Sunday, May 16, 2010

The Starlog Project: Starlog #96, July 1985: Howard Zimmerman Exits

Starlog's ninth anniversary celebration is the occasion editor Howard Zimmerman chooses to announce his departure from the magazine he has edited for 90 issues. Zimmerman will be replaced by the managing editor, David McDonnell, who would stay with the title for nearly 300 more issues before it finally closed its doors in 2009. Zimmerman moves over to Byron Preiss Visual Publications, and, after Preiss' death in 2005, would create his own firm. Zimmerman also authored a number of books on dinosaurs.

Starlog also announces its lineup of new licensed film magazines: Rambo: First Blood Part II, A View to a Kill, and Explorers.

Starlog #96
100 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $3.95

The magazine celebrates with its usual 100-page birthday issue, but it's a different package than in recent years. There's still the addition of an extended full-color section, but with the exception of a roundup/review article of the year in genre media, the extra pages are mostly taken up with more of the same type of articles you find in the magazine every month. That's a trend that would continue.

The rundown: The cover is once again (and for the final time) the magazine's patented boxed-photo layout against a white background. Kerry O'Quinn pens his usual anniversary editorial, asking "Where are the heroes?"; Communications letters include praise for the magazine, reaction to David Prowse's complaints about how he's treated in the Star Wars films, a call for an all-science-fiction cable channel (what a concept), and more; Log Entries short news items include David McDonnell's Medialog (a wrapup of pretty much everything going on in the SF media world, in short blurb form), David Hutchison on Erik Luke's plans for a Jetsons movie, Will Murrayon a Destroyer film, Patrick Daniel O'Neill updates the Doctor Who hiatus, and more.

Randy and Jean-Marc Lofficier interview singer/actress Tina Turner about her role as Auntie Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome; Jim George profiles Al Lorimer, special effects coordinator on The Man with One Red Shoe; Adam Pirani interviews actor David Rappaport (Time Bandits, The Bride); Fan Network includes reports from the Starlog convention in Boston, more on the Doctor Who hiatus, and more; Robert Greenberger, Chris Henderson and Carr D'Angelo review the year in television, books, and comics; two pages are devoted to photos from Return to Oz; Lee Goldberg interviews Bond actor Roger Moore; Dennis Fischer interviews Lifeforce director Tobe Hooper; Robert Greenberger interviews Red Sonja's Brigitte Nielsen; David Hutchison previews Disney's The Black Cauldron; Kim Howard Johnson interviews Cocoon producers Richard and Lili Zanuck; William Rabkin interviews Harvey Bernhard, producer of The Goonies; novelist Mike McQuay writes about "Apples to Oranges" in the Other Voices guest column slot; Steve Swires interviews actor Peter Cushing, Grand Moff Tarkin himself; and speaking of Star Wars, David Hutchison's seventh (of seven) article investigating the special effects of Return of the Jedi looks at the use of matte paintings; Jerry Ahern explains how you can dress like Indiana Jones (complete with suggested retail stores); in the Future Life section, John Clayton describes the Hubble Telescope, due to be deployed the following year, plus there's short news, including Mark Shannon on a documentary about the microchip, Max Rottersman on the Keck telescope, and more; Mike Clark interviews Jonathan Harris, who portrayed Dr. Smith in TV's Lost in Space; Brian Lowry interviews Woody Woodpecker's Walter Lantz; Kim Howard Johnson interviews Python John Cleese; and, for the final time, Howard Zimmerman wraps it all up in his Lastword column, saying goodbye to the magazine he helped build into a success.
"The Goonies is the most magical picture I've ever worked on. ... It's every kid's secret dream – to find pirate treasure. It will appeal to kids as well as to everyone who remembers how they felt when they were kids. Certainly, The Goonies will be in the top five all-time biggest grossing motion pictures."
–Harvey Bernhard, producer, interviewed by William Rabkin: "Harvey Bernhard, Keeper of The Goonies"
To view previous Starlog issue descriptions, click on "Starlog Internet Archive Project" in the keywords below or visit the Starlog Project's permanent home.

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