1994: SPECTRUM MAGAZINE Issue 1 (Win-Mill Productions)

From September 1994: The first issue of SPECTRUM, the we'll-cover-(virtually)-anything spin-off from the TWIN PEAKS-centric WRAPPED IN PLASTIC.  

I REALLY liked this upmarket fanzine at the time because of the depth of analysis, quality of the writing and willingness to throw the spotlight on TV shows (and, to a lesser extent, movies) that other magazines weren't touching.  This issue looked back, via a detailed episode-by-episode analysis, on the first year (the only season I liked) of LOIS AND CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN as well as the art of Michael Golden, HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREET and KUNG FU: THE LEGEND CONTINUES (the syndicated revival of the Seventies original).  

The writers/ editors were clearly picking the shows THEY wanted to write about... and going for it.  So, in many ways, a precursor to this very blog.  Indeed, I had some emails published in the letters pages of subsequent issues.  I hate to think what I said...

This in-and-out-of-favour approach meant that, despite being the main attraction here, coverage of the nineties Superman show faded as the writers lost interest in subsequent seasons.  Their attention shifted to HOMICIDE (a show also worthy of several books published at the time), XENA: WARRIOR PRINCESS, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, M.A.N.T.I.S, STRANGE LUCK, AMERICAN GOTHIC, ROAR and others.  They were often shows I wasn't watching... but I still found the coverage fascinating.  

WRAPPED IN PLASTIC also transferred its excellent X-FILES season retrospectives (WiP was really the first magazine to take the show seriously, a good year-or-so before it started to be a cultural phenomenon) to Spectrum. 

SPECTRUM ran for 35 issues over exactly 10 years, the last appearing in September 2004.

There were also three SPECIAL EDITIONS (devoted to THE X-FILES, XENA and BUFFY respectively) and three square-bound SPECTRUM SUPER SPECIALS (devoted to BUFFY, CONAN and the wider works of Robert E. Howard. 

1992: WRAPPED IN PLASTIC MAGAZINE issue 1 (Win-Mill)

It's amazing what you can find out by reading THE METRO on the way to work.

Browsing London's free morning paper today I discovered that this very weekend Hammersmith's Riverside Studios (not a million miles from my abode) is hosting the annual TWIN PEAKS UK FESTIVAL.  Who would have known such a thing even existed? Not me!

It's sold out so obviously everyone else knew.

But, it's given me the ideal excuse to run this cover… the first issue (first printing!) of WRAPPED IN PLASTIC, the TWIN PEAKS fanzine that ultimately clocked-up a highly creditable (nigh on amazing) run of 75 issues between October 1992 and September 2005.

Not bad for a TV show that briefly burned brightly, withered quickly and only lasted 1.5 seasons (the first is short, the second was a full run).

I used to buy this magazine religiously but eventually drifted away (or it got hard to find) somewhere towards the end.

It launched as a TP zine but quickly broadened its horizons to cover the entire David Lynch catalogue, other shows in a similar vein (EERIE INDIANA, PICKET FENCES) and other projects from the show's cast and crew.

It was WiP that first spotted the potential of THE X-FILES and championed it before the rest of the world's media even seemed to notice it existed.

WiP in turn spun off SPECTRUM which had a broader remit and devoted the same in-depth coverage and analysis to LOIS AND CLARK, BUFFY, ANGEL, ALIAS, SMALLVILLE, XENA, ROSWELL, KUNG FU: THE LEGEND CONTINUES, M.A.N.T.I.S, HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREETS and other contemporary shows of similar quality and integrity.  Heck, they even printed a couple of emails from me!

This first issue was pretty hard to find at the time (and I don't think I ever saw copies of the second and third issues on sale in the UK) and sold-out fast.  A second printing had a colour illustration of Laura.

Wrapped in Plastic, of course, referred to how Laura's body was discovered in the TP pilot.  I'm struggling to recall now but I have a vague idea that this first issue did indeed come bagged.