Wednesday, November 22, 2017

SPACEMEN 1965 YEARBOOK (PART 1)


SPACEMEN 1965 YEARBOOK
Annual (One Shot)
1965 (No month given, but probably released in late 1964)
Warren Publishing Co.
Editor: Forrest J Ackerman
Cover: Wally Wood and Russ Jones
Pages: 68

Editor Ackerman goes Crabbe crazy (no, not the seafood, buster, but Buster -- as in Buster Crabbe) in this, the last publication of Warren's SPACEMEN magazine. Crabbe is highlighted in two features, one for his role in FLASH GORDON, and the other for BUCK ROGERS. Mr. Crabbe really must have been "spaced out" after having to fill so many pages in this SPACEMEN 1965 ANNUAL. Forry loved the chapter serials (without the corn flakes) and he payed ample tribute here.

Also, in this 68-page (55 if you don't count the ads) fun-fest is a pictorial feature on the B-movie (the B- is an appropriate grade for it -- maybe even something even a little lower) JOURNEY TO THE 7TH PLANET. Shot in Denmark for $75K, the story tries to be serious, but how can it when there is a bevy of space beauties, including Danish model Greta Thyssen, distracting them from their mission to Uranus (the titular "7th" planet). Hubble! Hubble!... er, Hubba! Hubba!

Other universes await, such as articles on THE PHANTOM PLANET, WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE and a behind-the-scenes look at science-fiction movies that were in production in the early 1960's, all loving wrapped inside a superb Wally Wood cover.

The astute astronaut will notice that these articles seem familiar... that's because they're all reprints from the first eight issues of SPACEMEN! As a matter of fact, one of the headings on the cover could have been: "Nothing New -- All Reprints!", and truer words could not have been printed!

Lots of other good space stuff awaits readers in the last retro-rocket firing of this magazine until it ran out of hydrazine. Read it now, before it drifts off into the cosmos!





























(Concluded on Friday!)

No comments: