrate that the company believes money is to be made from this magazine franchise.
All the power to them.
I just reiterate my belief that there's a lot of money and opportunity to be mined on the science-fiction side of the company. Magazines are only as dead or as weak as they make themselves.