Time Review of "The Wrath Of Khan"

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From the scrapbook this time comes the Time magazine review of "Star Trek II," published June 7, 1982. I don't have a single negative review of this movie in my scrapbooks; which is more than can be said for the first one. Even lukewarm reviewers still manage to give it a thumbs-up.

Below, two more of the 5 x 7 collector's cards.

New "Trek" Is Full Of Fun

From the scrapbook this time comes a review of "The Wrath of Khan" from the New York Times, from June of 1982. This is a case where the reviewer was not a real fan of the original series, only a casual viewer, but still enjoyed the movie; which is a sign that it was made right. The lower insert photo was not a part of the article, only a clipping from a magazine, but it filled the space nicely under it in my scrapbook.

Below, a couple of collector's cards, 5 x 7 in size. I'll feature more from the set as I post clipping on this particular film in the series.

The Second Coming of Star Trek

Well, it didn't come on a cloud in great glory to judge the living and the dead, or to usher in a new age of peace and righteousness, but it did usher in a new age of good reviews and happiness in the lives of Trekkers everywhere.

Posted this time from the old scrapbook is an article on "The Wrath of Khan" from the Rolling Stone magazine, published in July of 1982. It was so much more rewarding reading the reviews of this movie than those of the last, ST:TMP.

As an aside, you may have noticed a slowdown on posts here and on my other blogs. I've been devoting myself to finishing a personal project, and now that it's done, I'm going to try to get back to a fairly regular schedule of posting again. Thanks for sticking around!

Below, another in the aborted 1967 Leaf card series.

Even back during the series original run, Bill and George had their problems.

1980 "Crazy" ST:TMP Spoof

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From out of the collection cabinets this time, comes issue #60 of "Crazy" magazine, which occupied about the third rung down on the humor magazine ladder, under "Mad" and "Cracked." Published in March 1980, the spoof artist Kent Gamble makes no effort to have the costumes or anything else align with the new movie, simply copying everything from the TV show in somewhat sloppy artwork. He imitates very closely the style of Mad's Mort Drucker, which redeems it somewhat; even if entire faces and poses seem copied from earlier Drucker Trek spoofs. Gamble was probably cheaper and more affordable for this low-rent magazine. The cover, however, is done by genre fan favorite Bob Larkin, who always nails the costumes and characters. At least they didn't skimp on that.

The midget-sized Sulu is a hoot, but Decker gets omitted entirely for some reason. Also, it seems that the depiction of the ship inspired the design of the new one in the '09 film; one I've often said seemed based on an 8-year-old's drawing from memory of the Enterprise.

1975 Leonard Nimoy interview

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Above is the awesome Gray Morrow painted cover to "Monsters of the Movies" Annual #1, published in August of 1975. (The nostalgic story of what I went through to get it can be found in an earlier post on another of my blogs, here.) This was an incredible find for me at the time, and seeing it today brings back a lot of memories of those days. Enjoy!

Ralph's Romulans

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We feature this time the awesome artwork of Ralph Fowler, featured on the covers of "Enterprise Incidents." Artist extraordinaire Ralph Fowler was a regular contributor to the terrific fanzine "Enterprise Incidents." Issue #6, above, was published September, 1978 by the prolific James Van Hise. Full of photos, artwork, articles, fan fiction and more, this lovingly produced publication almost seemed a companion magazine to "Trek: The Magazine For Star Trek Fans," which preceded it by a year or so. Although seemingly inspired by "Trek's" example, it often surpassed it in the quality of the rare photos, artwork and articles. But for the most part it was very close, and I hold them both in high esteem, treasuring my copies of each.

Issue #7, pictured below, depicted a Romulan attack on Earth. Ralph's specialty was ships, technology and architecture, all rendered with precise accuracy and near-photographic detail. This was before CAD and Photoshop, kids... so don't feel superior to the artists that did it by hand.

As if a Romulan invasion wasn't bad enough, the eastern coast of the U.S. was threatened by a hurricane. Some days nothing goes right.

Below, an interior full-page piece of art that incorporated both his space scenes and ship interiors. Fowler never ceased to amaze me with his paintings and drawings! I'll be showcasing more in future posts, for sure.

Bonus: Below, the cover art of a coloring book. The beginning of the K/S rumor can probably be traced to this one item. There is just so much wrong here that it could almost be a "spot the mistakes" game.

The significance of the pump should not be overlooked.

1978 article: ST Then and Now

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From the Winter Annual special sci-fi-oriented "Rona Barrett's Hollywood" magazine, comes this article about the new movie, which was still a year away. While most of the write-ups were in the "gossip-tabloid" style, focusing on the cast friction of the various shows and such, the Trek article was pretty straight-forward with accurate facts. Not enough was known about the friction between certain cast members at the time to make for juicy gossip like we get now.

Bonus: scanned from the 1997 ST:TOS calendar.

"Well, Spock... lots of kids wet their bed when under stress. It's nothing to be ashamed of now."