1989 John Haymes Newton interview

From the 1989 issue #6 of "Comics Scene," (a magazine from the same publishers as "Starlog"), comes this interview with the first actor to portray Superboy in the 1988 TV series, John Haymes Newton. Although a little wooden, Newton did a good job of wearing the suit, and portraying both facets of the Kryptonian, with his young Clark less nerdy than in Reeve's portrayal. Of course, he ended up not continuing in the role past the first season, to be replaced by Gerard Christopher, who enthusiastically took up the cape and ran with it (or should I say flew with it).

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Bonus: Below, from the same issue, is a short piece on the "Swamp Thing" sequel with the waterlogged Dick Durock, who went on to portray the plant man in the TV series. Say what you will about the campiness of the movie, the costume was a significant improvement over the visible-seam-and-zippered first version.

1978 Ralph McQuarrie Article

From issue #17 of Starlog, published October 1978, comes this article on artist/designer Ralph McQuarrie. McQuarrie passed away recently, so I am posting this article in remembrance of this extraordinary talent.

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Bonus: from the same issue, this back cover ad for the Don Post Star Wars masks. Did you own one of these?

Bonus: From the same issue is this look back at Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose writing influenced so much of modern science fiction, especially on film. Since the first filmed version of his Mars stories, "John Carter," is still in theaters as of this post, I thought it might be interesting to read this. I saw the film in Imax 3D, and it was awesome! Of course, being Disney, we didn't get to see as many naked people as in the Frazetta paintings, but it was still good.

Mad's 1979 "Superman:The Movie" spoof

The collection cabinet swings open this time to present issue #208 of Mad magazine, with their spoof of "Superman: The Movie" from July of 1979. Mort Drucker delivers his stunning character drawings, which -although caricatures- capture the essense of each actor's faces in just a few lines.

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Bonus: the back cover of the same issue.

Planet Of The Apes Revisited

Another entry on the apes, this time from Starlog issue #105, published April 1986. The cover blurb read "Untold Tales of Planet Of The Apes: The sequels you didn't see - and why!" It is indeed interesting to read about some of the ideas presented for the next movie, and one wonders if some of them might have turned out better than the one that was filmed.

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Since the movie was successful enough to warrent another sequel, the producers found that they had painted themselves into a corner with the destruction of the world. Having the trio of chimps go back in time to then-present day Earth was a great idea, but it would have been better if they had anticipated another film while writing the second, and set up the third one all through it. It would have been great seeing the efforts of Milo, Cornelius and Zira as they try to retrieve and repair the original ship, and the tension of their escape as the world is about to end. Just my way of thinking, and it would have made people even more excited for the next movie when the start of it was teased after the ape planet was blown up; and made the ending less depressing.

COF #23 Apes Article

When I was 15 years old in 1974, I was living near Macon, GA at the time, and one weekend as usual I was spending the night at my Grandma's house. These trips were like a taste of freedom given to a prisoner, in that I was allowed to be myself there, and buy what I wanted. I made my trip to Chi-Chesters Pharmacy on Vineville Ave, to see what magazines, comics or paperback I could find... and this time I hit the goldmine: the following issue, #23, of the awesome magazine "Castle of Frankenstein." The issue was electrifying to me as I snatched it from the magazine rack in an instant and feasted my eyes on the Apes cover art! I was a rabid Apes fan by then (an interest that was second only to my fever for Star Trek), and this was just before the first issue of the Marvel Apes magazine had come out. Below is the art for the wraparound cover, and the main Apes article inside. I still remember reading the article as I walked back home to Grandma's house, and how excited I was.

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Zaius: "I'm tickling her underarm! Tickle, tickle, tickle!"

Bonus: the cover art without the text! Found online.

Space: 1999 Premiere Article

Clipped from the TV Preview section of the Miami Herald on Sunday, August 17th, 1975, comes this big article on the upcoming series Space: 1999. Featuring the show's stars Martin Landau and wife/co-star Barbara Bain, the interview was conducted when they were in Miami on a tour to promote the show. As in every single article and interview about the new show,"Star Trek" is of course brought up, which is significant in that the series had been seen only in re-runs for seven years by that time. Landau, in drawing a distinction between the shows, goofs when he claims that Star Trek had been set "a thousand years later" than their series.

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Bonus: Below, a clipping from one of the tabloids, possibly the Globe (I didn't include the paper name or date when clipping it) featuring Joan Collins in a role on Space:1999. Once again, "Trek" is brought up, but the writer completely misses the connection that Joan had a guest-starring role in that show as well. Claiming the shows to be "similar" also reveals how little the writer knew about either one.

Batman Magic Photo Kit

From one of the late 1960's comics in my collection, comes this ad for a mysterious "something" that makes photos. For years I wondered what it could be... it surely wasn't a camera.

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Some of the mystery may now finally be dispelled, at least for me, as in researching this item I found this comment on another blog that featured the same ad...

Andy Vaughn on August 23rd, 2007
I had the Batman Photo kit in the younger days. It consisted of 6 negatives with scenes from various Batman stories of the day (I remember a couple of them were Batman fighting the Bouncer). Several pieces of photo paper, and a hard plastic sheath were also included. You would take the photo paper, and place a negative over it, then place both in the plastic sheath which you would then hold up to a light source for 5 minutes. After that, a picture would appear from the negative onto the paper. It was really neat, and I remember playing with it for hours. However it was lost somewhere in time. Sure which I would have kept up with it!

And there you have it.