Retro Fan #39 July 2025 (magazine review).
This edition of ‘Retro Fan’ has its usual mixture and from different perspectives.
Writer Mark Voger has a look at writer-director (said under advisement) Ed Wood through his girlfriend/songwriter Dolores Fuller and various actors who worked in his films. Some of them were seasoned pros, often doing it as a favour before going back to their other acting roles and living down their involvement. As they have all passed on now, it’s more historical reference. I saw ‘Night Of The Ghouls’ a couple of years back on TV and didn’t pay attention to the opening credits but quickly recognised it as one of his films. If ‘badness’ can be recognised as a director’s signature, then at least Ed Wood had left that in his wake.
Writer Jim Beard takes a different slant on the 1970 series ‘UFO’, having a look at its actresses. Someone should have copyedited it, though, as Gabriel Drake was named ‘Gabriel Blake’ until halfway in the piece, and photos were specifically about her. Covering all of them in one piece obviously meant some of them were short-changed or missed details. Of all of them, Deborah Grant is still working regularly in the BBC sitcom ‘Not Going Out’. Was there anyone significantly missed? It was easy. A few actually. Adrianne Corri, as she had a major role in ‘The Square Triangle’, and Susan Jameson in ‘The Sound Of Silence’. Jameson might not be so well-known stateside, but Corri appeared in some significant films, including ‘A Clockwork Orange’.
A look at actor Ron Ely’s career by writer Deborah Painter shows he did more than being the TV Tarzan. That was my first introduction to Tarzan when young, catching up with the films with other actors much later. Doing his own stunts gave him some serious injuries. Had Ely started his career much later, I’m sure he would have gone on to other series. From what is said here, the studio played up the camp elements with the ‘Doc Savage’ film, and that prevented it from becoming a film series.
Writer Scott Shaw! explores the history of Charles ‘Chas’ Addams as a New Yorker magazine cartoonist who quickly rose through the ranks. I saw the TV series before I came across some of his collected books in the local library and spent a rainy afternoon reading them there rather than taking them home. His life history showed other sides of his life, from being a womaniser to one of his wives, a lawyer no less, getting him to sign away half of his earnings even when divorced.
Another series I missed the opening season of was ‘The Fugitive’ (1967-67), so I didn’t see the transition of Richard Kimble to resemble actor David Janssen. With Will Murray’s article, there are photographs of him looking that way. There’s also the problem of actor Barry Morse being called ‘Barry Morris’ a few times as well. Considering the same thing happened with the UFO’ article, someone in production needs a reminder about editing. It’s also intriguing that the one-armed man (played by Bill Raisch) appeared a few times over the series and not just in the finale.
If you want to have some insight into being a comic book agony aunt, Suzan Lane explains to interviewer Dewey Cassell about her time doing it for Marvel for 10 issues of their two romance titles, ‘My Love’ and ‘Our Love Story’, in the early 1970s. Not something I think I would have picked up, but if you’re into some of the famous Marvel artists like Gene Colan and John Romita, Sr, then the sample art here should be making you look for issues.
Another food product that didn’t reach the UK was Mr Peanut, and writer Scott Saavedra goes over its history as well as reminding people that it is a legume and not actually a nut. From the turn of the 20th century, it’s developed as a business with a sentient top-hatted peanut promoting eating his fellow peanuts.
The same with the toy Zeroids. Jim Beard gives their history and editor Ed Catto’s attempt to resurrect them in a previous job. I think I was the wrong age for them, which is probably why I didn’t get the Transformers.
As ever, there’s always something to learn here.
Geoff Willmetts
December 2025
(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 82-page magazine. Price: $10.95 (US). ISSN: 2576-7224. Directly from them, you can get it for $10.95 (US).
Check out the website: www.TwoMorrows.com and https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_152&products_id=1810.
