Random Happenstance

Several years back, we mentioned Starlog #60, which was a pretty great issue, really! 1982 was a banner year for sci-fi movies, and they crammed as much as they could into their sixth anniversary issue. Along with a feature on John Carpenter's the Thing, there was also the concluding chapter of John W. Campbell's Who Goes There? which was the original story the Thing movies were based on. I read that long before I saw either film version, I'm pretty sure. But I hadn't seen this version until much, much later!

From 1976, Starstream #1, "Who Goes There?" Adapted by Arnold Drake, art by Jack Abel. Also this issue: "Dominus" Written by Jack Williamson and Barington J. Bayley, adapted by Arnold Drake, art by Giorgio Cambiotti and Alberto Giolitti. "The Last Guinea-Pig!" Written by Joan Hunter Holly, adapted by Arnold Drake (as G. Cruz-Santos) and art by Frank Bolle. "Rabbits to the Moon" Written by Raymond C. Banks, adapted by Steve Skeates, art by Jack Sparling. "The Music of Minox" Written by Howard Goldsmith, adapted by Paul S. Newman, art by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. "Shaka" Written by Chad Oliver, adapted by Ed Summer, art by Adolfo Buylla.

I picked the four issues of this series out of my local shop's quarter bin sometime back, and am still wondering what their plan was. Per the GCD, Whitman was Western Publishing's non-returnable titles. They had a plethora of sci-fi books under their Gold Key arm, and this may have been an attempt to take a slightly more upscale branch of that market, adapting classic science fiction short stories. Or, with a couple exceptions, maybe adapting these old stories was cheaper than writing new ones! Some of these stories may have been less 'classic' than 'vintage' or just 'old,' and I'm guessing it wasn't the most diverse line-up of writers ever. (There were a couple stories by women, which would've been what passed for progressive at the time.) I also suspect "Who Goes There?" would've been slightly more expensive, but more of a coup to get. The other issues featured Isaac Asimov, Robert Bloch, and Larry Niven; or at least those were the big names to me.

"Rabbits to the Moon" is a bit of nonsense, and "The Music of Minox" wouldn't be notable except for the early work from the great Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. The rest might not be amazing but they're at least interesting. I wish I had the time I did as a kid, to plow through sci-fi books at the library; but I don't know if authors and stories like these are still there for the picking...