Saturday Morning Cartoons: SPACE STARS (1981)

In 1981, Hanna-Barbara jumped on the post-Star Wars boom by reviving and repackaging their 60s outer space heroes Space Ghost and The Herculoids (mixing both classic episodes and newly-made installments) with two other space-themed cartoons - The Teen Force and Astro (from The Jetsons) & The Space Mutts - for an hour-long programming block called Space Stars.

I really don't remember much about this series - I was getting to the age where I preferred to sleep in on Saturdays, and aside from Thundarr & Blackstar, I wasn't watching many new cartoons then - but I do remember being disappointed that the new Space Ghost shorts featured a re-designed Phantom Cruiser, eschewing the sleek, classic Alex Toth look in favor of something that more closely resembled a Star Wars or Galactica type spaceship.

So pretend it's Saturday morning, September 26, 1981, and enjoy this brief taste of Hanna-Barbara's Space Stars!

The Interplanetary U.F.O. Mystery Ship

My best friend in elementary school was named Robert. He was an only child, and his parents were divorced. Needless to say, he got a lot of the toys and model kits that I desperately wanted and never had. Among them was AMT's "Interplanetary U.F.O. Mystery Ship," which was, undeniably, the coolest starship model that wasn't actually based on a TV show or movie. And it glowed in the dark.

Man, I coveted that model. AMT put its picture on the boxes of the Star Trek kits and as I watched my Enterprise nacelles droop on their pylons, or the neck of my Klingon battle cruiser sag under the weight of the command "bubble," I'd look at that picture and wish I was building that ship. What graceful lines, what implied power... and no damned pylons! (Let me be clear: I was thrilled to have those Trek models; I just wasn't a good enough model builder to assemble them correctly, and I knew it.)

I didn't know then that it was a slightly modified re-issue of a 60's kit called the Leif Ericson Galactic Cruiser, nor that it was actually designed by Matt Jeffries, designer of Star Trek's own U.S.S. Enterprise. All I knew is that it was an awesome-looking spaceship model, and that I really wanted one of my own to build and hang from my ceiling on fishing line.

Well, now I do. Or soon will, anyway, when the kit I ordered from Round 2 Models shows up here, hopefully in time for Christmas. Thanks to my mother-in-law's holiday largesse, I was finally able to score one of these awesome model kits (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) for myself. Round 2 also offers the non-glow-in-the-dark Leif Ericson, but I wanted the one that most closely resembled the 1976 version I remember.

Of course, now comes the hard part: finding time to build it... and then, somewhere to display it when I'm done. Or I could just put it into storage with all the other unbuilt model kits I've bought over the last ten years....

ARK II (1976) Animated?

In 1976, Filmation produced its first live-action science fiction adventure, Ark II. This single-season, post-Apocalyptic kid's show (think about that for a second - that was the 70s!), chronicled the adventures of three multi-cultural/ethnic young scientists - Jonah (Terry Lester), Ruth (Jean-Marie Hon) and Samuel (Jose Flores) - who, accompanied by their talking chimpanzee, Adam, roamed the barren wastelands, bringing their scientific aid (and superior morality) to the ravaged remnants of humanity. Fun Saturday morning escapism, huh?

Anyway, at some point, Filmation considered reviving the series in animated form. To that end, model sheets were drawn up and the studio presented their proposal to CBS. For whatever reasons, the network didn't bite, and the designs went into the filing cabinet - later to appear as an "extra" on the Ark II DVD set from BCI/Eclipse.

As a fan of the original series, I kinda wish that Filmation had produced an animated continuation. In animation, the Ark II crew could have encountered menaces and environments (mutants and volcanoes and other cool stuff) beyond the meager budget of the live-action program....

More FLASH GORDON (1980) International Posters

Man, there was a lot of promotional and advertising art created to sell Dino de Laurentis' Flash Gordon movie in the various world markets. The artwork at top is particularly interesting to me because it's an original painting that doesn't use any of the familiar art elements seen on most of the other International posters, but does include the comic strip's Prince Thun of the Lion Men (there is a Thun in the movie - briefly - but he doesn't have a tail) and other characters and creatures that don't appear in the movie at all (including what appears to be the witch queen, Azura).

I wish I had a better scan of the second poster - the rope-swinging Flash is pretty dynamic.

STAR WARS (1977) Marvel Comics Art By Howard Chaykin

I'm up to my ears in a comic script this week, and as I am neither a prolific nor speedy scribe, it isn't leaving me much time for writing blog posts... thus, my heavy leaning on image-centric posts again. Having space comics on the brain ('cause that's what I'm working on at the moment), I thought I'd share this gorgeous original art by penciler Howard Chaykin and inker Tom Palmer for the first issue of Marvel's Star Wars comic.

The printed version altered the art slightly (most notably in the addition of various spaceships) and was clearly colored by someone without access to any color reference material (a green Darth Vader? A ginger Leia?), but the B&W line art original is really beautiful.

The LOGAN Trilogy

Despite the fact that the world portrayed in William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson's original Logan's Run novel bore little resemblance to that realized in the 1976 MGM motion picture adaptation, the film's iconography - specifically the costuming and hardware - was certainly pervasive.

Not only were they used in the 1977 CBS television series (although that was probably more a case of budget-conscious recycling by MGM than any deliberate aesthetic choice) but the two sequel novels written by Nolan - Logan's World (1977) and Logan's Search (1980) - both had initial paperback printings fronted with artwork clearly and undeniably based on the movie's designs.

Of course, none of this really means much - I just wanted an excuse to post scans of these books from my childhood library.

The Logan's Run paperback at top is one of two variant movie tie-ins that I have. The other was a book club edition I picked up in school; the cover was nearly identical but for a few minor changes to the main figures of Logan and Jessica. Logan's shirt was no longer ripped and Jessica wore the silver dress with art lifted directly from the film poster.

I've read all three novels several times, and while I'm a fan of Nolan's writing - and even corresponded with him for a while in the 90's when he penned a couple articles for a magazine I edited - I have to say that I actually prefer the movie (and even the TV series) over the books. The books are undeniably more original and imaginative, but I saw the movie & TV show before I ever read any of the books, and that's the Logan's Run that fixed itself in my head.

THE HUMANOID (1979) Lobby Cards

The one European Star Wars rip-off that continues to elude me is 1979's The Humanoid, starring Richard Kiel (The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker), Barbara Bach (The Spy Who Loved Me), and Corinne Clery (Moonraker).

I've read a lot about the movie over the years, and while I'm sure it's pretty cheap-looking and shamelessly derivative (just look at that Darth Vader clone!), I also suspect that it might have an eccentric 70's, Starcrash/Message from Space-type charm that would appeal to my arrested adolescent tastes. C'mon - it's got a robot dog! And Jaws! And a couple of Bond girls! In any case, it's a flick that I still want to see for myself one of these days.

I've occasionally come across gray market DVDs of the film being sold online, but I'm hesitant to spend money on something when I have no idea how it's going to look and no legal recourse if I'm dissatisfied. So... I guess I'll just have to keep hoping that some niche DVD outfit picks it up and releases a good quality, authorized version one day (preferably in English!).

In the meantime, I can keep looking at these mysterious lobby cards and keep wondering what I'm missing...

CUE Magazine (1975) - SPACE: 1999 vs STAR TREK

This made me smile. New York area entertainment magazine, Cue ("Seven Leisure Magazines in One"), from December of 1975. Artist unknown (to me, anyway). I particularly like Barbara Bain with the space bazooka....

PLANET OF THE APES (1975) Fortress Playset

Here's another great Space: 1970 holiday "wishlist" gift - the Mego Planet Of The Apes Fortress Playset! Who wouldn't have loved to find that under the tree? Personally, I had a couple of the POTA figures, but I never had any of the cool accessories. Usually, I would just concoct backyard scenarios where Captain Kirk somehow ended up on the Ape-dominated world and would get chased by (and fight with) my gorilla soldier.

On a related note, has anyone else ever wondered why Mego (or their ad agency) decided to score most of the Apes toy spots with that weird version of Also sprach Zarathustra...?

Behind-The-Scenes Pix #32: THE BLACK HOLE

With the help of a pair of technicians, professional mime Tommy McLoughlin is encased in the black fiberglass body of the Cygnus' gunslinging Sentry robot S.T.A.R., for Disney's 1979 interstellar epic, The Black Hole. His mouth and chin are blackened as a precaution against his skin showing through breathing holes/slits in the mask.

STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE (1979) Coca-Cola Premium Poster

It only just occurred to me that it was 33 years ago today that the only new, live-action Star Trek of the 1970s premiered in U.S. cinemas. A glorious, big screen reunion of the original television crew in a then-unprecedented, big-budgeted theatrical feature film.

My own opinion of The Motion Picture has evolved over the years - from my initial awestruck experience 33 years ago, to my vague dissatisfaction with it during the 80s and pan & scan TV/VHS home viewings, to a more positive re-evaluation as both I and the film grew older. I still think The Wrath Of Khan is the best of the Trek films, but I really love this first widescreen adventure as well, and appreciate it much more now than I used to.

I honestly don't know much about this poster; I don't know the artist, nor exactly where/how it was available. I only know that it was some sort of premium offered by the Coca-Cola company. I'd welcome any information about its provenance - if you know something about it, post in the comments below.

ADDENDUM: According to a commenter below, this poster was actually an in-theater concession stand premium that you could acquire with the appropriate purchase of a Coca-Cola soft drink. Cool! Thanks!

Happy Anniversary, ST-TMP!

AT THE EARTH'S CORE (1976) Theatrical Posters

Today we have a few of the International theatrical posters for the 1976 John Dark production of At The Earth's Core. Based on the novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs and directed by Kevin Connor, Core starred the ubiquitous Doug McClure (The Land That Time Forgot, Warlords Of Atlantis) and co-starred the great Peter Cushing (Star Wars) and the stunning Caroline Munro (Starcrash), in a tale of cliffhanging adventures in the savage inner world of Pellucidar.

Despite of - or perhaps because of - its primitive special effects and man-in-suit monstrosities, I have a great affection for this movie, and have ever since catching it on network television back around 1977. It's actually fairly faithful to the Burroughs novel (abridged, of course), even if it presents truly fanciful monsters rather than the paleontologically accurate prehistoric beasties of the book. Cushing is a joy as Prof. Abner Perry, the brilliant but absent-minded inventor of the "Iron Mole," and Caroline is a perfect primeval princess. McClure is decent, too.

Sure, I wish it had a bigger budget and Ray Harryhausen-animated creatures, but it's a fun - and favorite - 70s Lost World flick.