tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post5542548201228556423..comments2024-03-18T20:22:06.331-04:00Comments on GROGNARDIA: Retrospective: StarlogJames Maliszewskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00341941102398271464noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-62635045025232804362010-09-09T01:57:38.025-04:002010-09-09T01:57:38.025-04:00I had a massive, exhaustive even, collection of St...I had a massive, exhaustive even, collection of Starlog. One day sometime in '78 or '79 I got bored and thought 'hey, instead of paging through all these to look at the Star Wars pics, I could make a scrapbook and look at them all at once!'<br /><br />Thus was committed the most heinous deed of my youth. Forgive me, please..migellitohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17106614212764056058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-57809387119686804952010-09-08T20:57:52.559-04:002010-09-08T20:57:52.559-04:00I don't know about the movie reviews, but... I...I don't know about the movie reviews, but... I have a couple on the shelf such as #31 (Black Hole cover) and #41 (Flash Gordon cover) and I read a bunch of them at the Merril Collection here in Toronto. It may have been shill-esque to studios. But it was also hugely gossipy. A decade after StarTrek had been canceled you'd get a producer and writer screaming at each other in editorials about the show. There were a bunch of pieces like that - Fontana, Gerrold, Frieberger. Harlan Ellison wrote a piece dissing Star Wars. Mark Hamill calling some special effects guy a traitor for going to Battlestar Galactica. And the lead to Buck Rogers Gil Gerrard criticizing the writing on his own show. Yikes. I do recall it being kind of gossipy. They had an offshoot magazine called Future Life that was ...futurist.How the world was going to be fed by kelp harvested in the ocean and people would live in space etc. Didn't last. But the founding editor was a flat out Objectivist. He counted one of his most important moments on earth meeting Ayn Rand. To such a person, I difference between science and fiction was something of a blur, I'd say. To our benefit. Until some time in the 80s the magazine was a powerhouse. They caught the wind of scifi becoming mainstream.brasspenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00740202895575678193noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-70805346871935305852010-09-08T18:40:49.368-04:002010-09-08T18:40:49.368-04:00Thanks for sharing the memories, James. I'd li...Thanks for sharing the memories, James. I'd like to add that there were competitors at the time, where fans could learn about the Star Wars sequel and other films/TV/books, but the options – Fantastic Films, Questar, Famous Monsters, etc. – simply weren't as good as Starlog. Not as broad, not as good at speaking the language of the young SF fan, not as successful at snagging the big interviews or fielding the best genre journalists.<br /><br />Yeah, Starlog received lots of criticism over the years about supposedly being a shill for the studios and not criticizing bad films, but that criticism is to some extent unwarranted. Besides the three annual 100-page reviews issues it published in the early 1980s, it also featured its editors and publishers commenting on movies they liked (Bucakroo Banzai, Empire Strikes Back, etc.) and hated (Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, etc.).<br /><br />If anyone's interested, I have been chronicling each issue of Starlog on my blog, and as of early September 2010, I'm up to issue #167: http://weimarworld.blogspot.com/search/label/starlog%20internet%20archive%20projectjzippererhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14774755651549270732noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-30560865499642571872010-09-08T17:44:06.359-04:002010-09-08T17:44:06.359-04:00You make me feel a great kinship with you. Growing...You make me feel a great kinship with you. Growing up in a little cow town in Texas, Starlog was the only link I had to "FANDOM" in general.Tom O'Bedlamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11821487402927475042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-2887410766323635912010-09-08T17:38:57.333-04:002010-09-08T17:38:57.333-04:00Starlog was never hugely popular. Somehow (at lea...Starlog was never hugely popular. Somehow (at least last I knew) its sister magazine Fangoria is still going. Albeit at 9 bucks an issue for something that looks only slightly higher quality than a fanzine in production. (Half the pages are usually 2 color one grade above newspaper quality paper.)<br /><br />In the late 80s everyone who was into such things read Fango and dismissed Starlog.<br /><br />Hell, for a while Fango was so huge they also had a second magazine called Gorezone out.<br /><br />I can sort of see why Starlog went away. Even though it and Fangoria did the sort of more in depth coverage the Internet doesn't much do, it was never massively popular.<br /><br />Plus given review groups like the B Masters' Cabal, That Guy With the Glasses, and so on, most of the retro and nostalgia coverage they used to shore up the issues is available online in other places anyhow.<br /><br />Though at least G Fan is still running. (A Godzilla fanzine. Its usually 60 or more pages and has been running since the mid 90s.)Captain Rufushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00296697477771399357noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-44856960636746414972010-09-08T15:35:59.741-04:002010-09-08T15:35:59.741-04:00I saw Battle Beyond the Stars in the theater when ...I saw Battle Beyond the Stars in the theater when it came out. So terrible....so damn terrible.Gavinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07397554099246666778noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-43061347695269953422010-09-08T15:30:12.033-04:002010-09-08T15:30:12.033-04:00I do so miss those days. Starlog and Fangoria wer...I do so miss those days. Starlog and Fangoria were my two favorites. I recently picked up an issue of Fangoria and was astounded at just how expensive those things are these days. Special interest rags are still out there, but man...you REALLY need to be interested, now, at those prices!The Grey Elfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14696474020129732936noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-77750712788023876722010-09-08T14:40:59.341-04:002010-09-08T14:40:59.341-04:00I wasn't even aware that they'd ceased pub...I wasn't even aware that they'd ceased publication until I just wiki'd it. <br /><br />Which is indicative, I guess, of exactly why it ceased publication.BigFellahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03052419088140204154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-30295052728838421062010-09-08T14:11:01.171-04:002010-09-08T14:11:01.171-04:00I remember trying to make costumes and build model...I remember trying to make costumes and build models from the small and sometimes fuzzy pictures in Starlog.pulcheriushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03207082495103904470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-17374731951923247102010-09-08T13:08:17.280-04:002010-09-08T13:08:17.280-04:00One of my favorite Starlog articles was a preview ...One of my favorite <i>Starlog</i> articles was a preview of the upcoming TV series <i>Buck Rogers</i> when it was still being envisioned as a relatively serious SF show -- more like Star Trek than Star Wars. I would still like to visit the parallel Earth where that version got made.<br /><br />I also loved the articles about how special effects pros did up their houses for Halloween.Wade Rocketthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02785499425476736769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-19973160966114495192010-09-08T13:03:23.908-04:002010-09-08T13:03:23.908-04:00Starlog was truly awesome back in the day. The co...Starlog was truly awesome back in the day. The cover you posted was the first one I ever bought, as I recall.Keith Sloanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07319879076978887933noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-4989579393649639102010-09-08T11:51:44.809-04:002010-09-08T11:51:44.809-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.rainswepthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06165059567790555748noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-9274493841487673252010-09-08T11:12:33.517-04:002010-09-08T11:12:33.517-04:00Like Shawn, I also enjoyed Famous Monsters, but my...Like Shawn, I also enjoyed <i>Famous Monsters</i>, but my younger brother and I divided our collecting duties. I bought <i>Starlog</i> and he bought <i>Famous Monsters</i>, and then we shared.Gordon Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12907319916602597979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-67169083861081267282010-09-08T11:08:56.614-04:002010-09-08T11:08:56.614-04:00The issues of Starlog I owned were treasured and r...The issues of <i>Starlog</i> I owned were treasured and reread many times. I especially remember the interview with Larry "Buster" Crabbe who liked Han Solo, but preferred Dale Arden to Princess Leia. And the <i>Star Wars</i> contest issue in which readers submitted photos of their own dioramas with <i>Star Wars</i> action figures.Gordon Cooperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12907319916602597979noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-16879227791022547212010-09-08T11:03:32.973-04:002010-09-08T11:03:32.973-04:00I read the odd issue of Starlog, here and there. M...I read the odd issue of Starlog, here and there. My first was the one you used to illustrate this post. Fun stuff.<br /><br />Wish I still had them.Will Douglashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06379173017869751088noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-880754315971224212010-09-08T10:59:54.410-04:002010-09-08T10:59:54.410-04:00My favorite magazine of the period was Monster mag...My favorite magazine of the period was Monster magazine(also known as Famous Monster). Not only did it cover new horror, sci-fi, an fantasy, but it also had articles about older movies, directors, studios and actors. The coolest part was actually the ads in the back where you could order masks from Don Post Studios and really cool toys and collectibles you couldn't find in stores (at least not in Iowa!). I still have my old collection and puruse it ocassionally.arcadaynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17025690624100512801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7487871339000666216.post-15461853213905678802010-09-08T10:17:03.359-04:002010-09-08T10:17:03.359-04:00I had few entertainment dollars back then, and wha...I had few entertainment dollars back then, and what didn't go to D&D and comic books went to Fangoria over Starlog every time. Like you said, not a great magazine, but I needed to know what horror movies were coming out so I'd know what R-rated movies my mom had to take me to see when I got straight A's. :)<br /><br />There was a golden window for the usefulness of Fangoria (and I assume Starlog) with the advent of VHS. Before the internet, it was helpful in triaging the horror titles at the local video store. At least until I'd seen them all.Scotthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00155926145150934199noreply@blogger.com