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Posted: |
Apr 14, 2009 - 5:45 AM
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By: |
Jim Phelps
(Member)
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Looking at some back issues of STARLOG recently, I couldn't help but be struck by the often-intelligent letters, the witty touch in the news reports, and the scope of the articles, which were clearly written with enthusiasm and love. My childhood obsession with Star Wars led me to the magazine, and my first issue had an interview with Harrison "Han Solo"(!) Ford. I usually bought Starlog when SW was featured on the cover, though a particularly nice issue with Jane Badler got my money, too. The last issue that I bought was the Star Wars 10th Anniversary Special, so it has been awhile since I picked up the magazine. I remember the furor when they tried covering non-SciFi movies like James Bond--oh, the horror! 
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This is sad news, I always mourn the passing of print media, as I prefer to get my information this way. Starlog was one of the very few magazines to print articles on classic Sci Fi shows of the 60's, even recently.
I admit that's the only reason I've picked up the odd issue in the last couple of years. Starlog wen through a couple of changes over the years. It started out small and kissed Star Trek's ass a lot. Granted, the popularity of the reruns was HUGE then, probably more rabid than it ever would be again. Trek dominated the pages of those first issues (I have issues 2 - 4 and they are great time capsules). Later on, after Star Wars exploded and science fiction gained mainstream popularity, the magazine became more balanced and stayed that way through the 80's.
By the time the 90's were half over, Starlog was competing for space on American newsstands with dozens of magazines covering the same turf: many of them from the same publishers. Once they decided to split up their coverage into other periodicals, I began to lose interest.
it settled in to being a very slick, but ultimately tabloid, magazine. However, as mentioned, they were the best gmae in town for covering shows from Irwin Allen, The Invaders, and so on. FilmFax did a great job, but they always cost $12.
Sci-Fi Universe arrived as a counterpoint to the fannish nature of Starlog and, for a time, was a great place to read indepth, not pandering articles. They had great coverage of original BSG, V, and others. Then, for some reason, editor Mark Altman (a little too sarcastic and egocentric for his own good) bailed and the magazine sucked.
Cinefantastique was an amazing mag, but once Fred Clarke died, Cinefantastique lost its allure and Mark Altman, who did a lot of major coverage of the Trek films and later shows for them and who was good in his own publication, came in and ruined it.
Now, there's very little left in print aside from the fan magazines devoted to individual shows and a couple of British imports. Even they, which I once loved, have become increasingly shallow.
So another magazine I loved bites the dust as print coverage of the genre continues its fade. I sit at a computer for work all day and reading on the net just doesn't hold much interest. It's the wave of the future, but it's the impersonal, technologically sterile future of Logan's Run and not the hopeful, warm, "still reading books future" of Star Trek.
Thank God we still have "Analog" and "Asimov's Science Fiction" in print.
I dedicate the preceding whine to the following dead, soon to be dead and "dead to me" print zines:
Starlog
Cinefantastique
Sci-Fi Universe
Film Score Monthly
Comic Book Collector
Enterprise Incidents
Twilight Zone Magazine
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I too lost touch with Starlog. I used to get the odd issue, then from issue 117, got it every month. After a great number of years, I had trouble getting hold of it in my local shop, so decided to subscribe (very expensively, direct from Starlog - I'm in the UK).
They messed up my first year's subs and I eventually got a refund and then I had all sorts of missed issues and it would take many weeks for each issue to arrive. So I had no choice but to not renew the following year.
The last issue I got was one when Fellowship Of the Ring was released. But by that time I had become disenchanted, not just because of the shipping problems but also that much of the magazine focused on teen SF TV like Roswell and many other series I would never see, as I didn't (still don't) have a Sky One subscription.
I did often think I would resubscribe, as I did like their articles and interviews regarding older SF literature and films but they became few and far between, in favour appealing to a teen audience. Things may have changed in the intervening years though, I don't know.
But I too am sorry to see the magazine cease, however temporarily, publication. My issues of Starlog and similar publications are stored in bags and boxes in my loft.
I know they have a website but I have only looked at it once or twice - I wonder if that will continue?
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Although I stopped buying STARLOG in the mid eighties, I am mightily sorry to hear that it is ceasing publication. 33 years is a pretty good run for a magazine of its type.
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Starlog made me the geek I am today.
Count me in as someone who read Starlog every month from 1976 to 1986. I still buy the occasional issue every so often, but I eventually moved on away from the mag around that time as I was getting the feeling that Starlog was becoming nothing more then rewritten press releases. I felt it lost, or at least softened its critical edge.
I moved on to Cinefantastique and an expensive hobby of collecting Soundtrack Albums. (One of my first was Rocketship X-M) and I just couldn’t afford to buy every Sci-Fi magazine. But it was my favorite for 10 years. I loved those Kerry O’Quinn editorials and I also bought Fangoria too (Fantastica was going to be it’s original name). More then anything I wanted to work at Starlog, I always imagined in my kids mind that it would be like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory or something, especially after they published a photo of the staff in one issue and they were all wearing monster masks, man what a cool place to work, I thought.
Alas it was never to be. But I did get the next best thing when I got a job at DC comics in the mid 90’s. I worked for Bob Greenberger who was the Managing editor of Fangoria at one time (and a great boss too) as well as Creator (I think) of Comics Scene, another Starlog press spin off. Not to digress, but working at DC was one of the greatest jobs I ever had, and it matched my grown up minds idea of what working at Starlog might have been like, so I always feel like my childhood wish came true.
Starlog absolutely made me the geek I am today. Which makes me think, I wonder what it’s like to work at Geek Magazine, I bet it’s really cool.
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CINEFANTASTIQUE was always my favorite. I took an opportunity to get a complete run from 1970-1993 for about 80 bucks last year.
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I remember finding this neat little "Starlog" sampler inside my copy of "It's Alive 2".
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Lord, I bought all those STARLOG LP'S- ROCKETSHIP X-M, the Albert Glasser anthology, IT'S ALIVE II, waited over 8 months for NORTH BY NORTHWEST to finally come out- Fond memories.
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Lord, I bought all those STARLOG LP'S- ROCKETSHIP X-M, the Albert Glasser anthology, IT'S ALIVE II, waited over 8 months for NORTH BY NORTHWEST to finally come out- Fond memories.
Varese Sarabande accidentally sent me two copies of "North By Northwest". I remember calling to ask if they wanted me to return one. They said I was welcome to keep the extra.
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Lord, I bought all those STARLOG LP'S- ROCKETSHIP X-M, the Albert Glasser anthology, IT'S ALIVE II, waited over 8 months for NORTH BY NORTHWEST to finally come out- Fond memories.
Varese Sarabande accidentally sent me two copies of "North By Northwest". I remember calling to ask if they wanted me to return one. They said I was welcome to keep the extra.
I remember that lp finally arriving in July of 1980 during the worst heat wave in North Texas recent history. I had a reasonably good turntable and rack system at the time and I think some of the sonics in that may have disturbed the neighbors- I had recently moved into my first apartment! Lord, almost 30 years ago.
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Lord, I bought all those STARLOG LP'S- ROCKETSHIP X-M, the Albert Glasser anthology, IT'S ALIVE II, waited over 8 months for NORTH BY NORTHWEST to finally come out- Fond memories.
Varese Sarabande accidentally sent me two copies of "North By Northwest". I remember calling to ask if they wanted me to return one. They said I was welcome to keep the extra.
I remember that lp finally arriving in July of 1980 during the worst heat wave in North Texas recent history. I had a reasonably good turntable and rack system at the time and I think some of the sonics in that may have disturbed the neighbors- I had recently moved into my first apartment! Lord, almost 30 years ago.
The insert gave a word of warning about possible loudspeaker damage.
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Out of curiosity, just when did STARLOG RECORDS fold? My guess is around 1981 after they released that Laurie Johnson AVENGERS lp.
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CINEFANTASTIQUE was always my favorite. I took an opportunity to get a complete run from 1970-1993 for about 80 bucks last year.
My god that was some bargain, great magazine.
It was a very good deal- purchased from the original owner, all in excellent condition. I had sold my original set many years earlier.
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