This was actually an amalgamation of several existing fanzines dedicated to BABYLON FIVE (BABCOM: Not to be confused with the UK BABYLON FIVE club magazine I have posted previously) and LOIS & CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN (The Daily Planet). The combined title expanded the remit even further to cover other imports.
I'm not sure where the issue number comes from... it may have been inherited from one of the merged titles or there may also have been a US TV newsletter (not to be confused with AMERICANA) that was running alongside the two show-specific zines. The memory now cheats.
I'm pretty sure I was a regular reader of the titles prior to their merger but - over the years - I have misplaced or dumped all my copies. For some reason, this one survives.
I forget exactly how these were advertised. Definately mail order but I don't recall if it was on an issue-by-issue basis or via a subscription. The adverts probably appeared in the classified sections of SFX or TV ZONE.
i have a suspicion that this one might not have lasted much longer... or maybe I just stopped ordering it.
I did find an ad for BABCOM and DAILY PLANET in issues of STARBURST circa 97-98. It was phrased as " choose which one you want. "
ReplyDeleteIt was listed in the CLUBS section.
There were some very strange sounding zines indeed produced during that period but by 1999, zines were no longer listed in STARBURST.
SB also had ads for, among others, METAMORPH and DARKSTAR, both of which you have covered before.
ReplyDeleteI must have a look at the ads in TV ZONE, SFX and DREAMWATCH also.
There were a LOT of fanzines and newsletters available in the 1980s and 1990s. I used to discover them via the clasified ads in the above magazine and by listings and adverts in the various fanzines and newsletters themselves. I was very much a passive participant in fandom so I wasn't grabbing these things at conventions.
ReplyDeleteForbidden Planet on New Oxford Street used to have a healthy fanzine selection in the basement and I would grab titles from there from time-to-time when in town. They eventually stopped selling them which was a shame.
I have high hopes that a future DWM Special Edition will be devoted to fandom and fanzines. That might explain why IN VISION didn't seem to get much of a mention in the current one. I must get around to scanning the covers of that and the remainder of DWB some day...
so you were an ' armchair ' fan so to speak ?
ReplyDeletethe same would apply for myself. It never occurred to me at the time to subscribe to any fanzines and I certainly never came across any in a shop.
1995-98 seems to have been the peak period coinciding with the popularity of BABYLON 5 and THE X-FILES.
After a quick bit of research, I discovered that SFX had a page devoted to fanzines plus another listing in the classifieds.
TV ZONE and STARBURST pretty much ran the same ads while DREAMWATCH had far less.
More than once, I came across the name Zach Farquharson-Waugh. Even then, he was asking why there hadn't been a female dr who !
Btw slow, I spotted a more recent comment under your post for THE PHAROS PROJECT.
It would be great if you could put up scans of IN VISON ( another title I spotted in those ads ) and maybe some inside pages from THE 5 TIMES and such like.