Tuesday 7 August 2012

1980: BUCK ROGERS UK POSTER MAGAZINE

This is a BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY POSTER MAGAZINE, published in the UK in 1980 to coincide with the debut of the TV show (although all the images come from the feature-length pilot, released theatrically in the UK and not actually seen on ITV until AFTER the weekly series).  I've no idea if this is a UK exclusive (hope so!) or a cents-to-pence reprint of a US original.

I've never seen another edition so I assume, like so many of these post mags, that it was a one-shot and didn't lead to any subsequent issues.  Exceptions to that rule included STAR WARS which (probably inevitably) enjoyed a lengthy run and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (which, I think, managed at least three editions). 

It follows the standard format for such things:  it's one single (giant!) sheet of paper with a huge poster on one side (the usual Buck key art, as seen on a bevy of merchandising) and illustrated text features on the reverse.

I was never much enamoured with poster magazines as a kid.  I wasn't big on displaying posters (just think of the blu-tac damage!) and these seemed pretty pricy for a small amount of text.  And the heavy-duty folds tended to be quite brittle so they didn't withstand multiple reads well.

This is interesting for the prominent picture of Joseph Wiseman as Draco.  Most Buck merchandisers seemed to think the old guy was a big deal (Mego produced large and small versions of the action figure... a toy seemingly predestined to be remaindered) despite the fact that he gets very little actual screen time in the movie and doesn't turn up again (although he is mentioned) in the series.  

The magazine also has a couple of nice, and very detailed, stills of the main space ship models from the show, not often seen reproduced quite so well elsewhere.

The fold-out pages, and the main poster, are two large for my A4 scanner so I've had to photograph them.  



The Main poster

Back cover

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