Originally printed in Midnight Magazine #4... long Out Of Print...
A Day in the Life of a Young Comic
Collector
Starstream…. An Adventure into Science
Fiction
The Star Wars
craze was going on during 1977 through 1978, being a kid at that time was so
much fun! anytime we went to any department store I was always running off to
the toy aisle to look at the wall after wall of Star Wars toys and of course the
many other toys on the shelves Micronauts are not being one of them, I remember
a lot of these being on clearance during this time, it was probably the Kenner
line of Star Wars toys that pushed them out!
Check out the old Micronaught toys on the web!
Anyways
with all this being said, there was this one time I was with Mama at Kmart, a
store we normally don't frequent. Once again I was off to the toy aisle! Well
this place not only had some toys, but they had a small magazine style rack
made of wood if I recall, Right there on this rack were many activity books
such as coloring books, search a word, color forms box sets and among it were
these bagged Whitman comics, most of these were three comic packs of Looney Toons characters and such and behind these bagged comics were several of these
individual comics called Starstream - Adventures
in Science Fiction.
I grabbed
the four different books as they were the only ones I seen at the time, mom
bought them for me no complaints, Starstream is like a comic book adaptation of
a science-fiction anthology than a regular comic book, now these comics were
very thick and they had cardstock cover and a price tag of .79 cents per
book (Expensive at that time, If I had Dad with me, it be another “Damn son
that’s Expensive” just like the Wonder Bread as told in the last issue) I did
not know that these books already been out two years prior, I've not seen them
anywhere else, perhaps Kmart decided just to leave them there or just simply
doesn't return back stock often, for that reason I'm glad or I would probably
not discover these till many years later, this is probably at the time, my
discovery of some of the best writers in our time, to mention a few Robert
Bloch, Theodore Sturgeon, John W. Campbell, Larry Niven, and some more... Hell!
Even Dean Koontz is in it!
Starstream
#1 1976 1976 Western Publishing Company
Writers:
Barrington J. Bayley, Arnold Drake, Joan
Hunter Holly, G. Cruz-Santos, John W. Campbell Jr., Steve Skeates, Howard
Goldsmith, Paul S. Newman, Chad Oliver, Ed Summer, Raymond Banks
Artist:
Alberto Giolitti, Frank Bolle, Jack Abel,
Jack Sparling, José Luis García-López, Adolfo Buylla
Starstream
#2 1976 1976 Western Publishing Company
Writers:
Dean Koontz, Wallace I. Green, Arnold
Drake, Larry Niven, Allan Moniz, Robert Silverberg, Steve Skeates, H.E. Arloff,
Mary Schaub
Artist:
Frank Bolle, Al McWilliams, Jose Delbo,
Cambiotti, Jack Sparling
I Love
these classic sci-fi stories and the art isn’t at all bad as most comic
collectors say it is. I recommend finding them for good ole fashioned reading, and if your one of those folks collecting to Slab books just to make more $$ bugger
off! Leave them be!!!
Starstream
#3 1976 1976 Western Publishing Company
Writers:
Jack Williamson, Ed Summer, Harry Dawes,
Theodore Sturgeon, Arnold Drake, A.E. Van Vogt, George Kashdan, Anne McCaffrey,
Dan Weiss
Artist: Don Heck, Frank Bolle, Adolfo Buylla, Al
McWilliams
Starstream
#4 1976 1976 Western Publishing Company
Writers: Poul Anderson, George Kashdan, Pamela
Eckard, Isaac Asimov, A. Moniz, Stephan Goldin, Arnold Drake, Roger Elwood,
Robert Bloch
Artist: Adolfo Buylla, Frank Bolle, Jack Abel, Jose
Delbo, Al McWilliams, Nevio Zeccara
As a kid taking these home, I went straight into reading them and enjoyed
all the odd stories, the quirky aliens and cool spaceships and amazing
landscapes... it’s...
STARSTREAM
ADVENTURES IN SCIENCE FICTION
If you’re a fan of Science Fiction, I recommend finding these issues to
read, there is only 4 of them and you can get them for fairly cheap, if your
LCS doesn’t have it, you can find them just about anywhere on the web, eBay,
Comics shops, Comics groups, etc...
Mr. Fright
