Outlaws of the Moon cover

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A 1968 paperback reprint of the original 1942 book by Edmond Hamilton, which is part of the Captain future series. This is a scan of my copy which I bought at a used bookstore in 1971.

I always enjoyed these old-fashioned pulp-style sci-fi book covers, almost as much as the story within, so I thought you might enjoy seeing some of them here too.

1978 Quark TV show articles

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Sponsored by Glad Trash Bags. Hefty, hefty, hefty!

Although few seem to remember it, the short-lived TV series "Quark" was a favorite of mine. It ran only three months, from February to March of 1978. Like "Star Trek" on laughing gas, it parodied not only that show but sci-fi movies as well. (Visit the Quark wiki page for more info.)
Below, a still from the pilot, which featured a character dropped for the regular series; Dr. O. B. Mudd was a crusty, eccentric scientist that was replaced by the Mr. Spock-like Ficus, to much better effect.

Below is an article I clipped from the Macon (GA) Herald TV guide supplement, on February 24, 1978.

The characters were a lot of fun to watch and interacted humorously with each other: the put-upon and unappreciated Adam Quark, commanding the garbage ship; his genius and emotionless first officer Ficus, who is a humanoid plant from Vegeton; the identical Bettys (one is a clone, but it is unknown which) who navigate the ship and are hopelessly in love with Quark; Gene/Jean the engineer, a transmute who is constantly switching back and forth between male and female personalities; and Andy, the cowardly swearing robot.

Ficus enjoyed listening to "Classicial Music To Make Your Plants Grow" in his off-duty time.

The scanned crew photo at the top of this post was one I acquired at a movie/TV show collectables store in Florida in 1979, and put it in my scrapbook. The article below is from Famous Monsters #144 from June 1978. Sadly, the show had been cancelled by the time the article was published!

Something I hoped for, but I never expected to see, was the recent DVD release, which I snapped up immediately and have enjoyed since. One thing that hampered the show was a near-nonexistent effects budget, so this would be a nice one to see remastered with updated effects! Maybe some fan could take this on and make available online? Anyone? (Crickets chirp.) I guess not.

I have a number of other magazine articles and clippings which I'll post in the future, so keep an eye out (like O.B. Mudd) for more Quark!

1977 "Time" Star Wars article

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The article posted this time was clipped by me from the May 30, 1977 issue of Time magazine. I had been following the articles in various other magazines with interest, like Starlog and Famous Monsters. But this was the first in a mainstream publication that I had found, and it came out the same week the movie did, before I or most people had seen it. Hope you enjoy this look back to a time when it was possible to read something fresh and new about Star Wars before it became the phenomenon that it did.

Looking at that photo of Kenny Baker made me realise that it was a good thing he wasn't claustrophobic in the least, or he would have been in trouble!

Also, don't forget to visit my other fun genre blogs: "My Star Trek Scrapbook," "My Monster Memories," "Held Over!" newspaper movie ads, and "Sweet Skulls." Between "Fantastic Flashbacks" and the others, the Fred blogging experience is a sensory overload of nostalgic goodness!

Welcome to My Newest Blog!

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"Hey, look! Our magazine is featured this time on "Fantastic Flashbacks!"

Greetings, fellow sci-fi fans! You're probably coming here from a link on one of my other blogs, like "My Monster Memories," "My Star Trek Scrapbook," or maybe "Held Over!" which features old movie ads. One thing that they all have in common with this one it that they focus on particular areas of interest that I have had since being a kid.

A cool lenticular 3D postcard, I bought at a roadside souvenir shop in the 60's.

Science Fiction, in whatever form it may take, has always been an interest, so I had to create a blog to spotlight all the cool stuff I've collected over the years in that category. Memorabila from movies, TV shows, magazines, trading cards, comics, book, cartoons, whatever.... if I saved something about one of those that I liked, it will show up here eventually. One of my big loves over the years has been the Planet of the Apes movies and their spin-offs, so you'll see quite a bit of those items. (And you'll learn of my infatuation with Zira. ) Likewise, superheroes have always held an attraction for me, and since most of those fall under the heading of science-fiction in some way, they'll be featured often as well.

"Check out these pecs!"

So, put on your space helmet, strap yourself in, and enjoy the journey to the future's past. It's gonna be a retro-rockets blast!

Waldo was different from all the other gorillas in the crowd.

Below is a recent photo of my three collection cabinets open to show the contents...

So you see, there's no fear of running out of interesting things to post (on ANY of my blogs) any time soon!