Starlog Internet Project: Starlog #18, December 1978: Scary Spice

From our distance in the future, we can look at this issue's 76-page-count as a bit of a harbinger of what would soon become the norm at the magazine within the next year: 76- and 68-page issues as inflation eats away at things. But the magazine is still a science-fiction aficionado's delight, and it continues to innovate/merchandise into broader realms. One of the most unexpected but kind of most innovative is the original Starlog/Future book advertised on page 43: The Boy Who Saved the Stars, a "space fable" children's book written by Doris Vallejo and illustrated by Boris Vallejo. And on page 75, we learn of the release of Space Art, the newest (and, at 200 pages, the largest) Starlog Photo Guidebook.

Starlog #18
76 pages (including covers)
Cover price: $1.95

It's Halloween time at Starlog, as the cover highlights various fright-related features in this issue. They've even pimped the staffbox, widening it enough to include a photo of the entire staff, a number of them wearing Halloween masks. (It's also a reminder of something pleasant a reader of Starlog pointed out long ago: Has there ever been a picture published of Kerry O'Quinn where he's not smiling?)

Speaking of O'Quinn, the publisher's From the Bridge column is something of an ode to joy; letters in the Communications pages include a follow-up to the Hungarian SF fan noted in a recent From the Bridge, plus Star Wars Visions, and reader thoughts on SF productions; Log Entries short news items include a call to save Forrest J. Ackerman's science-fiction memorabilia collection, a new NASA plane, a report on a new KISS telefilm (including comments from SF fan Gene Simmons), an attempt to import more Dr. Who into America, and more.

Joseph Kay interviews Empire Strikes Back producer Gary Kurtz; David Houston interviews (separately) the two stars of Battlestar Galactica, Dirk Benedict and Richard Hatch; David Gerrold's State of the Art continues his attempts to seek "Implications in CE3K"; Richard Meyers covers some new Dracula productions (including Love at First Bite); a special eight-page "yellow pages" insert features the second-annual "Science-Fiction Merchandise Guide"; David Hutchison puts together a portfolio of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde photos (getting scared yet?); Richard Meyers previews The Boys from Brazil; David Hutchison uses his SFX section to lift the lid on the scary happenings in local Hollywood legend Bob Burns' backyard; Jonathan Eberhart's Interplanetary Excursions, Inc., visits many moons (illustrated with a big painting by Ron Miller); Ed Naha previews Joe Dante's Piranha; Gerry Anderson's Space Report reflects on the first Space: 1999 convention, held in Columbus, Ohio; Susan Sackett's Star Trek Report describes the filming of the first scene on the new Enterprise's bridge; David Houston reports "The Adventures of Stella Star: An Actor in a Strange Land" (which stars David Hasselhoff, who is interviewed); David Houston's Visions column tackles things that would destroy the earth (in science-fiction films); and Howard Zimmerman wraps it all up in his Lastword column by summing up all the attention SF is getting in the media these days ("these days" being late 1978).

"On this very page, our austere, sophisticated office and editorial staff has taken a moment out of their hectic schedule to gather in the conference room for a family portrait. As you can see by looking beyond the hideous grins on our lovable faces, some of us have fangs, some horns, some only minor physical defects -- but basically we are just plain folks."

--Kerry O'Quinn, publisher, From the Bridge

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

Magazine Logo Matches: Famous Monsters and Monsterland

After Famous Monsters of Filmland's longtime editor Forrest J. Ackerman left his job at the Warren magazine, he clearly was not ready to retire. Competitor Fangoria had a field day with the personnel turmoil at Famous Monsters, and they made the most of it by publishing a tell-all interview with Forry in Fango #24 (December 1982, see photo below); Forry's final, unpublished editorial (Fango 25, February 1983); as well as a couple original articles by Ackerman in later issues.

But I don't think Forry wanted to be Fango's favorite guest star, paraded in front of its fans like Augustus wanted to do with Cleopatra in Rome. So he must have kept looking for a magazine home, and before he ended up with the ill-fated and somewhat bizarre Famous Monsters revival, he was involved with a magazine called Monsterland. He exited that publication by issue #10 (the issue pictured above), but at least one aspect of that magazine surprised me when I recently came upon a copy of Famous Monsters and Monsterland. The "Monster" word in the logos of each is either identical in design or close enough that I certainly can't tell the difference. Go ahead, click on the photos above to get larger images. Can you spot any difference?

Why the copying? It's not as if "Monster" in that exact font and treatment was an automatic newsstand draw. Before he left, the magazine was known as "Forrest J. Ackerman's Monsterland," and I would think his name had more to do with whatever sales there were than the "Monster" name design.

And if you've never heard of Monsterland before, don't despair. I only vaguely recall seeing it on the stands at the time and I did not buy an issue. It was produced by Hal Schuster and James Van Hise, who also took the Trek-heavy Enterprise Incidents magazine and turned it into SFMovieland (see photo, right) -- another magazine that somehow managed to never be purchased by yours truly.

Today, of course, Ackerman is no longer with us, and neither is Monsterland. With a little more creativity and quality and originality, maybe Forry would've found it to be his long-term home, but that was not to be.

Famous Monsters Given New Publishing Lease on Life by IDW

Famous Monsters of Filmland, the pioneering horror movie magazine, is coming back to publishing life thanks to IDW Publishing. It will relaunch as a quarterly magazine in the summer of 2010. 

FM, the brainchild of Forrest J. Ackerman and publisher James Warren, began life in 1958 as a one-shot magazine that proved so popular that it became a staple of the genre publishing world -- and the foundation of Warren's stable of magazines -- for decades, until Warren's company went bankrupt in the early 1980s. The magazine was revived in the 1990s in a rather odd fashion that ended in acrimony and lawsuits.

IDW will probably fare better than the previous owner. Whether it will fare well in the competitive marketplace remains to be seen; that is an iffier guess. The horror publishing field in the United States is pretty well dominated by Fangoria these days, and Fango seems intent upon spreading its market coverage to include the family friendly Monster Times and the more-extreme Fangoria Gorezone. But anything's possible. Fan tastes and company capitalization will win out in the end!

Forrest J Ackerman, RIP

Back to the topic of magazines. A real path-breaker passed away this past week, Forrest J Ackerman. The founding editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, the creator of Vampirella, the literary agent who brought us Ray Bradbury and others, the man who (with his wife Wendayne) brought us the U.S. versions of the German Perry Rhodan science fiction novels, passed away at the age of 92.

There are obviously lots of fans of his in the filmmaking world -- Steven Spielberg, Steven King, etc. But there are also lots of fans of his in the magazine world, or at least in the science fiction and horror magazine world. That's because Famous Monsters was a groundbreaking magazine devoted to horror films, their stars, and not much else. It was presented in an unabashedly enthusiastic way, and I think people of a generation or two before me loved the magazine for that.

It's not an appreciation I can claim to share. When I got into reading science fiction books and magazines, there was a magazine called Starlog that captured my attention, love, imagination, and weekly allowance. Starlog also produced a sister publication, Fangoria, to cover horror movies and related topics. Starlog and Fangoria are still being published, though Famous Monsters died along with the rest of the Warren magazine publishing empire in the early 1980s.

I didn't pay attention to Famous Monsters much at the time, because whenever I took a look, I found it to be lacking in substance, intelligence, and quality. I've occasionally bought an issue (thanks, eBay) in recent years to test my original reactions, and if anything, my views then were overly charitable.

But Ackerman himself (in an interview in Fangoria after he was ousted from his Famous Monsters position just a couple issues before the magazine's death) has lamented the chains with which his publisher, James Warren, shackled him with the magazine, and he apparently couldn't produce the magazine he would have liked. That's a shame. Warren, after all, produced some incredibly fun and exciting magazines like Creepy and Eerie during the 1960s and 1970s. If Famous Monsters had been allowed more freedom, then perhaps Ackerman would be remembered not only as a groundbreaking editor but as a great one.

But Ackerman's triumph is most likely his ability to transmit his enthusiasm to young science fiction and horror fans, through his magazines, books, and personal appearances (for many years, he allowed fans to tour his legendary collection of science fiction memorabilia in his homes, on Saturdays). I never had the opportunity to meet him, but if I had, it wouldn't have been magazines of which we would have spoken, it would have been Rhodan, movie monsters, film directors, and deep space shows. I would have liked that a great deal, and I feel bad that we've lost such a personality and talent.

RIP