1994: SIG THE OFFICIAL SUPERMATIONATION MAGAZINE ISSUE 1

From February 1994:  This is an oddity that completely passed me by at the time and I only discovered by chance in a shop's back issue boxes relatively recently... SIG: THE OFFICIAL SUPERMARIONATION MAGAZINE issue 1.

Yup, it's an officially sanctioned by ITC glossy magazine devoted to the puppet shows of Gerry Anderson which - of course - were enjoying a resurgence at the time thanks to reruns on the BBC.

This was far from the first magazine devoted to Anderson's work but it might well have been the first officially licensed (rather than a fanzine endorsed by ITC or Anderson himself) one intended for a mainstream audience.

Unfortunately, it was published by Phoenix, the fly-by-night outfit that also published the ALIENS, TERMINATOR, INDIANA JONES, STAR TREK and FREDDY'S NIGHTMARES comics and magazines during this period.  Quality control (and indeed permission of the copyright holder) weren't always their top priority.  This is - much like their unofficial FINAL FRONTIER magazine (once they los - or stopped paying for - reprints of Starlog articles) - a thin selection of features (don't expect anything along the lines of what S.I.G had been publishing) alongside lots of glossy photos of puppets and hardware.

The weird cover layout isn't a major fail (although it is pretty high on the STARLOGGED 'That'll do' scale... and what's with the crappy, almost non-existant, masthead?), I scanned it with the free Stingray postcard obscuring part of the cover.

There's no new or reprinted comic strips.

I have no idea if this ever made it to a second issue.  Based on the strength of this one, and the very few copies that seem to be out there, I would assume not.

1994: 2000AD's STRONTIUM DOGS THE POSTER PROG ONE-SHOT

From 1994: STRONTIUM DOGS THE POSTER PROG issue 1, a one-shot spin-off from Tharg's Command Module.

Poster mags were quite a sideline for Tharg between 1993-95 with five dedicated to JUDGE DREDD and one apiece for SLAINE, ROGUE TROOPER, NEMESIS and the Dogs.

The format consisted of a giant poster with an original six page strip printed on the reverse.

The very first, albeit unofficial, 'Poster Prog' was published within months of 2000AD's launch making it one of the very first spin-offs.  The DAN DARE POSTER MAGAZINE hit newsagents in August 1977, tucked into the schedule between the first 2000AD SUMMER SPECIAL (not yet the more familiar Sci-Fi Special) and the first 2000AD ANNUAL.  

1994: MARVEL BUYS MALIBU COMICS.

From December 1994: Marvel Comics gobbles up the MALIBU ULTRAVERSE, as reported in the UK's COMICS INTERNATIONAL.

Malibu, one-time home of Alien Nation, Planet of the Apes, Japanese animation, Deep Space Nine and softcore titty books, hit pay dirt when - for a year - they looked after the just-launched Image Comics and, when that contract came to an end, they realised there was a good living to be made from superheroes.  So they unleashed the Ultraverse.  

Fair to say they were not the only publisher to be launching new shared universe books at the time.  Dark Horse went for it in a big way and gave the world Barb Wire.  There was Milestone.  Marvel had a whole bunch of new universes, including our own UKverse.  

But Malibu burned pretty bright.  In addition to A LOT of comics, they also expanded fast into syndicated animation (Ultraforce), action figures, computer games, TV advertising ('Jump On Now'), TV series (Glen Larson's Nightman adaptation) and much else besides.  They were burning bright... but also burning cash.

The owners raised the 'for sale' sign and DC came oround to measure for curtains.  That paniced Marvel who knew a DC takeover would catipult their rival to numero uno by marketshare... and that would dent Marvel's all important shareprice.  So they swooped.  

It's pretty safe to say that Marvel were only vaguely interested in the comics themselves.  The move removed a competitor but Malibu's existing multimedia deals didn't sit well with Marvel's business people and the characters were never going to be as important to Marvel as their own.  But they must have wondered how an upstart like Malibu could get a two-season deal for a (cheap) syndicated action show when Stan Lee had spent a decade in Hollywood delivering not very much.  

Marvel made some half-hearted moves to merge the Ultraverse with the Marvel Universe (this was, after all, the era where inter-company crossovers were pretty much a monthly event) but Marvel fans weren't interested and Ultraverse readers resented the takeover.  The line was slimmed... and then closed altogether.  And another sub-set of 'Marvel' characters were warehoused.  

Which is the interesting bit.  Marvel will dust off old characters either just because they can or because the lawyers tell them they are in danger of slipping out of copyright.  But the lawyers are saying something else about the Malibu Ultraverse.  It seems that the whole shebang is out-of-bounds.  And no-one seems to quite know why.  Although it is a safe bet that someone, somewhere, would have to be paid if they were resurected.  And it seems that Disney and Marvel just don't care that much.  

The good news is that - should you be tempted - the Ultraverse is a staple of the 50p back issue box.  Dealers must have ordered so many of these books that they are still trying to shift the stock decades later.  There are - of course - a lot of special and limited edition copies (this WAS the 1990s) that are harder to find but the core books are a pretty easy find.  Take a punt.  

BTW: Stan's EXCELSIOR COMICS, yet another Marvel imprint, failed to see the light of day.  

1994: DEFIANT COMICS GOES BUST!

From October 1994: British magazine COMICS INTERNATIONAL announces the collapse of Jim Shooter's latest venture: DEFIANT COMICS.

The short-lived company generated a bit of publicitity at the time (thanks mainly to Shooter, a legal spat with Marvel involving the British character Plasm and the ultimate combination of the collecting crazes for comics and cards: a comic book story told in the form of trading cards... and a binder to hold them) but little in the way of sales of fan interest.  I'm sure it was subject to the usual hyping in the pages of the more cash-focused fan press but - should you care to dabble - plenty of back issues can still be found in dealer's discount boxes.  Dive in.

1994: THERMAL LANCE ISSUE 21

From October 1994: the 21st issue of the DOCTOR WHO/ Telefantasy fanzine THERMAL LANCE.

1994: THERMAL LANCE ISSUE 20

From August 1994: the 20th issue of British DOCTOR WHO & TELEFANTASY fanzine THERMAL LANCE.

1994: THERMAL LANCE FANZINE ISSUE 19 AND THE 1990'S DOCTOR WHO DRAMA BOOM

From July 1994: British DOCTOR WHO fanzine THERMAL LANCE looks at the ongoing series of straight-to-tape fan-made (although using professional at-a-loose-end actors) dramas.

THE STRANGER series, starring Colin Baker and Bryant (initially all but reprising their roles from a certain well-known BBC TV drama series), started off as a straight DOCTOR WHO clone... complete with choppy direction, gravel pit locations and special effects that would have passed muster in a TV Centre edit suite a decade earlier but were starting to look a little weather-worn by the start of the 1990s.

The fan dramas found their profile unexpectedly raised when they were re-released and sold in high street outlets.  I was certainly surprised to find them whilst browsing my local Woolworths entertainment section on new release Monday.

After the third adventure (a railway station in the SAPPHIRE AND STEEL tradition), the Stranger tapes swung off in a different direction.  Possibly because the producers started to suspect the lawyers were bound to complain sooner or later.  Or possibly because they fancied bolstering their showreels with a bit of sub-par crime drama.

The 1990s were a brilliant time for rough-around-the-edges fan-made drama once the producers spotted there was a market AND they could circumvent the BBC's official copyright by simply paying off the original writer to let them revive classic monsters.  Chucking in a few jobbing actors from the show certainly helped as well.

Other entries in the sub-genre included the X-FILES-baiting P.R.O.B.E (which probably came the closest to something that could have been shown on proper telly), Dreamwatch spin-off (they gave it the hard sell in the first few issues of the magazine); SHAKEDOWN (the behind-the-scenes documentary is a great watch... the cast and crew did NOT appear to be having a great time below decks on HMS Belfast); DOWNTIME (skanky Yeti alert); THE AIRZONE SOLUTION (A Doctors reunion pulled together for the 30th anniversary); the AUTON stories (no guesses); sundry other dramas and a host of not-always-very-good documentaries (LUST IN SPACE anyone?).

The screen dramas, as well as the early and unofficial audio adventures which also appeared during the 'wilderness years', have recently been the long-overdue subject of the book DOWNTOWN: THE LOST YEARS OF DOCTOR WHO by Dylan Rees.  It's an excellent read.

1994: CLASSIC STAR WARS VOLUME 1 - UK EDITION

From 1994: the first of the CLASSIC STAR WARS trade paperbacks, published in the UK by Boxtree (the masters of flooding the market with quick-and-dirty reprints).

IDW is about to publish a classy compilation volume of the STAR WARS NEWSPAPER STRIPS... so Marvel NY beat them to market by issuing their own trade paperback compilation of the old Dark Horse series from the early Nineties... which (heavily) reworked the US newspaper strips (which i don't think ever had an outing on this side of the Atlantic) into comic book format.

The strips - both original and reworked versions - have, until this year, languished untouched for several decades.  But the return of the movie series, and Marvel's energised publishing programme, has obviously renewed interest.

The new Marvel book is a curious mix of some of the pages reworked by DH and some - previously unpublished - strips in their original 'newspaper' format.  I'm assuming the IDW effort will preserve the strips as they were originally intended/ published.  Let the comparisons begin.

Boxtree published three volumes (that I know of) of the DM monthly series way-back-when.  Some of the strips also appeared in the short-lived Dark Horse International published UK monthly.  Which shuttered after less than a year.

The strips also appeared in the earliest issues of the US magazine AMAZING HEROES.

1994: MARVEL UK'S BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD ISSUE 1

From August 1994: Another end-of-the-line release from the British Bullpen: BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD, based on the MTV animated series which was big back in the day.  And another show that I couldn't really see the appeal of... other than in very small dosses.

Marvel New York picked up the comic rights so the Annex of Ideas followed with this UK edition of the American material.  I wonder if it was displayed with the other 'adult' comics (IE next to the pornos) or whether newsagents just buried it with the kids stuff.

1994: MARVEL UK'S THE REN AND STIMPY SHOW

From October 1994: a MARVEL UK house ad for the launch of THE REN AND STIMPY SHOW MONTHLY, based on the 'cult' (because everyone said it was a cult... so it must have been a cult) US animated series.

I'm guessing, judging from the clever copy, that MARVEL UK had already published one or more one-shots or specials before coming back with a regular monthly version.  

The TV series aired - from memory - on BBC TWO in an early evening slot.  I think I only ever watched a couple of episodes and I found it good... but not great enough to get excited about it.

The contents of the UK version almost certainly came from the Marvel New York specials and ongoing series.

This was launched towards the end of the lifetime of the British Bullpen (note the shortlived logo) and I'm not sure whether it survived the change of management - and swift cancellations - that came with the Panini takeover.

1994: STAR TREK GENERATIONS IN 2000AD PROG 928

From February 1994: The Mighty One shamelessly chases the notoriously free-spending (in those days) STAR TREK fans with this STAR TREK GENERATIONS cover and competition.  

1994: COMICS INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES PUNISHER VERSUS ARCHIE

From April 1994:

Guilty pleasure alert! I'm really rather enjoying the CW's RIVERDALE at the moment... regardless of the facts that I've never been interested in the 1950s Americana of the Archie comic books and that I'm way above the weekly target demographics for the show.

It's a lot darker than the comics have traditionally been and twists and subverts the familiar tropes throughout. Even if it has swiped at least one plotline from DAWSON'S CREEK. Archie himself is a bit of a dope (albeit with a great body which the writers connive to expose on a regular basis) who's saddled with the least interesting plotlines but the rest of the town is swirling with murder and secrets like a teen TWIN PEAKS.

Here's COMICS INTERNATIONAL announcing whst seemed to be one of the most preposterous crossovers in comicdom... at least until Archie made a habit of bumping into the Predator or encountering Sharknados.

1994: THERMAL LANCE ISSUE 18

From June 1994: the 18th issue of photocopied DOCTOR WHO fanzine THERMAL LANCE.

1994: THERMAL LANCE ISSUE 17

From May 1994: THERMAL LANCE, the British DOCTOR WHO fanzine, issue 17.

1994: THERMAL LANCE ISSUE 16

From April 1994: the 16th issue of British DOCTOR WHO fanzine THERMAL LANCE.

1994: THERMAL LANCE ISSUE 14

From February 1994: THERMAL LANCE issue 14.

Published by Alan Connor and Gary Finney (the 'Cybercontrollers') out of an editorial address in Derby, this was a British DOCTOR WHO/ all-things-SF zine (which - inevitably - meant they did THE X-FILES as well) that I purchased regularly through the mail for several years.

This was the first issue I purchased. Unlike many of the other zines I bought during this period, I've hung onto my Thermal Lance (matron!), so I can add them to the online STARLOGGED archive.

This issue (A5, coloured paper cover, black & white interior, photocopied) has several articles on WHO ("A load of old codswallop, if you ask me": A review of The Green Death) and RED DWARF (In every dream home a hard-light: After series 6, does Red Dwarf deserve a fandom?). Other bobbins include a look at the current state of WHO ("Perhaps Who-fandom will go the way of Prisoner-fandom, destined to briefly flare up again every ten years or so whenever the series is repeated"), the 1993 Whotopia Derby fan poll results (Favourite latex extra: Cybermen... with a whopping 10 votes compared with 4 for the second-place Daleks) and assorted news stories (Amblin still negotiating with the BBC, the much derided CHILDREN IN NEED/ EASTENDERS sketch nabbing 14 million viewers.... and DOCTOR WHO CLASSIC COMICS in danger of going under).

TL became more ambitious over time: shifting to DTP production and - eventually - a more glossy A4 format.

1994: THE UK STAR WARS FAN CLUB MAGAZINE ISSUE 10

From the summer of 1994: the tenth issue of the newsletter/ magazine published by
THE (unofficial) UK STAR WARS FAN CLUB.

 Q

1994: THE UK STAR WARS FAN CLUB MAGAZINE ISSUE 9

From the spring of 1994: THE UK STAR WARS FAN CLUB (all unofficial you understand) gets to grips with the contunuity of the early days of the Expanded Universe in the ninth issue of the mailed-to-members magazine.

1994: THE 5 TIMES ISSUE 3 (BABYLON FIVE UK FAN CLUB)

From Christmas 1994: the third issue of THE 5 TIMES, newsletter of the BABYLON FIVE UK FAN CLUB.

1994: DWB INTERVIEW FILE

From 1994: the softcover DWB INTERVIEW FILE, a collection of the best interviews (with a predictable bias to all things WHO) from the first 100 issues of DWB/ DOCTOR WHO BULLETIN.

This was published alongside the black-covered Compendium (see previous post) and - between them - make for a great overview of the bulk of the fanzine's run (it continued for a bit longer but then rebooted into DREAMWATCH... and began to loose its edge somewhat).