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Starlog Magazine at archive.org

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 (Edited)

My god! It's full of back issues! *faints*

http://archive.org/details/starlogmagazine

This is going to be a huge resource of vintage info and interviews about our favorite saga. (And Trek, and Dr. Who, James Bond, and just about everything else.) Not to mention a time capsule of a bygone era...

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Where were you in '77?

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Wow, this is awesome!

 Spoiler free for the ST

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Fantastic !

Already spent too much time over there !

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Really nice.  There go my lunch hours  ;-)

The younger fans on the board can get a feel for how we kept up with our favorite franchises all those years ago. 

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If only Starburst and Fangoria were on line too.

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Ooooooooooh, sweet nostalgia. Magazines rule.

I remember so fondly going to the market with my mom, and how the magazines were in the same aisle as the wine, and I'd pour through the racks hoping to find a magazine that catered to one of my geek interests. I bought all I could find, because delivery was spotty at best and there may not be a Starlog next month.

Starlog, Fangoria, Wizard, Pro Wrestling Illustrated. If any of those showed up, I poured over them again and again. I love the net, but all the info on Wookieepedia doesn't quite compare to the magic of those smeared black and white pages. 

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Bingowings said:

If only Starburst and Fangoria were on line too.

Fangoria might be dicey, as that's still published. Fango and Starlog were sister publications, but the current owners haven't done anything with Starlog since it folded. Even the website is dead. Not sure what gray legal areas this may go into, so grab what you can.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlog

I wouldn't mind seeing some of Starlog's short lived competitors show up on that site. Fantastic Films was also a pretty good magazine, with some creative pre release speculation on ROTJ back in the day.

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Where were you in '77?

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When people come across SW-related articles in the online Starlog issues please make sure they post their findings here!  I find all the old stuff fascinating (especially the between-movie speculation).

EDIT: I'll start...

Issue 7 - Star Wars Preview

Issue 14 - Star Wars Special Effects

 

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Issue#8- Star Wars. Welcome Back To The Wars

Issue#9- Star Wars Portfolio

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Issue 71 - RotJ Carrie Fisher & Richard Marquand Interviews

Issue 72 - RotJ Mark Hamill Interview

Issue 73 - RotJ Mark Hamill Interview 'Life After Star Wars'

Issue 74 - RotJ Behind the Scenes with Joe Johnston & Phil Tippett

Issue 75 - Ralph McQuarrie Interview

Issue 76 - RotJ Review

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Issue 40 - ESB Mark Hamill Interview

There is some great stuff in this interview:

On the question of the "other" who might be a hope for the implementation of the Force..."Somebody suggested it might be the Princess, but I think that would be a letdown," Hamill says.

"I remember very early on asking who my parents were and being told that my father and Obi Wan met Vader on the edge of a volcano and they had a duel. My father and Darth Vader fell into the crater and my father was instantly killed.  Vader crawled out horribly scarred, and at that point the Emporer landed and Obi Wan ran into the forest, never to be seen again."

 Spoiler free for the ST

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Issue #13- Dave Prowse Interview

Issue#15-The Selling Of Star Wars Merchandise

Issue #18- Gary Kurtz Interview

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Wow! Thanks for posting, SilverWook. I once had a subscription to Starlog, but I never did catch up on all the back issues before I started subscribing.

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 (Edited)

As they have full .txt for each issue, if all the .txts are downloaded, most modern OSs can parse all the text in normal file searches.  So made an excel doc which creates the file links:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AtjXdIjRQo5NdDRObnRSZ1gtcEI1OVFTZmNlZ3lJQXc&usp=sharing

Copy the links into jDowloader or some other automated downloader and we can now search the issue for terms.  (all the 228 .txt files is 73.2 mb)

"Star Wars" returns 222 issues

"George Lucas" returns 215 issues

"Luke Skywalker" returns 122 issues

"Greedo" returns 2 issues

"Gary Kurtz" returns 190 issues

"Dave Prowse" returns 49 issues

"Jawa" returns 9 issues

"Tippett" returns 36 issues

In the excel doc is also the .pdf linkage for mass downloading.  (~51GB) Throw out a term/s and I can do the search.

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Issue #127 (February 1988)  has an interview with Lucas where he briefly touches on his ideas for a prequel and sequel trilogy.

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Free Hat said:

Issue #127 (February 1988)  has an interview with Lucas where he briefly touches on his ideas for a prequel and sequel trilogy.

It also has a nice article about Kathleen Kennedy.

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Free Hat said:

Issue #127 (February 1988)  has an interview with Lucas where he briefly touches on his ideas for a prequel and sequel trilogy.

I like this little tease:

STARLOG: Why didn't you give Luke a girl?

LUCAS: You haven't seen the last three yet  

Might we see a possible Mara Jade-type character in the new trilogy?

 Spoiler free for the ST

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Starlog has a serialization of "A Matter For Men" the start of the War Against the Chtorr, the greatest never completed sci-fi series ever.

It has some bitchin' illustrations I've never seen before. Very cool. 

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 (Edited)

Issue 118 - Star Tours - May 1987 pg. 48-52

Issue 120 - SW 'The First Ten Years' - July 1987 pg.17-58 all SW

Issue 218 - Kathleen Kennedy article

{aside - Max Headroom article in 146}

 

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Bester said:



Free Hat said:

Issue #127 (February 1988)  has an interview with Lucas where he briefly touches on his ideas for a prequel and sequel trilogy.


I like this little tease:


STARLOG: Why didn't you give Luke a girl?

LUCAS: You haven't seen the last three yet  


Might we see a possible Mara Jade-type character in the new trilogy?
You're hilarious. Like Lucas would agree with anything he said 25 years ago.

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True.  What the hell am I thinking?  The guy changes his mind on a daily basis.

Come to think of it, didn't he scoff at the idea of Luke getting married and Han/Leia having kids (as portrayed in the Zahn trilogy)?

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Bester said:


True.  What the hell am I thinking?  The guy changes his mind on a daily basis.

Come to think of it, didn't he scoff at the idea of Luke getting married and Han/Leia having kids (as portrayed in the Zahn trilogy)?
He also scoffed at the idea that there were any more stories to tell, which would be why it was a six movie saga.

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He also made Star Wars, built LucasFilm and its sea of subsidiaries that went on to completely revolutionize filmmaking and somehow managed to turn Star Wars into one of the biggest, if not the biggest, franchises of all time.

Kitbashed
Essays, videos and thoughts on the inspiration behind Star Wars.

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Nobody is debating Lucas' accomplishments here. His statements on the number of planned films in the saga has been fluid over the decades, and often depends on when he was asked about it. The vintage Starlog interviews simply reinforce this.

Now, post Disney deal there are new tales to tell. This isn't much of surprise to those of us who remember when nine films was the official number.

I doubt even George recalls all the different answers he's given since the '70's. I have trouble remembering stuff I did last week.

In spite of what Roy Thomas said in Starlog #120, George might even like a certain big green rabbit now. ;)

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Where were you in '77?