Retro Movie Posters: Star Wars

Whilst the Hilderbrandt poster is more classical, I much prefer this outstanding example of how to promote a movie with style and artistic verve.

This was the first poster I saw for Star Wars. It had been pasted onto a wooden board that was screwed onto the gable end of the last house on our street. I can still recall seeing it on my way home from school and thinking "WOW!!" This would be about November of 1977 with the movie not released until December 27th. 

The experience of being at that first packed showing at our local Odeon cinema is something that I'll never forget and will probably come back to in a future post.

End Transmission.

Retro Sci Fi Mags: Fantastic Films

Fantastic Films #1 - April 1978

From the post Star Wars fallout circa 1978, a number of new science fiction/fantasy magazines began to appear on the shelves of your local friendly neighbourhood newsagent. Whilst mags such as Starlog and Starburst went on to have a long and healthy publishing lifespan, some only burned bright for a short period of time. One such magazine was Fantastic Films which was, in my opinion, the best of the bunch.

Published in the USA by Blake Publishing Corp, FF had it's own distinctive style with dynamic presentation and more in depth commentary/articles than it's competitors. For me, those years between 1977 and 1983 will always be the "classic" era when everything appeared new and the future one only limited by the imagination. FF captured that vitality to perfection. At first it was a bi-monthly mag but it's popularity quickly turned it into a monthly event.

Issue #46 published in 1985 was the last one and featured Back to the Future on the cover. I still have a couple of issues packed safely away and are a great reminder of how much fun magazines were back then..

End Transmission.

Retro UK Comics: Planet of the Apes

As a kid, I was a huge comic fan and collector. During the 60's, I was more into UK comics such as Topper and Beezer but as I grew older I began to get into anything Marvel UK published such as the Spectacular Spiderman, Mighty World of Marvel or the Avengers.

I loved and bought them all. But if I had to choose a favourite comic from all those I'd collected it would be the UK version of PLANET OF THE APES which was first published in October of 1974. 

There is something about the whole ape mythology that just fascinated me as a 11 year old. The idea that astronauts from our time were lost in space somewhere and had landed on a planet run by simians was both exciting and scary in equal measure. I remember seeing an advert on Saturday morning kids tv promoting the first issue of POTA along with DRACULA LIVES which had also launched on the same day. Pocket money in hand, I had run down to our local newsagents and there in one of those tall metal wire racks you could spin around where both first issues. Magic. I put the free posters above my bed and always made sure those #1's were on the top of my comics pile...

Great memories. I still kick myself for swapping them months later!!

End transmission.

Retro Sci Fi Television.

UFO

Thought I'd launch this section of the blog with something very close to my heart. This is a post about a 1970's sci-fi show that holds special memories for me personally.

I was ten when it was first shown and it made such an impression that I have zero g hesitation in saying that UFO is absolutely unquestionably the greatest science fiction anything that I've ever seen.

While Gerry Anderson may be more famous for his supermarionation epics such as Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet, it is with his first true live action opus UFO that he stands tall above all others in my book.

Everything about the program is spot on. From the brilliant concept, the exceptional cast,  the outstanding design and the bravura way those behind the production refuse to bow to the standard convention by shrouding the show with a dark and malevolent tone that leaves the viewer with a sense of unease that this world is not the centre of the universe. The purple wigs and silver mini skirts helped a bit as well..

I remember watching the series as a kid thinking it was dammed scary and totally different to anything I'd ever seen. The episode where Foster is captured and taken aboard a UFO is one which is forever burned on my psyche. The scene where the SHADO medics try to remove the alien helmet, which is filled with a thick green liquid to enable him to survive the trip to the alien homeworld, is as deeply unsettling today as it was back then.

I had all the toys. Spent many a happy hour destroying alien bases made out of lego with my gold Interceptor and the Mobile with it's flip missile launcher roof. All the other hardware was lovingly moulded plastercine. Skydiver looked particularly cool I recall..

As with most things in life, quality survives the passing of time. I remember and love many of the old sci-fi tv shows of my youth, but UFO is special. UFO is the one which will always endure. A true classic.

End transmission.

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Retro Comment: Beam Me Down Spotty...

CAPTAIN ZODIAC REPORTING FOR DUTY

Am I a geek or a nerd? Both, I suppose. I'd preface both with retro as I find simple pleasures in the memory of childhood joys that as I grow older are as part of my whole as they were back then when new and vibrant. It is a strange thing that today I find myself seeking out those simple pleasures be they visual, aural or literal.

I grew up in a typical mining town in the north east of England. As you'd expect, it was a dull, grey and dour place. In those days, kids found entertainment in make believe where a length of wood was either a rifle to shoot indians or a swashbuckling sword to fight off those pirates - space pirates, of course. Most were Errol Flynn, me, I was Steve Zodiac. He was the man. Being a cowboy was so boring. Who wants to fight indians when you can zap those mud men from Mars? I had imagination to burn.

So that was where my nerdish geekdom probably began. Now, forty years or so later, it's been an interesting journey. These days I'm rediscovering all the things that I once had but lost for whatever reason. Comics swapped, toys broken or television/movies vaguely remembered. So much lost that I groan when I think about what I had. eBay is the devil whispering in my ear. I had that. And that. Oh, I remember this. How much?! I still wake up in a cold sweat over giving away all those Dracula Lives, TV21's, 2000A.D, Cor!, Starburst, Starlog, Fantastic Films and Avengers comics and magazines.

As of now, I'm on a mission to reclaim my past. Hunting here and there for those special memories. Already there is a growing stack of Whizzer and Chips, Joe 90, Beezer and UFO annuals sat in the corner. Yesterday, I came across an old Planet of the Apes annual in a back street charity shop. Not from the movies but the short lived TV series. I was like a kid at Christmas. I think I skipped all the way home.

General Urko Found!!!

This blog is about me. The things I remember and the stuff I loved. I hope those of you who visit Across Time and Space will come with me on my adventure...

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Retro Comment: Calling Earth...

Is there anyone out there?

So here I sit in the second decade of the 21st century pondering the ultimate question with a sense of resigned disappointment and the futility of my - and everyone who every lived - predicament.

WHY WAS I BORN TOO EARLY?

Frankly, having lived through the latter half of the 20th century, and the beginnings of the new millenium, I drew the short straw. What was/is this shit? As a daydreaming kid of the seventies, where is the world of Dan Dare, Flash Gordon or Judge Dredd?? How come I'm not living on the 70th floor of some megalopolis skyscraper and have a speedster mrk7 parked outside the perspex in float mode?

Red super giant Betelgeuse and it's planetary system sounds a fun place to go on a stellar tour aboard the latest light cruiser where they freeze you and your testicles for the out and inbound trip. Six hundred and forty light years ain't that far. Interstellar Holidays Corp promise to have you there and back again before the apes take over. Me, I'm booking a window seat and pinching one of their talking towels as a memento. Might try to chat up one of those BeeGee babes from the outer rim whilst I'm at it. Hear they have a thing for inter-species shagging and always leave a good tip - not sure about the tail though...

The things I could have seen and done. Major bummer. You can keep your 21st century noughties, tweenies or whatever it is some twerp is calling them. So what have I got to ease my sense of future longing?

I know. My imagination. Yeah. My imagination. That'll do. Let's run with it and see where it takes me and my invisible android.

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