Retro Fan # 37 March 2025 (magazine review)
This edition of ‘Retro Fan’ introduces new editor Ed Catto to the fold. Objectively, TwoMorrows rarely changes editors, so it’ll be interesting to see what changes he makes once he settled in.
Writer Will Murray spends pages over Hanna & Barbara’s ‘The Jetsons’. I don’t think it was shown in the UK until after many ‘Flintstones’ repeats and, although I watched it, just felt it was a future version of them. Murray points out that their template was ‘Blondie’, but as we never had those newspaper strip or films over here, we never saw the connection. Mind you, the same could be said with ‘The Flintstones’ because we never saw its source, ‘The Honeymooners’, over here neither. What I wasn’t aware of was the number of times the one-time series was resurrected over the years so someone must have wanted it.
Writer Mark Voger has a look at the various spins on the ‘Frankenstein’ story in the B-movie format. Of the ten films covered, I’ve only ever seen ‘I Was A Teenage Frankenstein’ (1957) on TV and think myself lucky that I missed the rest. Even so, articles like this are worth reading, if for no other reason than to confirm your choice of viewing.
Writer Robert Jeschoner has a look at nine films that took aspects of the original ‘Star Wars’ trilogy seeking the same audience. Considering that ‘Star Wars’ itself was a somewhat clone of ‘Flash Gordon’ and ‘Buck Rogers’ in many respects, you do have to question the source of cloning. Looking at the list here, there’s only two I haven’t seen. ‘Starcrash’ does have its own charm by accident, assuming you’ve seen the most famous astro-navigator Stellar Star by hand directions. Like the others in this issue, a lot of these films could easily have had articles individually. Maybe that is the plan, to see which gets the most reaction.
I can’t recall if the book series, ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’, was ever distributed in the UK, but there were some books of a similar nature here where you follow the decision of your choice for the next part of the story. Reading about some of the short deadlines these books had, editor Judy Gitenstein did well.
Writer Andy Mangels has a look at the American animated band TV series with a dash of humans and chimp series along the way from 1960-88. I really hope he made a typing mistake and that singles in the USA didn’t spin at 78rpm but at 45rpm. Of them, only two, ‘Frankenstein Jr. And The Impossibles’ and ‘The Banana Splits’ got shown in the UK and I only really watched the former. There’s a lot of information given. I think the most significant first was the introduction of black characters to otherwise white character animated series. Two series were solely black and oriental. Animation led the way for change of ethnicity on American TV.
Writer Scott Shaw! has a look at the toys created by Marvin Glass. It’s rather ironic that he was born out of a family who suffered madness. There’s also a look at Ideal releases and their ‘Mouse Trap Game’ which was released in the UK and I still own the original from the 1960s.
Writer Scott Saavedra’s look at American kitchen gadgets to make things ‘easier’ has him agreeing with me, much of it was junk after a quick sale and filling an empty space in a cupboard. I’m still pondering on square eggs. One we did have was a Sodastream. I think ours is still lounging in a front room cupboard. As none of my family were drinkers, it seemed an odd choice for my Dad to buy even just for sodawater. Any kind of gadget to last needs a genuine need than a contrived one but that just goes to show how the public can be manipulated.
Lots to read and, as above, criticise but it is also a means to evaluate the past and avoid such things in the future.
GF Willmetts
August 2025
(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 82 page magazine. Price: $10.95. (US). ISSN: 2576-7224. Direct from them, you can get it for $10.95 (US))
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