Starburst Magazine

[MacNimon]

I know that many of you will be aware that the classic sci-fi/fantasy magazine, Starburst is now back in print, but have any of you actually purchased a copy yet, either online or from a newsagent or specialist shop? And if so, what are your thoughts?

After coming across the latest issue (#377) in Forbidden Planet, I ordered the previous 3 back issues online for some holiday reading. My early impressions are that this is going to be an excellent magazine, these early issues stand head and shoulders above the more easily found SFX and Sci-Fi Now. My biggest criticism would be the physical dimensions of the magazine, which is squarebound like those above two magazines but only about 75% of the width and height, albeit with a similar page count. Once you get used to it however, and the slightly smaller font size of the print (although that may just be my imagination) you appreciate that this simply makes it stand out from the crowd.

The magazine is jam-packed full of articles, and its Blue Box section while obviously not as in-depth as DWM is one of the highlights - I loved the article which tried to explain away all the continuity errors which appeared when you looked at the Cybermen stories in chronological order from their own point of view. Great stuff. And our own Mr Southall has his own regular column, which is worth a mention. The magazine is split into sections, which include comics and gaming as well as resurrecting the old TV Zone title (although only as a column, alas!) It doesn't only look at recent and upcoming films and tv though, just as in the original magazine's early days there is a fair sprinkling of classic/cult stuff scattered throughout its pages. Including a history of the cult films of William Castle, a look at classic Day Of The Triffids, and an ongoing series looking at 50 years of 007 movies from the viewpoint of the writer growing up in the 1970s which closely mirrors my own experiences.

I've barely scratched the surface here though. There is simply so much in this magazine that I can't stop myself from highly recommending it to everyone. It's easily the best general tv and film sci-fi/fantasy magazine out there at the moment; it has been obviously put together with a great deal of love and effort to give us a high quality magazine. And even better, from a nostalgic point of view...although some of the alternative/variant covers use some of the later logos, the content and style of the magazine has little in common with the original magazine in its latter years. This feels as if it is the original magazine (just as it was in it's first few years of existence) updated for a modern audience. Down to the font used in the Things To Come section. For the first time in 30 years or so, we have the GENUINE Starburst back.

As I said before, I really can't recommend this highly enough...if you haven't bought an issue already, the first 3 back issues are available at the knock-down price of £2.50 each on the website (a bargain!)...

Starburst back issues

I see that distribution is improving as well, they now have a page telling you local stores where you can buy a copy...

Where to buy

I see that the new issue (#378) is now out. In this month's issue...

Interviews with The Amazing Spider-Man director Marc Webb, Noel Clarke on his new sci-fi flick Storage 24, Uwe chats Boll-ocks, and Ti West & Pat Healy talk The Innkeepers / Retrospectives on Spider-Man and Batman in movies & television / Bane: The Man Who Broke The Bat / The Future of 3D / Top 10 Fairy Tale Movies / Bond in the ‘80s / Doctor Who / plus news, reviews and more from the world of Sci-Fi, Horror and Fantasy.

Here are the two available covers for this months issue...



All that's missing now is a letters page!

[Rob McCow]

I'm a little tempted by this. Since the demise of DeathRay there have been no decent sci-fi magazines that have kept me interested from cover to cover, which includes DWM. I've had no desire to pick up SFX either and Sci-Fi Now looks simply dreadful.

[Anthony Williams]

I'm a little tempted by this. Since the demise of DeathRay there have been no decent sci-fi magazines that have kept me interested from cover to cover, which includes DWM. I've had no desire to pick up SFX either and Sci-Fi Now looks simply dreadful.

DeathRay's gone? I loved that mag!

[J.R. Southall]

Mmmmn... I do like this thread!

Here's what's coming next Friday (this is the mail-order-only variant cover by Dez Skinn):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/5536652...in/photostream

[MacNimon]

It'll be interesting to see the Welch cover but I like Dez Skinn's variant one which JR refers to...

Sez Dez (on Facebook):

I've got to be insane! No interesting visuals available for the new (series 7) Doctor Who yet but Starburst is doing a big push on it in its next issue. So, lacking a more exciting picture than Mr Forehead, I spent over five hours on a spoof logo.
Well, it was either that or run with the worst title logo Starburst ever had (I've been using a different one from the past - tweaked a tad - each month, if you hadn't noticed and was down to an absolute turkey, circa 1985, which no amount of tweaking would fix!). Am dreading what I'll have to do next month!

The perfect time for DW fans to try out the new mag, imo!

[MacNimon]

The huge S7 preview...I wonder who writes that...? Someone we may have heard of round these parts, methinks....?

[J.R. Southall]

Could be!

[J.R. Southall]

And it's with us!

[MacNimon]

Two nice covers again, but I think I'll be going for Dez's cover again this month!