1986: LABYRINTH MOVIE ADAPTATION ISSUE 1 (MARVEL COMICS)

From November 1986: the first (of three) instalement of Marvel's adaptation of the Mighty Jim Henson's LABYRINTH.

The adaptation also appeared as a done-in-one edition of the glossy MARVEL SUPER SPECIAL magazine.

There was no British edition.

I was reminded of this because I spotted the new Titan Books coffee table book dedicated to the making of the movie in Forbidden Planet last week.

All hail the Goblin King.

1997: TARDIS VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2

From August 1997: something for the weekend sir?

Sophie Aldred turns kick ass space babe (was this to promote something? Possibly Ace's appearances in the New Adventures novels?) on the cover of DOCTOR WHO
fanzine (published by the DOCTOR WHO APPRECIATION SOCIETY) TARDIS.

This is Volume 15, Issue 2.

1991: LOST IN SPACE ISSUE 2 (INNOVATION COMICS)

From 1991: the second issue of Innovation's LOST IN SPACE ongoing series.

1998: THE NIGHT STRANGLER UK VHS SLEEVE

From 1998: the UK sell-through tape release of the second KOLCHAK TVM, THE NIGHT STRANGLER, originally aired on ABC in 1973.

It's not as fondly remembered as its predecessor, or certain episodes of the uneven weekly series that followed, but it's still worth a look. Unfortunately, rights issues mean the movies aren't bundled in with the DVD release of the weekly series but they are available on a single release from MGM in the States.

This was released under the SFX MAGAZINE banner.

1996: INDEPENDENCE DAY MOVIE ADAPTATION ISSUES 0-2 (MARVEL COMICS)

From June and July 1996: issues 0 (an original pre-movie teaser) - 2 of Marvel's INDEPENDENCE DAY movie adaptation. Issues 1 & 2 adapted the movie proper.

There wss also a British edition from MARVEL UK which - from memory - only included the adaptation itself.

I saw the sequel (a film surely no one was clamoring for) a couple of weekends ago and it really was something of a stinker. It looked amazing but the plotting and scripting were really poor: a succession of sequences linked together (or, occasionally, not linked at all) by some remarkable leaps of faith and logic. I have nothing against dumb movies... but ID4 II was just poor.

1993: UK STAR WARS FAN CLUB MAGAZINE ISSUE 8

From Autumn 1993: the 8th issue of THE UK STAR WARS FAN CLUB magazine, available to club members.

This issue marked the 10th anniversary of the release of RETURN OF THE JEDI.

1991: LOST IN SPACE ISSUE 1 (INNOVATION COMICS)

From August 1991: the first issue of Innovation's ongoing (at least until the publisher went bust) LOST IN SPACE comic book.

This series attracted some (not undeserved) early criticism for sexing up the shenanigans and making the Robinson gals (pretty much paragons of virtue in the family-friendly CBS crowd pleaser) into cheesecake victims of lusty alien life forms. That didn't sit well with fans who probably wanted something a bit more mature than The Great Vegetable Rebellion... but not THAT mature.

Things settled down after Innovation took the feedback on board and the title, along with its other TV tie-ins (notably the 1990s DARK SHADOWS, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and QUANTUM LEAP), became solid reads. Unfortunately Innovation fell foul of the industry contraction of 1993 and went out of business.

LiS returned to comics in 2016... but good luck finding copies as many UK stores didnt seem to keen to stock it. The hardback compilation hit shelves this week.

2000: STAR WARS GAMER MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 (WIZARDS OF THE COAST)

From 2000: the very definition of niche publishing... STAR WARS GAMER, a magazine devoted to... hmmm... Star Wars gaming.

It was published by gaming outfit Wizards of the Coast and ran for ten issues (plus a pre-launch one-shot) between 2000 and 2002.

Why did I buy this one? Because it has a lengthy article on assorted characters from the Marvel Comics Star Wars run. At the time, that 107 issue run (plus annuals and assorted spin-offs) was still somewhat banished to the Wars wilderness... so it was good to see the assorted supporting cast members back in the spotlight.

1996: NEON MAGAZINE ISSUE 1

From December 1996: the first issue of NEON, another British film magazine with a slightly more edgy style (despite having the obligatory LOST IN SPACE, GODZILLA and X-FILES covers) that - eventually - got squeezed between the twin heavyweights of EMPIRE and TOTAL FILM.

The most memorable cover was definately the STAR WARS/ FATHER TED mash-up that graced the second issue. I found a copy in my files recently and I'll add it to STARLOGGED when I can.

26 issues appeared through to December 1999.

1995: DOCTOR WHO POSTER MAGAZINE ISSUE 5 (MARVEL UK)

From August 1995: the Time Lords come under the spotlight in the fifth issue of Marvel UK's DOCTOR WHO POSTER MAGAZINE.