1979: BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY in FANTASTIC FILMS MAGAZINE

From 1979: the ninth issue of FANTASTIC FILMS magazine (July) runs an extensive ten page feature devoted to the screen-size flip-flopping opener to BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY (aka Awakening, albeit off screen). 

Like much of the early print media related to the show (and, indeed, the Mego action figures which were all derived from the movie), the Big Bad of Draco (Ardala's pa) is prominently featured in the publicity stills. In the final cut, the scenes involving Joseph Wiseman's character were all, the exception of none brief scene reminiscent of the yet-to-be-shot debut of the Emperor in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, droped from both the theatrical and TV cuts. 

The character was referenced  ("Your father...") by Ardala and Kane throughout their first season appearances but it was obvious the writing team had no plans to bring the character back.

Unlike BATTLESTAR, Buck's deleted scenes have no been fully explored on line and don't seem to have entered the public domain. Hopefully they'll be unearthed, along with any blooper reels and a full account of the making of the series for any future Blu Ray release. There is a fan cut of the movie in circulation which combined scenes from the two official edits. 

The BUCK ROGERS movie was shot, alongside the opening instalments of BATTLESTAR, during the summer of 1978 (allowing the Draconia's corridors to double as the Viper Pilot transport tube amongst other double-ups), but not released until the following year. 

1979: AFTA REVIEWS BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

From 1979: I'd not previously encountered AFTA (brilliantly subtitled the magazine of temporary culture) before but I recently stumbled across this lone and random issue in a second hand bookstore in London.

It's a fascinating (albeit challenging on the eyes)  insight into US contemporary culture, but it was the reviews, and connected news clipping, for BATTLESTAR GALACTICA which I thought worth sharing.

I'd not previously heard the story of the kid that suffocated on the plastic bag and the blame apportioned to Larson's space epic. It sounds a pretty tenuous connection to me as I wouldn't (and didn't) associate the Cylons with shopping bags.

That would take the BATTLESTAR death toll to three. Far more widely reported (and with good reason) was the toddler that choked on the firing missile feature on Mattel's Viper toy (some contemporary sources attributed it to the Raider toy, although the description of the nose-mounted missile being like a gun seems to confirm that the Colonials were to blame).

A US teenager committed suicide, by jumping from a bridge, after ABC canned the show later in '79, and blamed the network in his suicide note.

1990: JUDGE DREDD THE MEGAZINE Issue1

From October 1990: one of the great survivors of British comics (and the only one of the wave of Mature Reader chasing title to launch in the early 1990s to get any traction): the first issue of JUDGE DREDD THE MEGAZINE.

This was seen as far from a safe bet back at the launch and IPC, and then Maxwell, had toyed with launching a ROY OF THE ROVERS type spin-off for the best part of the previous decade but always backed off for fear of cannibalising the success of 2000AD.  The collapsing market for traditional weeklies was the final shove Fleetway's management needed to take a chance.

The success of DREDD stateside in he licensed Eagle and Quality reprints also convinced the publisher that they could double their income streams by issuing a bookshelf/ prestige format US edition. That part of the project ultimately proved short-lived.

Its been a rocky 25 years as the megazine has endured a sucsession of relaunches, bloated confidence that the 1995 movie misfire would catapult Joe D into the mainstream and a succession of budget cuts that forced the editors to reprint some good, but not always appropriate strips, just to stretch finite budgets further and keep the book alive. 

Volume 1 ran for 20 issues through to May 1992.

Deemed a success, the second volume saw the frequency upped to fortnightly for an 83 issue run, ending in 1995 to coincide with the overhaul of the 2000AD family of titles on the eve of the movie release.

The 79 issue third volume startedfortnightly but, once it became clear that the movie was not the success that everyone had hoped for, management lost faith and the schedule was dropped back to monthly. This was accompanied by a new fortnightly, LAWMAN OF THE FUTURE, chasing a younger crowd attracted to the franchise by the Stallone outing.

Volume four ran a mere 18 issues, ending with the overall 200th issu of the Meg's run.

Volume 5 is the one currently on sale. It launched, with issue 201 in January 2001 and is still going strong. 

Happy Birthday Joe! 

1979: THE BLACK HOLE PRODUCTION ART

From the pages of STARBURST magazine: Disney production art from THE BLACK HOLE.

1978: FANTASTIC FILMS MAGAZINE issue 1

From June 1978: the launch issue of yet another Star Age magazine launched in the wake of the success of Star Wars... FANTASTIC FILMS.

To the credit of the editorial team, this was (for its time) a pretty good package and, whilst not quite Starlog, was certainly several notches above the various quickies that Warren and co were churning out.

The attempts to translate the alien language of CE3K and others is fun but also the sort of thing that gave fandom a bad name in the mainstream media... At least in the Star Age.

FF wasn't initially big on cover numbers and frequently relaunched with new volumes which makes trying to figure out which issue is which pretty tricky. This is identified in the small print as Volume 1, issue 1 but there was an earlier "première" issue dated April '78 which I don't have in my collection.

The magazine eventually ran through to 1985.  

1984: QUESTPROBE ISSUE 2 mini-comic (Marvel UK)

From 1984: Another unsung oddity from the MARVEL UK pantheon... The A5 second (and probably final) British issue of QUESTPROBE.  The Annex had previously published the first issue as a one-shot colour magazine, with minimal promotion in the regular line.

This follow-up looks like it was produced specifically as an in-pack item for the game and not sold separately. 

It reprints the full US issue and also included several pages of game tips, character notes and a guide to loading the game (for Spectrum 48K, Commodore 64, BBC Model B, Atari and Dragon 32K).

It promises the FANTASTIC FOUR in the third issue but, because Marvel's partner, Scott Adams, went out of business the following year its unlikely to have ever appeared on this side of the Atlantic. The third issue, which actually starred just the Thing and the Human Torch, did see print in the States.

The fourth US issue was scuppered by the bankruptcy but Marvel, not ones to leave paid-for inventory to gather dust, eventually reworked it for MARVEL FANFARE 33 in 1987. 

Marvel and Adams' Adventure International had planned 12 releases but faltered after three games.

1978: ABC LAUNCH PROMOS FOR BATTLESTAR GALACTICA

From 1978: A really nice compilation of ABC on-screen promotions, and channel branding, for the September debut of, for me, the second-most iconic media property from the peak of the Star Age: the three-hour (with commercials) TV premiere of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

With hype like this, and sixty-five million Americans tuning in on opening night, it was inevitable that the only way would be down.  A ratings slide that alarmed network execs just at the same time that (the far cheaper) MORK AND MINDY was surging.  The die was already cast.

It's interesting to see that the opener is obliquely referenced by its 'saga of a star world' title (one of several working titles briefly considered for the series in 1977) even through the episode name doesn't appear anywhere on the programme itself.

There's also several shots (including a prominently featured Imperious Leader... kept in the shadows in the final cut and sidelined in the series proper) and some alternate effects work that don't appear anywhere in the completed episode.  

Someone has also dubbed a reference to the "Android Sisters" (a production team gag) into the trail.  Whether this was an outtake from the show itself, or done especially for the promo to raise a laugh, is lost in the mists of time.  

Surprisingly, unless I blinked, neither the Ovions nor Muffet make much of an appearance... suggesting that either that material wasn't available when the promos were compiled or that the network wanted to hold back a few surprises for opening night.  Which would have been slightly odd as both elements were heavily merchandised, covered in contemporary print media AND a cut of the film had already been released in Canadian cinemas. 

1982: CINEMA MAGAZINE PART SEVEN: ISSUE 6 (Marvel UK)

From October 1982: the sixth issue of MARVEL UK's shortlived excursion into the world of film: the ill-fated CINEMA magazine. 

1992: EPI-LOG MAGAZINE issue 17

From April 1992: some semi-obscure small screen goodies in the 17th issue of EPI-LOG.

I don't think the UK ever had a contemporary outing for MISFITS OF SCIENCE, the strike-busting MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE revival (unless one of the early satellite channels picked it up... it's subsequently been released on DVD) and ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS *may* have surfaced as part of the ITV night time offering (they rather liked cheap, scheduling filling, anthologies).  TUCKER'S WITCH did air here: but only in selected ITV regions.  I used to watch it in the afternoons on Thames, alongside first season episodes of RIPTIDE. 

1977: 2000AD ANNUAL 1 (Fleetway/ IPC)

From September 1977: the very first 2000AD ANNUAL, from IPC's Fleetway imprint.

Yup... that REALLY is Dan Dare on the cover!

The galaxy's greatest comic always played fast-and-loose with the Pilot of the Future but this interpretation really demonstrates how far Tharg was willing to deviate from the established formula.

The Fleetway annuals that accompanied most of IPC's weeklies (even the long-defunct ones) were assembled by a different team which allowed, by (bad) luck or (bad) judgement, the spin-offs to sometimes only enjoy a passing resemblance to the 'mothership'.  A situation compounded by finite budgets (which meant that much dipping into the combined IPC vaults was required), key creators already committed to the remorseless weekly schedule of the core title and, in 2000AD's case, an annual that (because of extended lead times) had to be put together alongside the earliest regular issues.  

This was one of the two earliest spin-offs from the weekly: IPC also issued a DAN DARE POSTER MAGAZINE one-shot circa August '77.  See here for more.  

It total, 14 2000AD annuals appeared cover-dated between 1978 (published 1977) and 1991 (published 1990).  Another four appeared as softcover "yearbooks" dated 1992 - 1995 (published 1991 - 1994 respectively).  The sudden decline in the sector sealed the fate of what had been a sure thing throughout the Star Age.

The following year (cover-dated 1979) Tharg added a DAN DARE ANNUAL to his hardback offering.  Although still hindered by Fleetway's set-up, the spin-off was actually better than the core title.  A second outing followed a year later before it became obvious that Dare, by now the subject of a possible TV adaptation and a mooted move to a revived EAGLE, was not going to become 2000AD's breakout character.  

The first JUDGE DREDD ANNUAL appeared in late 1980 with a 1981 cover date.  A total of eleven were published with the late appearing in 1990.  Four Yearbooks appeared between 1991 (cover-dated for the following year) and 1994 (for 1995).

1990 saw a concerted effort to elevate Rogue Trooper from the strip ensemble to make him the comic's next big star.  Unfortunately, he failed to break out and the ROGUE TROOPER ANNUAL 1991 was the only one to appear.