Random Reads: Starlog Magazines from 1984!!!

All right... the time has come. I am officially getting ready to delete the content from Really Rather Random Guy (dot blogspot dot com) and in preparing for that, I wanted to import a bunch of the content that I know will then be lost forever, by bringing the posts over here to Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks (dot blogspot dot com). So, with that in mind, I thought I would preface these entries with the fact that they are indeed OLD blog posts from an OLD, now DEFUNCT blog, and cross my fingers and hope that folks will still want to read them.

This post was originally published back on February 7th, 2014.

I've mentioned Scottie's Books on more than one occasion in the past, and almost never fail to find something fun when I go in there. A few weeks ago I stopped in and found a couple of issues of Starlog magazine for a few dollars apiece. 

Back in the day I was never a fan of Starlog as I associated it too much with Fangoria which scared me so badly as a child that it made me physically ill to even see on the newsstand. That last sentence probably sounds like an exaggeration, but I assure you it was not. I was shocked when I googled it to find out that it actually only went out of print in 2009 which feels way too recent. 

Since I normally wouldn't have been interested in Starlog in the past, I didn't even pick these up when I initially saw them, and then finally I saw the word "Gremlins" on the covers of both magazines, and that pretty much did it for me. Upon closer examination I saw features inckuding Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, The Neverending Story, Cloak and Dagger, Muppets Take Manhatten, and the Last Starfighter. And this was all just from a cursory scan of the covers. (Completely ignoring the Buckaroo Bonzai and Conan the Destroyer photos on the covers) I didn't even open the poly-bags on these until I got them home. 

Now, I'm going about this a bit bass-ackwardsly because I'm actually featuring shots of issue #86 first (with the cover shot of Buckaroo) and then I'm going to get to #85 second. Honestly, I don't even have a particularly good reason for that. But look at the fold out poster in the front of issue #86! Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! or, as the kids nowadays are wont to call it, "STARLOG Science Fiction Classic #20". And check out the facing-page ad! A Star Trek III tabletop paper-and-dice game that is "a simulation of Starship combat in the final frontier" which I highly doubt could possibly be as intense as they are hoping you'll think it is. 

You guys... YOU GUYS. A Cloak & Dagger article! Now admittedly, it's a pretty light piece, being a plot synopsis, list of actors in the film, and a mention of the inspirations and creative team behind the movie... but YOU GUYS. Once upon a time, people could just go out and buy magazines with articles about Cloak & Dagger in them??? I want to go to there. 

Then this. "Dan O'Herlihy: Full-time actor, part-time iguana." Actually, the other issue I picked up had a Starfighter article in it as well, but in a crushing moment of disappointment I realized that the issue had somehow been printed without a page #59/60! It was a pretty in-depth article, too! In fact, page 59 was the second half of an article about Robert Zemeckis trying to turn "The Shadow" into a feature film... in 1984!!! Instead we got the Alec Baldwin version (which I am actually a fan of) 10 years later. But I can't help but wonder... Anyway... Yeah... Dan O'Herlihy. Moving on. 

There was a pretty great feature on the special effects behind the Rancor... This stuff has probably been archived and bandied about by die-hard-hardcore Star Wars fans for decades now, but did that awesome concept art up in the top left corner! 

An interview/focus piece on "nebbish, ner, & famous hoser" Rick Moranis! I love the caption under his photo: "Moranis as nebbish in Ghostbusters". Which pretty much sums it in the weirdest way possible. I like how the photo also seems to be Moranis in a very out-of-character moment. No trace of Tully in there at all, even though he's obviously in costume. 

And article about "The Brother from Another Planet" Someone honestly tell me if this was worth watching. I think it's on Netflix right now. That's... all I've got to say about this. 

GREMLINS!!!! That is all. 

Aaand an article on the Neverending story. I can rest in peace now. 

Okay, so onto issue #85 (With Conan on the cover and tragically missing a VITAL page...) here we have a very nice gatefold Bladerunner poster or as it is known more commonly, "STARLOG Science Fiction Classic #19".

Not surprisingly, there was a big Conan the Destroyer article. With lots of greasy half-naked people flex-posing. This didn't really do a lot for me (also, I hope, not surprisingly). 

Aaand then I pooped my pants. In this article, Jim Henson is talking about a little film called "Labyrinth" which they are currently developing with Brian Froud. None of the cast members have been cast at this time. It boggles (Hoggle!!!) the mind to think back on a time when Labyrinth was still just... just... an IDEA. 

There was a Harlan Ellison article that would not have made sense to me before I started watching Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated with my boys. As Harlan Ellison has just always looked like this to me:

And nothing like this:

Because Harlan Ellison is EXACTLY the kind of Scooby-Doo celebrity guest
that the kids these days are going to feel is relevant.
(I know, this one was for the adults... but still, weird, right?)

The article is all about Harlan Ellison's effect on the sci-fi landscape, not just as an author, but as an editor, as a personality, as an educator, and as a bona fide creative genius celebrity madman. It was a nice read. 

MORE Gremlins!!! This time focusing on Joe Dante instead of Chris Columbus. 

And to wrap it all up, a nice Ivan Reitman piece with lots of focus on Ghostbusters. Phew! 

All in all, I never knew what a great treasure trove of old pop-culture goodness a couple old issues of Starlog could be... but I will definitely be keeping my eyes peeled for more copies in the wild from now on!!!

That's it for tonight kids, but I'll be randomly popping up on here in the future, so keep your peepers peeled! 

Halloween Countdown Day 8: SPOOKY Pulp Book Covers!!!

Tonight I thought I'd try to make it a quick one, and share a quintet of spooky covers from old books that I've found at Goodwill. Couldn't remember if any of these had made an appearance on the blog before now, but since most of these are recent acquisitions, I figured only a couple of them could possibly be in any kind of repetition danger. 

All the books below were bought for .99 cents apiece, and fit the Halloween season to a tree... uh... I mean tee. 

First up, a classic I've been meaning to read for a very long time, H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau. The cover is a great one, with the sole figure on the cover not immediately obvious as being less than human. It takes a moment or two to let the details soak in... the hair on the legs, the clawed hands... it slowly reveals the nature of the creature. Nice and simple, straight to the point, this cover says all it needs to.  

Next up, this psychedelic cover of the book The Green Brain which is written by Frank Herbert, author of Dune. It almost looks like a praying mantis is pushing its head out the front of a man's face. It's layered in such a way to make the insect's features a part of the human's features, creating a nightmarish bug-man visage. 

Adventures in Time and Space is a book of short science fiction stories edited by R.J. Healy and J.F. McComas. Again we are faced with a bizarre lone figure in a strange landscape, reddish and smoky this time. The figure has some sort of animalistic, almost cat-like ears atop his head... and tentacles? High above in the smoky red sky, the point of a rocket ship looms.

One of my absolute FAVORITE recent finds is this book by William Arden: Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators in: The Secret of Phantom Lake! I posted a picture of this one on Instagram just a little while back with the caption: That time Groot straight-up tried to murder some kids! (or something to that affect). love Love LOVE the cover to this book. This is a frameable piece of art. From the menace of the cyclopean tree monster to the look of sheer code-brown-inducing terror on the kids' faces... this thing has it all. The colors, the subject matter... absolutely EVERYTHING about this cover is beautiful.

Next up, Kenneth Robeson's Doc Savage: Brand of the Werewolf. This thing is the definition of cool. Look at Doc Savage, shirt torn open and being forced to his knees by the mighty wolfman!!! All while a skeleton laughs at the whole situation from the background. The reds and oranges here make the whole world look like it's on fire, and there's nothing like a "savage" werewolf to fan the flames! 

And finally... this gem. This absolute gem. The second "Alfred Hitchcock" book of this post, I am currently reading this collection of short horror stories and I am LOVING them. Nothing better for October than a nice collection of spooky short stories. And Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Scream Along With Me (which are apparently culled from an even longer book of stories called "Stories That Scared Even Me" which I NEED to track down...) is a genuinely GOOD collection of stories! I've had one flop of a collection of stories and a couple of crummy graphic novels so far this season, but overall I've read some great Halloween-y books. I'll do another post somewhere in the near future where I showcase some of the Halloween read-pile for this season.

So that's it kids! A short and shivery post featuring some great, spooky, pulpy book covers that I've picked up at Goodwill! I'll be back soon with more Grave Goodwill Goodies... so until then, Happy Haunting!

Goodwill Quick Stop: Some Geeky Books

A quick one tonight kids, to show off a pile of books found in months past at Goodwill! 

First up is this Choose Your Own Adventure book: Beyond the Great Wall. It looks like a nice mix between Around the World in 80 Days and possibly the animated Jackie Chan Adventures. Plus check out that Snidely Whiplash mustache on the guy closest to grabbing the balloon! 

I now own a copy of the Batman Forever novelization. It was the first of the Joel Schumacher films and the beginning of the end of my love of Superhero movies back in the 90's. But looking back on them now, I get a whole different level of entertainment value out of them. Its like I can appreciate them more because I already know going in that I don't even have to try and like them.  

I actually love the Dungeons and Dragons Endless Quest books MORE than your average CYOA books. My favorite has always been The Pillars of Pentagarn, but this one, Raid on Nightmare Castle, will also do nicely. 

This is my second time finding a Doctor Who novel secondhand! This one stars the very first William Hartnell Doctor! Not my favorite Doctor but always exciting to find a book starring the Doctor in any case. 

This book is just so chock-full of awesome I can't stand it! Every page is filled with little cartoons and factoids like you see there on the cover. One of the first ones was about James Barry, a doctor in the 1800's who died and THEN it was discovered that he was secretly a woman! Believe it... OR NOT.

I've been trying to track down Ramona books for my wife to read to our little boys for some time now. We can now add Ramona the Pest to her collection! 

And finally, What's a Fraggle? which answers the burning question that I know we all woke up with on our minds this morning. 

Cute as frick! 

So there you have it! Yet another pile of geeky books that I have tracked down secondhand at Goodwill! From almost literally all corners of the geekosphere.

That's it for tonight kids! But I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!

Goodwill Geek Mailbag: A Package from Brian Napoleon Lapsley

Woof! Where does the time go! Suddenly you realize you haven't updated your blog in something like 10 days... and just woof. 

So I've had absolutely no good reason to put off posting this particular post for so long except... I don't know why! Just been damn lazy I guess. 

I know a LOT of genuinely kind and generous people out there in internet land, and one of them happens to be Brian Lapsley, artist, fellow thrifter-extraordinaire, and blogger over at Awake Oh Sleeper. He is another fine example of a supportive and generous fellow who has sent kind words... and now a fun mystery package my way! 

So first off... THIS is what arrived at my home. As I briefly mentioned above, Brian is a talented artist. I know he draws quite a bit, and he also makes amazing digital pieces such as this piece of his that he photocopied and adorned my package with! 

Inside, a note: Telling me to enjoy. And... I did. 

First up was this Classic Science Fiction Films book, which reads as a sort of movie catalogue with titles, dates, and brief synopses of each film. I love how some attitude creeps into a few of the entries:

"Just plain garbage" and "Makes Missile to the Moon look brilliant". Genius. 

Anyone who knows me knows that comic books are the way STRAIGHT to my heart. Couple of Amazing Spider-Man issues (part of the "Round Robin" event) and an issue of Ultraman.

I have always wanted to read the book Jumper by Steven Gould. I only vaguely recall the movie back in 2008, but I know I wasn't blown away by what I saw of it. I had heard that the book was head-and-shoulders above the film however, and I have been itching to read it. So I did! I read this almost immediately after finding this in the package! And I can tell you, I LOVED it! What a great concept, and executed very well. It's hard to describe the book in any meaningful way, but I can tell you I kept comparing it to Ready Player One in my head the whole time I was reading it. The subject matter of the two books couldn't be more different... but there's a very palpable sense of wish-fulfilment for geeks in both books. The protagonist of Jumper is likable and is using his newfound talents to get himself out of a horrible life. 

Back in the day, I had a complete set of these "Freaky Fighters" which were a bunch of bat-wielding monsters from Hammer films. You could find these at Dollar stores and the like. They were bizarre, and I think I ended up giving my set away to a friend online. I'm glad to get this one back however, because Werewolves are some of my all-time favorite monsters!

Here's a shot of the back. I think this fella will be staying firmly in his package, because I just love the look of the whole thing together. 

This Rad Badge is from Burger King from back in the day! LOVE this thing! The turtles pop up from behind the shell to say hello! Lookit those guys!

Speaking of Burger King and famous cartoon stars that I happen to love, there's this Scooby-Doo plush from Burger King circa 2000! Mr. Lapsley is hitting ALL the right notes here with this mystery package you guys!

Probably my absolute favorite item in the whole box was this little Big Guy! It's a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man pencil sharpener from a 1987 Real Ghostbusters themed McDonald's Happy Meal! Gaze upon the tiny plastic form of the Destructor!

So here it all is! Toys and books and comics from an incredibly generous individual! So generous in fact, that I have already received a second mystery package from him that I will share with you all at a later date! Thank you Mr. Lapsley! I truly appreciate this collection of the weird, the wild, and the nostalgic! Be sure to check out Brian's blog (linked above) and be sure to also check him out on Instagram! 

That's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting! 

Halloween Countdown Day 20: Dark Future Elvis???

I'm totally stretching it here but I HAD to post this. I JUST found it yesterday for .99 cents, and I couldn't WAIT to share it. So I'm going with the "Dark" part of this title, and the general decor of the cover with the skulls and whatnot, and sharing it as a Halloween book anyway. LOOK at this piece of Beauty: 

So this is something that exists. I don't feel the need to read it, EVER. I just wanted to get a picture or two of it and then use that as my computer wallpaper FOREVER. Apparently, it is part of a 4-book series where a retired-not-dead Elvis exists in the alternate historied and dystopian America of 1995. There are three other books in the Dark Future series, which I guess was originally supposed to be a role-playing game but instead ended up as four novels and a board-game instead. The back of the book says he faces off against a bunch of enemies including the Klu Klux Klan, which might explain the copter: 

I would be totally down for a whole series of Mad Max-like adventures starring the King here... but as this series is written currently I just don't see it being my thing. But the cover art alone is AMAZING. And just to keep you from feeling cheated, here's a picture of my favorite Elvis toys:

There's the Elvis RV from Cars, the Funko Pop! 1970's Elvis, a Stitch-as-Elvis bobble Happy Meal Toy from 2002, and the S.L.U.G. zombies "Singer Mortis" who is either zombie Elvis or a zombie Elvis impersonator. 

So that's absolutely it for today kids! Gonna be a lazy Sunday! But I've got lots of Graveyard-dug Goodwill goodies to share with you in the upcoming days, so keep your eyes PEELED. Until then, Happy Haunting!

Be sure to check out all of the great blogs participating in this year's Halloween Countdown! You can do so by clicking this link, or clicking on the Cryptkeeper 2013 banner on the sidebar to the right! Also, check out the "Blog-O-Ween" Halloween Blog collective, again by following this link, or through the badge on the sidebar! Thanks!

A Random Handful of Goodwill Goodies: Science Fiction Books

So today I'm tossing a bunch of different books under the Random Handful banner. This time around it's Science Fiction as the theme.

I actually found book three of the Star Wars trilogy for .99 cents at Goodwill BEFORE I posted about the Empire Strikes back novelization here! At the time I was still on the hunt for book #2... but if you haven't read that earlier post, spoiler alert: I got it. 

Honestly, I've never been a huge fan of Hellboy. I like the movies, and I've found all of the trade paperbacks of the Hellboy comics series second-hand, or on the cheap at Mardens... so I HAVE almost all of them... but I just haven't gotten into them yet. Hell, I even have an action figure from the animated series that I also have never seen. That doesn't stop me from continuing to pick up Hellboy books whenever I see them in hopes of someday loving them. So I got this Hellboy Novel, "The Lost Army" at Goodwill for .99 cents. 

Ehhh... I don't know if you can EXACTLY classify this one as "sci-fi" but it comes pretty close... Right? It tells the tale of a middle-school megalomaniac super-genius who puts his goals of world domination on hold for a bit while he tries to win an election at his school, just to prove a point to his father. It turns out to be harder than he thought. Hilarity ensues. I really like the concept behind this book, and I hope it turns out to be a good read. 

You can see Mardens price tags on the front of this book, but I did indeed pick it up at Goodwill. I probably overpaid however, because at Goodwill I suspect these were on clearance for .50 cents and I paid .99. C'est la vie. I am actually interested in reading a novelization of Nu-Trek. 

Garth Nix is hands down one of the authors I am most excited to track down and read more of. I love his Abhorsen series, and the Keys to the Kingdom series, and recommend them highly. I've tracked down almost all the books in the Seventh Tower series, as well as his book Ragwitch, though I haven't read any of those yet. Add another to the pile! .99 cents. 

I've just been meaning to read this ever since I read Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I picked it up for no other reason than that. .99 cents. 

I actually thought that I had bought this book, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, at one point, but when I went looking for it, discovered I didn't actually own it at all... Jaime Hood over at Shezcrafti threatened to revoke my Geek Membership once if I didn't read this book at some point. I tend to take her threats more seriously than some... So the very next time I saw it at Goodwill I picked it up. Haven't read it yet... but it's only a matter of time now. .99 cents.

I had already seen a ton of super-positive reviews for Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl" online before I discovered it at Goodwill. I picked it up for 1.99 and added it to my read pile. I guess it's a novel about the seedy side of bio-engineered slaves. Like that could have a seedy side. Described as "bio-punk" this book is extremely high-concept with a complete reinvention of how the world works bio-technologically in the 23rd century. It's another one my fingers are itching to turn the pages in. Steady fingers. Your time will come. 

Picked this one up the same day as The Windup Girl (and a couple of other books I'll talk about during my upcoming Halloween Countdown... it was a good day for good Sci-Fi). Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter team up to bring us "The Long Earth" I was pretty much sold as soon as I saw Pratchett's name on the cover, and considering this is a collaboration, and a non-Disc-World book, I was intrigued. The book deals with alternate Earths, and travel between them. It deals with a pair of exploratory protagonists and the other Earths they explore. It deals with the way the world would react to the fact that there are suddenly millions of other Earths to expand out onto... and the sorts of dangers that might dwell out among those millions of potential worlds that would in turn discover us. I got this one for 1.99 as well. 

Well that's it boys and girls! A Random Handful of Sci-Fi books I've picked up at Goodwill. I hope you enjoyed reading about my hopes to read them as much as I enjoyed writing about hoping to read them! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodies! Until then, Happy Hunting!