More Space Disco Album Art

Here are a couple more "space disco" album covers, beginning with another sci-fi themes compilation from Geoff Love And His Orchestra, sporting cover art that exhibits some interestingly off-model (or simply "cleverly disguised") Space: 1970 icons....

... and, then we have this: Bang Bang Robot's (I love that name!) rip-off of Meco's smash-hit Star Wars disco medley. To be honest, I actually listen to this album every once in a while, and used one of its non-Wars tracks as the theme to my first - and to date, only - Space: 1970 podcast. If the cover art is to be trusted, this edition seems to have actually been at least somewhat authorized, with an actual photo of R2-D2 and the real Star Wars logo, and a release by the 20th Century Records label.

THE INCREDIBLE HULK (1978) TV Guide Cover

I might as well go on record here: The Incredible Hulk is my favorite of the comic-based television series/specials of the 1970s. Oh, I loved Wonder Woman, Isis, and Shazam!, and even the Spider-Man and Captain America shows, but The Incredible Hulk was (in my opinion) the best of them all.

As developed by Kenneth Johnson (one of the more genre-savvy producers of the era), Hulk was a science fiction show first, with storylines designed to appeal to both adolescent and adult audiences. The format was borrowed from The Fugitive (and a few dozen other shows), but the characterization and pseudo-science of Banner's transformation gave the show a distinct identity, and it ended up running longer than any of the other "superhero" shows, garnering strong ratings for much of its run.

Veteran television actor Bill Bixby was a compelling, sympathetic lead, bringing remarkable humanity to his role and always taking it seriously... without ever being grim. Lou Ferrigno's Hulk was a monster in the vein of the Universal Monster films of the 30s and 40s, a misunderstood and persecuted brute that, even through the rage, retained a spark of humanity and compassion.

Comic book purists may bitch and complain about the Hulk's scaled down strength, or the changing of Banner's first name, but frankly, that's all irrelevant bullshit. Comic book fans - moreso than most - should understand and forgive different interpretations of their favorite characters, and if they can't, they should rationalize and accept that the TV Hulk simply existed in a parallel universe from his four color cousin.

The changes wrought on The Incredible Hulk to make it sustainable as a prime time 70s television series were all sound and well-considered, and I believe resulted in a genuinely "classic" TV series.

STAR HAWKS (1977) Paperbacks

 

As we've seen here before, back in '77, in the pop cultural afterglow of Star Wars' unprecedented success, lots of folks tried to cash in on the perceived appetite for space opera entertainment. Along with the film and television knock-offs, toys and games, there were a handful of "original" sci-fi comics, many of them with the word "star" in the titles. One of these was the Star Hawks newspaper comic strip, which I've written about here before.

As knock-offs go, Star Hawks - written by sci-fi author and comics historian Ron Goulart, and drawn by legendary comic book artist Gil Kane - was reasonably successful, running daily and Sundays for three and a half years, for a total of 1,252 strips. Some of these strips were collected into two standard-size paperbacks by Ace/Tempo books, in 1979 and 1980. To the publisher's credit, the artwork was not cut apart panel-by-panel and re-formatted to standard page size, but run intact - although the strip's unique two-tier format required that the art be run on its side, forcing the reader to turn the book sideways to read it.

Actually, I don't find that to be a problem, but the small size of the lettering does make it difficult for these aging eyes to read, even with these damned, old man bifocals I wear these days. 

Anyway, aside from two strip collections from Ace/Tempo, Goulart wrote two Star Hawks prose novels, published by Playboy Press, beginning in 1980. The first of these, Empire 99, makes its connection to the newspaper strip very clear, with a cover and interior illustrations by comics collaborator Kane - and even trumpets its comic strip origins as a selling point. The second novel, on the other hand, came out well after the strip had been cancelled, and was marketed less as a comic strip tie-in. 

I haven't included a scan of that second novel, The Cyborg King, here because a.) I don't have it (yet), and b.) it doesn't have a Gil Kane cover, and c.) I couldn't find a decent cover scan online.

ADDENDUM: Thanks to "Tex," here's a scan of the cover of the second Goulart Star Hawks novel, The Cyborg King:

THE ALIENS ARE COMING (1980)

I have very little memory of this Quinn Martin-produced (one of his last, I believe) TV movie/pilot film from March of 1980, but I did watch it, and clipped this TV Guide ad for my scrapbook. The eclectic cast which includes Melinda Fee from The Invisible Man and Escape from The Planet Of the Apes' Eric Braeden, certainly looks intriguing. Any other Star Kids remember this one? Hopefully better than I do?

Oddly, The Aliens Are Coming did get a VHS release from budget label Goodtimes in the 80s, and I'm thinking I might try and get my hands on a copy one of these days so I can review it for Space: 1970.

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #36: STARCRASH

Here's a Behind-The-Scenes photo guaranteed to warm you up on a cold, late-January morning! The stunning Caroline Munro on location as space smuggler/interstellar heroine Stella Star during the filming of Luigi Cozzi's Starcrash in early 1978.

Friday Night is Super Hero Night on CBS!

Ah, Friday nights on CBS in 1978 were fantastic fun for Star Kids, with back-to-back episodes of The New Adventures Of Wonder Woman, starring the stunning Lynda Carter, and The Incredible Hulk, with Bill Bixby and the titanic Lou Ferrigno! Two hours of prime time, live action comic book hero adventure.... and, apparently, lots of "evil scientists!" Those were the days, indeed!

Countdown To PERILS ON PLANET X

Although I'm always a bit reluctant to plug my own projects here on the Space: 1970 blog, I'm making an exception for my forthcoming Perils On Planet X webcomic, which begins its weekly schedule one week from today (February 1st) at www.perilsonplanetx.com.

Inspired, in large part, by Space: 1970 classics as Planet Of The Apes, Buck Rogers In The 25th Century, Jason Of Star Command and, yes, even Star Wars - but mostly the animated adventures of Filmation's Flash Gordon and Blackstar - the serialized Perils On Planet X is chock-full of action, adventure, monsters, raygun fights, gorgeous alien princesses (rendered with exceptional skill and talent by my artistic collaborator, Gene Gonzales), sword fights, airships, mad scientists, strato-pirates... and batwinged, vampire gorillas.

It's because I believe that most Space: 1970 readers - especially you Old School gamers (and I know there's a lot of you) - would really enjoy the webcomic that I'm choosing to promote Perils On Planet X on this site. I'll try not to overdo it (once it launches, I'll try and only mention it in my "Captain's bLog" entries), but I want to be sure you folks know about it and consider giving it a chance. If you get a moment, click over to the site and if you like what you see, bookmark it. I'm pretty excited about finally getting POPX out to the public (I've been working on it for about a decade), and I'd appreciate your support.

Now... back to our regularly-scheduled nostalgia.....

MOONRAKER (1979) Poster Art By Dan Goozee

Dan Goozee was a popular movie poster artist in the late 70s and 80s, and starting with 1979's Moonraker (through A View To A  Kill) was United Artists' go-to guy for the James Bond movie posters. Goozee usually designed a few alternate versions for each entry, and here are a selection of his spacey illustrations for the franchise's answer to Star Wars, which sent 007 (in the form of Roger Moore) into orbit and climaxed with a zero-G laser battle. Watching Moonraker now, as an adult James Bond fan, I'm appropriately appalled... but as an unrepentant Star Kid, I'm always utterly enthralled.

Apart from studio movie posters (including art for the original Clash of the Titans and Superman IV), Goozee also did some production designs for the original Battlestar Galactica and painted a handful of very cool sci-fi originals that were sold as posters through Captain Company ads in the back of Famous Monsters and other Warren magazines in the late 70s. If anyone has good scans of those posters, let me know - I've wanted to feature them here on the blog for a while.

Re-Post: Regarding Comments

I posted these thoughts about comments in one of my Captain's bLogs a while back, but based on what I've been seeing lately, they bear repeating:

This may sound cranky or curmudgeonly, but as I close in on my half-century mark, I think I'm entitled to a bit of, uh, curmudgeoness. Anyway, I'm trying to be more selective about which comments I approve for publication on this blog. Over the last two and a half years, the reader comments posted to this blog have overwhelmingly been in line with my intentions for the site: enthusiastic, celebratory, nostalgic and, generally, upbeat. We've also remained virtually troll-free. But recently, I'm finding myself slightly less happy with the "interactive" aspect of this blog.

Perhaps it's inevitable that as readership grows, I'm going to see more comments show up in my e-mail box for moderation that I'm uncomfortable with or that, frankly, just irritate me. I'm even thinking about disallowing "Anonymous" posting entirely, as most (though not all) of the comments that bug me are posted without a name attached. I haven't taken that step yet, but I'm considering it.

So, for the record, here are the types of comments I'm not likely to approve:

• People selling something. That's not what this site is about. Try ebay. Related: people trying to find out what their memorabilia is worth. Again, that's not what this site is about. There are hundreds of other places online that are more appropriate for that kind of question. Use Google. That's what it's for.

• Linking to illegal downloads/bootleg merchandise. I've actually addressed this before. Comments that link to torrent sites or unauthorized video dealers will not be approved. No moral judgement here; I just don't want to have this site hosting those sort of links. This includes links to full-length shows & films on sites like YouTube - those are copyrighted works and usually not authorized.

• Non sequiturs. Okay, this is the one that's really driving me nuts lately. I've been seeing a lot of comments recently that I simply cannot make any sense of whatsoever. I understand that this site can be accessed all over the world, and English isn't everyone's first language - but I can usually tell when that is the problem. Far more often, I get comments that simply repeat the information I wrote about in the post (as if the commenter only looked at the headline and/or illustration before clicking the comment tab, feeling compelled to show off his knowledge of the subject) or utterly nonsensical comments that, well, indicate serious weaknesses in reading comprehension. If you're going to take the time and make the effort to comment on something I've posted here, please think about it a bit, and make it worthwhile.

 • Negativity. You know, I understand that not everyone likes the movies and television shows and other stuff I write about on this blog; some people outright hate them. Others think they're "cheesy" (a word that really bugs me and automatically raises my defensive shields), "lame," or just trash. And yes, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But this blog isn't the place to tell the world how crappy you think The Starlost is, or for expressing your ironic sense of post-modern snark. In the header at the top of this page, I use the word "celebrate," and that's what this blog is about. If you think the original Battlestar Galactica is lame, or that Starcrash is the Worst Movie Ever, write about it on your own site, or go find an appropriate message board somewhere. This is a blog, and, more to the point, it's my blog, and I'm not going to stand for people coming in and being jerks in my house.

This doesn't mean we can't have some good-natured fun with these shows, or acknowledge their flaws and amusing defects, but the key words there are "good-natured." (And don't send me angry comments about me not respecting your freedom of speech, or me being too cowardly to hear differing opinions. A. This isn't a public forum, and B. I really don't particularly care about the opinions of anonymous strangers.)

Please do keep sharing your own Star Kid memories in the comments, or passing on cool behind-the-scenes information, and politely correcting factual errors I make. And please, have fun with (and make fun of) these shows and movies. Just try and keep it... affectionate. That's the word I'm looking for, I guess.

I'm also not saying that people can't disagree with my opinions. That's cool. Just be polite about it, okay?

Thanks.

ADVENTURES ON THE PLANET OF THE APES (1975) Marvel Comics Cover Gallery

Marvel didn't get around to color comic book adaptations of the wildly popular Planet Of The Apes films until two years after the last movie, Battle For The Planet Of The Apes, had come and gone from theaters. Hell, even the television series had already run its course. But someone decided to reprint - in color - the movie adaptation that Marvel had done the year before in the black & white POTA comics mags... and the color version ran almost a year (11 issues), adapting the first two POTA flicks.

A Birthday Blast for Buck!

From those of us who are still living in Buck Rogers' 25th Century, here's wishing our very best to 70's space hero - and intergalactic Romeo - Gil Gerard on his 70th birthday.

Look-In: Steve Austin Meets John Koenig

Here's a team-up that you'd only find on the cover of Britain's Look-In magazine. Here's The Six Million Dollar Man and Space: 1999's intrepid Moonbase Commander, as rendered by artist Arnaldo Putzu in 1975.

Captain's bLog: 0122.13

• Well, here we are, well into January, and I still haven't written up my review of The Omega Man - it is high on my to-do list, however, along with reviews of Star Maidens and The Humanoid. I also have an essay/article in the works about the aborted Star Trek 2 television series (they call it "Phase 2" these days, but at the time it was simply Star Trek 2), and a new "Favorite Episode" post. All of these have been delayed by my other writing commitments over the last month, as I'm getting back to regular comics writing and DVD reviewing again, which also explains the preponderance of image-based posts of late. Sadly, time management is not among my strengths...

• I'm currently re-reading the second Berkley Battlestar Galactica novel from 1978, The Cylon Death Machine, adapted by Robert Thurston (and "Glen A. Larson") from the two-part episode, "Gun On Ice Planet Zero." I read this one numerous times when I was a teen, and am pleased to find that I still enjoy it a great deal. Thurston really had a handle on the characters and Galactica universe (even if there were some variances from the aired episodes), and I especially like his handling of the Cylons and the character of Croft (played by Roy Thinnes on the show). It's a terrific space adventure novel, and confirms my opinion that Thurston was the best of the Berkley Galactica scribes.

•  Blatant Cross-Promotion: First, I want to remind you all that my new weekly webcomic, Perils On Planet X, drawn by the talented Gene Gonazles, begins a week from Friday, on February 1st, at perilsonplanetx.com.  This serialized interplanetary swashbuckler will have a new page posted each Friday, and chronicles the adventures of modern-day Earth astronaut Donovan Hawke, stranded on the lost planet of Xylos, hundreds of millions of years in the past. The story is packed with monsters, beautiful women and lots of Flash Gordon-styled thrills. I hope you'll check it out, bookmark it, and follow the comic each Friday in 2013.

Anyone who enjoys my writing and the DVD reviews on this blog should check out my DVD Late Show site, where I have been reviewing B-movies, cult films and genre television shows on DVD and Blu-ray disc since 2005. Among the over 700 reviews on the site are plenty of Space: 1970-era favorites, like Battle Beyond The Stars, Damnation Alley, Starcrash, The Starlost, the Space: 1999 Blu-rays, and many more. 

The Second Coming of KING KONG (1976)

"He was the mystery and the magic in their lives. In a year, that'll be an island of burnt-out drunks."

I'm going to put my reputation (such as it is) on the line here and publicly state for the record that I do not believe that Dino DeLaurentis and John Guillermin's King Kong (1976) is quite as bad as everyone says it is.

The film retells the story of the 1933 movie, updating it to 1976. The satirical screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Jr, (Flash Gordon, 1980) includes references to the mid-Seventies energy crisis, the rising concern over the environment, "dope," and even Deep Throat! A young Rick Baker plays Kong in a truly remarkable ape suit, but unfortunately the process work is so poor (even for the era) that his achievement is severely undermined.

The musical score for the film, however, by Space: 1970 favorite, John Barry (The Black Hole, Starcrash) is outstanding and memorable, and Jeff Bridges and Jessica Lange both give very good performances, no matter how badly their characters are written.

Perhaps the reason I'm so generous toward the movie is because my own history with it is so fraught with disappointments - none of which have anything to do with the movie itself.

It started with a comic book advertisement for a King Kong poster magazine, probably around February of '76, when I was eleven years old. It promised a "giant-sized poster" as well as articles detailing the history of Kong, from the original Thirties film (which I had not yet seen) to the forthcoming "blockbuster" remake. It cost $5, and I only got 25¢ a week in allowance. So I saved my allowance for a few weeks, and then begged my dad for an advance, which he grudgingly granted. Then I had my mother convert my change to a $5 bill, which I placed in an envelope with the filled-out order coupon, and then sat back to eagerly await my King Kong poster mag.

You can see where this is going, right?

As the weeks passed, my eagerness metamorphosed into anxiety as I checked the mailbox every day and never found my copy of the magazine waiting for me. Finally, I went to my mother and expressed my concern, and that's when I was enlightened as to the dangers of sending cash through the mail. If she'd known why I wanted that $5 bill, she would have written me a check instead, but no - I was being all grown-up and buying something expensive (!) for myself, and hadn't told her why I wanted the money.

Flash-forward to December. All summer and autumn, I'd been seeing King Kong on the cover of virtually every magazine that I (Dynamite, Cracked) or my parents (People, Time) read. The spectacular John Berkey poster art was everywhere. My mother bought me an illustrated paperback novelization of the 1933 Kong film. There was no way I was going to miss this cinematic event.

Except, of course, when you're twelve, you really have no say in such things.

My parents were going on a snowmobile vacation in Canada that Christmas week, and my sister and I were left in the care of my older cousin Jayne. Which was fine; we loved Jayne. She was an adult, but not "old," if you know what I mean, and she always seemed to "get" me and my interests. Before my parents had left, I had extracted from my mother permission to have Jayne take me to see King Kong at the local 6-screen multiplex (the Waterville Cinema Center), and I got extremely excited about it, counting the hours and minutes until we'd get to the theater.

The day finally arrived. Jayne bundled my younger sister and I up in our heavy winter coats, scarves and hats and loaded us into the car. I was restless in my seat, eager to get to the show. When we arrived at the theater, Jayne noticed from the marquee that Kong was - oh no! - rated PG.

PG.

Yeah, sure, it's laughable now, but this was 1976, and Jayne was uncomfortable taking 12-year old me and my 10-year old sister to a PG film without my parents' permission. Never mind that I had permission - she was certain that my mother hadn't been aware of the film's "adult nature," and took us to see the only G-rated film at the theater that week. Even then, I was screwed - apparently Disney hadn't gotten an animated re-release out that year; instead, we were dragged to a showing of In Search of Noah's Ark, a tedious, Sunn Classics religious "documentary."

As we know, deLauerentis' Kong wasn't a blockbuster. It wasn't really a flop, either, but with the money that Paramount had spent promoting it, and the fact they'd had to turn over the foreign rights to the film to Universal (a story I'll tell one of these days), it fell far short of their Jaws-like expectations. Fans of the original RKO Kong - and most critics - derided the film for its tongue-in-cheek tone and its then-contemporary setting, and it garnered a generally bad reputation among fans of of genre cinema for decades to come.

I finally saw Kong a year or two later, on a portable television on a rainy camping trip to Canada. The reception was poor, the image was small, panned, scanned, and B&W, there were edits and commercials... but I finally saw it. Of course, I've seen it many times since, and over the years my appreciation of the film has risen and fallen with my perspective. These days, I tend toward liking it.

The 1976 Kong  is not a classic. It's not even a particularly good movie. But I would argue that there's a lot in there to appreciate, and for those of us who remember the era, it's a pretty good time capsule of what the world was like in the mid-Seventies.

News: UFO Movie in 2013?

Well, according to the production company's website, the long-in-development feature film based on the late Gerry Anderson's 1970 television series UFO will begin shooting in the "first quarter of 2013," directed by Matthew Gratzner (a visual effects veteran who's worked on films like Alien: Resurrection, Iron Man and Spielberg's War of the Worlds) from a screenplay by Ryan Gaudet and Joseph Kanarek. Of course, the same site provides no definite casting information (not even the previously-announced Joshua Jackson as Paul Foster), so I'm not sure how ready to film they really are.

In any case, it's the first new "news" we've heard on this production in a couple years....

Mr. Rogers Meets THE INCREDIBLE HULK (1978)

Children's television host/personality Fred Rogers (and Mr. McFeely!) of the long-running PBS series Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, visits the set of CBS' popular The Incredible Hulk series in these vintage clips, probably from 1979/80. Both stars Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno (in full Hulk mode) take time to discuss Hollywood "make believe" with the soft-spoken, sweater-clad visitor. Together, they run just under twenty minutes (although there's some overlap).

I had several people (including my wife) forward these to me in the last day or so - I'm guessing some blog much more popular than this one must have showcased these vids recently....

MAN FROM ATLANTIS (1977) Jigsaw Puzzle Art

Apparently manufactured and released only in England, these jigsaw puzzles based on the Patrick Duffy aquatic adventure series, Man From Atlantis, sported some funky - and fantastical - artwork. If only the show had presented such spectacles as a giant squid octopus attacking the Cetacean, or Mark Harris duking it out underwater with the Creature from the Black Lagoon's oceanic cousins outside their futuristic sea-city....

I know it's a longshot - but does anyone know who the artist was?

Happy Birthday, Stella Star!

This Star Kid wants to wish the lovely Caroline Munro - Stella Star herself - a very joyous and happy birthday today. The interstellar siren of Luigi Cozzi's pulp romp Starcrash (who also portrayed the savage Dia the Beautiful in Kevin Connor's At The Earth's Core, among many other memorable genre roles) turns a youthful 64 today.

Caroline is a personal favorite of mine, and although I've never had the good fortune to meet her, she remains something of a muse to me in my writing. Many of my heroines resemble Ms. Munro, and that's not a coincidence. It's also notable, I think that Caroline was the very first "Space Babe" on this site!

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA (1978) CRACKED Art by Severin

Cracked magazine artistic mainstay, John Severin, renders the mighty Battlestar Galactica - and a squadron's worth of deftly-executed Viper fighters - on this classic parody cover. As I have said before, I always preferred Cracked to Mad when I was a Star Kid, and Severin's incredibly detailed art was the main reason. Although he no doubt had photo reference, I can't think of a more accurate and detailed drawing of the Colonial warship in comics - certainly not in Marvel's series.

If I recall correctly, Cracked's janitor mascot was Sylvester P. Smythe, right?

STAR WARS Atari Arcade Game (1983) Advertising Art

I can't even guess how many quarters I pumped into this game back in the Summer of '83. I had a full-time job at a paper mill that Summer, but pretty much every evening I would hang out with my friends at a now-long-gone, second-rate pizza parlor in Waterville, Maine, where we would divvy up mediocre peperoni pies and take turns at the Star Wars stand-up in the corner.

I really dig this artwork - because it's undeniably gorgeous, and because it reminds me of those long, pizza-filled evenings hanging out with my friends during what was pretty much our last Summer together before college, jobs and all the other things that go with adulthood caused us to drift apart....

Obit: Mariangela Melato, R.I.P.

More sad news: Italian actress Mariangela Melato, who so memorably portrayed General Kala, Klytus' right-hand woman and head of Mongo's secret police in director Mike Hodges' 1980 film, Flash Gordon, passed away from pancreatic cancer last Friday, January 11. She was 71 years old.

Popular in Europe, Melato starred in a variety of roles in over 60 films and television productions, but is probably best known for her role in 1974's Swept Away.

Rest in peace, Mariangela.

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #35: STAR TREK

Time-traveling back to the late Sixties, we find William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy in the U.S.S. Enterprise briefing room during the shooting of... which classic Star Trek episode? I'm not certain, although the slate tells us it's one directed by Marc Daniels. My knowledge of the series is just slightly shy of encyclopedic, so I can't nail it down from the picture alone.... anyone want to field a guess?

Books In The Basement

So... the other night I was poking around in my parents' basement and found a box of books that I thought were long lost and/or I'd forgotten I had. In the first category, was my near-mint first printing of Donald Glut's Empire Strikes Back novelization from the Spring of 1980 and nearly a dozen volumes of The Best Of Trek - a series of paperbacks published by Signet Books that collected fan-written Star Trek articles from G.B. Love's seminal fanzine, Trek. In the "forgotten I ever had" category was the fourteenth and final Battlestar Galactica paperback from Berkley Books, Surrender The Galactica!

That latter discovery was especially fortuitous, because, as I've noted elsewhere on this blog, I've been slowly filling in my collection of Berkley Galactica titles, buying them piecemeal from various online dealers, and Surrender has proven to be the priciest of the books in good (or better) condition. So, what a pleasant surprise to discover I already owned a copy - and in like-new condition!

As a Star Kid, I didn't collect a lot of toys/action figures - I had model kits - but, being a voracious reader, I did collect a lot of books and magazines. All these years later, it's still the books that really spark my nostalgia and the only Space: 1970 "collectibles" that I still hunt down and buy.

SPACE: 1999 (1975) Year Two Publicity Stills

The second season (or, as our British friends would say, "series") of Gerry Anderson's Space: 1999 saw a number of changes wrought upon the format, including a new producer, Fred Frieberger, new cramped sets, more colorful costumes, and some major cast changes. Gone were Barry Morse's Victor Bergman and most of the command staff, replaced with Catherine Schell's shape-shifting token extraterrestrial, Maya, and her comically macho love interest, Tony, portrayed by Tony Anholt.

With all these changes, new publicity material needed to be created to (hopefully) interest potential syndicators and station programmers - as well as the entertainment journals/fan magazines. Here's a smalls election of some of the publicity stills circulated for Space: 1999, Year Two.