Monday 28 November 2016

1989: FANTAZIA ISSUE 1

From 1989: Turtle Power! The first issue of British mainstream media & comics mag FANTAZIA (Disney lawyers take note: no relation).


This rode the wave of the post-BATMAN super boom with a mix of superhero fare covering film, TV, comics and - unusually - RPG. And even - as this cover shows - theatre.

This always seemed like a "lets do anything we fancy" type mag with a diverse range of contents which didn't seem to adhere to the original mission statement. Horror and SF movies also started to sneak in as the remit flexed. Even the animatronic sitcom DINOSAURS managed to snag a cover.

One of the highlights was the Hollywood Heroes feature filed monthly by Andy Mangels. This was the same piece he filled for US fanzine AMAZING HEROES but with better presentation.

Launched in 1990 and published monthly by Pegasus, this clocked-up 18 issues before folding into the pages of ACADEMY (22 issues between 1990 and 1992). The latter part of the run enjoyed better production standards including squarebound printing. Distribution was predictably patchy and I used to have to go to one newsagent in a neighbouring village to find a copy.

2 comments:

  1. the cover logo seemed to change quite often.

    I cant find a thing on ACADEMY, could you put up a cover scan ?

    The lack of distribution still holds true even now. I've had to travel farther just to pick up titles such as MYM.

    The thrill of the hunt, so to speak.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't have any copies of ACADEMY I'm afraid. I've never seen copies on the secondary market and I don't recall buying any copies at the time.

    ReplyDelete

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