Fangoria German Archive from Mad Mags

Okay, all of you horror fans are probably really sick of this endless Starlog science fiction archiving stuff, right? You say, Enough of the spaceships and unicorns and interplanetary travel. Give me scary spirits and bloody heads. Well, erm, okay.

So, here's the online Mad Mags archive of the short-lived German edition of Fangoria magazine. Like the Deutsche ausgabe of sister magazine Starlog, the German Fango was put together and printed in the United States by the staff of the American original, and shipped to Germany. I've seen one German reader who complained that it was just a translation of the U.S. edition; in other words, it wasn't Germanicized enough, and that's probably a fair criticism. After all, if I were doing a German science fiction or horror magazine, I'd mix the latest U.S. and international films/books/TV programs with the classic German horror and fantasy films (Metropolis! Frau im Mond! The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari! usw). Alas.

So anyway, enjoy.

So what about the U.S. edition of Fango? I'm going to be too busy for who-knows-how-many-years with my Starlog Internet Archive Project, so I guess a horror magazine fan out there will have to do the online Fangoria archive. Calling all Fangoria fans! Pour some of your energy and love into this project -- and let me know when it's ready.

German Starlog Issue Files -- Auf Deutsch Bitte

Please forgive me if you're getting sick of all of the Starlog archiving going on in this blog. But as I continue my project to create an internet archive detailing every issue of the U.S. edition of Starlog magazine (well, because I can), I've also found some other fine folks who've created some archives online.

Earlier, I noted the Japanese editions of Starlog.

Now, I've found an archive of the German edition of Starlog, which was published for about four years in the 1990s. Over at the German-language web site Mad Mags, you'll find a complete archive of this ausgabe.

The German editions were actually put together and printed in the United States, then shipped to and sold in Germany, which likely had an impact on making it financially restrictive after a few years.

I Won't Say Utne Reader Takes My Advice, but ...

Folio: reports that Utne Reader, the lefty journal of "independent media," is increasing its cover and subscription prices, and it is also increasing the physical trim size of the magazine to 8.5" x 10". Paper quality will also improve.

I've been arguing that magazines should be doing just that -- increasing their prices to pay for a bigger, better product, instead of following the lemmings who shrink trim size (I'm talking to you, Rolling Stone and German edition of Playboy) and cut, cut, cut content and quality.

Good Housekeeping is going the other way -- let's just call it the John Zipperer Way, not because I have an ego but simply because there is no other appropriate description for it. Utne Reader has also jumped on the John Zipperer Way bandwagon (that's awkward; will have to come up with new nomenclature). I hope others take notice.