From 1982: another scarcity from the STARLOGGED vaults... The DRAGONSLAYER movie tie-in Poster Magazine published by Marvel UK.
This is a pretty beat-up ol' copy that I stumbled across recently. It still had the original owner's blue tac attached. And its quite badly creased. But worth getting (especially as I paid pennies for it) because, thanks to the format and the relative (un)popularity of the film, it ranks highly amongst the Marvel UK rareties.
This was, officially, the third issue of the STARBURST POSTER MAGAZINE series. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK was one of the other two. And I'm stumped for the third at the moment. Any ideas?
I've never actually seen the movie. Although I have a hunch that I do have a copy somewhere. It was part of the post-CONAN fantasy fare push of the early Eighties (if only Marvel had waited a bit longer to launch VALOUR: they might have had a minor hit rather than another flop) which, at the time, passed me by entirely. I was still living the Star Age.
it must be the one for EXCALIBUR as you can see here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Starburst-Excalibur-Poster-Magazine-1981-/231724670647?hash=item35f3dddeb7:g:q5AAAOSwAYtWI9JE
Hard to believe you've never seen DRAGONSLAYER as its received many an airing on the telly. Its one of THE great fantasy movies from the early 80's. I don't have this poster mag but I do have the marvel super special and the novelisation ( with pics ). And of course the movie on dvd. The dragon is still proper scary and certainly more so than Smaug from the recent HOBBIT movies. Ralph Richardson brings the same gravitas to his wizard role as Alec Guiness did to star wars. And you can have fun trying to spot a pre - RETURN OF THE JEDI cameo for Ian Mcdiarmid.
Both EXCALIBUR and DRAGONSLAYER were part of that mini golden era for fantasy movies which also included the original CLASH OF THE TITANS, THE SWORD AND THE SORCEROR and the first CONAN. And then for a long time, nothing comparable was made until a certain Peter Jackson brought Tolkien to the big screen. ( Although Ralph Bakshi had already done so back in 1978 )
Yup... Missed it entirely. Lol. I don't ever recall it being on TV which probably means it was so off my radar that it didn't register. I do recall the theatrical release, I think I saw posters at the cinema (and, maybe, even a trailer) whilst seeing another film.
DeleteI will have to check and see whether I have it in my DVD collection. I suspect I did grab a copy at some point although I may have it muddled with the aforementioned EXCALIBER or maybe HAWK THE SLAYER.
There's no sign in London of the new SCI-FI NOW YEARBOOK yet (just a battered copy of last year's one still on sale) but I did find the FANTASY FILM ART Bookazine. It only seems to be in WHS travel outlets at the moment, suggesting something of a slow rollout across the chain.