The Magazines of Star Wars (1978-)

 Hey everyone! Happy Friday. I'm finally doing my look at the magazines of Star Wars. Now that SNW is over and other shows that I watch are gonna be wrapping up in the next few weeks, including Ms. Marvel earlier this week, I decided to take this time to get to the posts I've had on the list for awhile. Including this one. So get into your time machines of choice and come on back to 1978 with me as I discuss "The Magazines of Star Wars".

After the success of Star Wars in 1977, Lucasfilm began the Official Star Wars Fan Club. As with the Star Trek Fan Club, which was about to come into being around this same time, the Official Star Wars Fan Club also had it's own newsletter. The newsletter was originally called The Official Star Wars Fan Club Newsletter before being changed to Bantha Tracks with issue #4. The first several issues focused on interviews with the cast and crew of Star Wars as well as delivering news about the next Star Wars movie, which would eventually be titled The Empire Strikes Back. This was how Star Wars fans got information about the movie since there was no internet and no fan events like Star Wars Celebration.

However, this periodical wasn't available on magazine racks in stores. You had to be part of the fan club in order to receive it. So those people who couldn't be part of the fan club, usually resorted to reading Starlog magazine in order to find out the information. This periodical did have exclusive content that no other magazine had. With these issues readers were kept apprised of the production of The Empire Strikes Back and then later, Return of the Jedi, the Ewok TV movies, and the Droids and Ewoks cartoons.

As the '80s progressed, there were no more Star Wars movies being produced, so Bantha Tracks continued on and became more focused on Lucasfilm's other film and TV show endeavors, such as Indiana Jones, the Ewoks and Droids cartoons (as mentioned previously) and the opening of Star Tours at Disneyland. But by 1987 Star Wars was fading from pop culture as the Marvel Comics run ended, no new novels were being published and both cartoons had ended, with the toys ending up in bargain bins, having been replaced by Transformers, G.I. Joe, He-Man, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Lucasfilm chose to shut down the Official Star Wars Fan Club and the periodical in early 1987. The final issue was issue #35, which celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the release of Star Wars. 

The fan club did not go away though. Only a few months later, the Official Lucasfilm Fan Club was launched by Dan Madsen, who was also responsible for the Official Star Trek Fan Club. While Star Wars was still part of Lucasfilm, the new fan club periodical, The Official Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine, also reported on their other films such as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Willow, and Tucker: A Man and His Dream, as well as other mediums such as video game projects, books, comics, toys, etc. There was even a merchandise catalogue included for the first time. Though at first the Star Wars merchandise was limited to new editions of previously published books and comics, and older toys, since no new Star Wars material was being produced. 

While George Lucas still hadn't committed to making more Star Wars movies, as the 1980s transitioned into the 1990s, Star Wars was beginning to see a resurgence in pop culture as all three movies saw a re-release on VHS and Laserdisc in 1990. However 1991 saw the publication of a novel called Heir to the Empire which was written by Timothy Zahn and published by Bantam Spectra Books, and rocketed to the top of the New York Times' Best Seller's list showing that there were indeed still fans of Star Wars out there who wanted new material. At the same time, Dark Horse Comics published a six issue mini-series called Star Wars: Dark Empire which was written by Tom Veitch and had art by Cam Kennedy. With new novels, comics, and video games coming out, Star Wars became the dominant subject of the magazine, even though The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles began airing on ABC in 1992. 

 1994 was a big year for Star Trek and Star Wars, as I mentioned in the first part of my Magazines of Star Trek article. For Star Wars it was even bigger. More novels and comics were coming out, the computer game, Star Wars: TIE Fighter, was released, and George Lucas announced that he was starting to work on a trilogy of prequel movies for the franchise, as well as updating some of the special effects in the original trilogy to be re-released in theatres for the 20th Anniversary of Star Wars in 1997. So with issue #23 The Official Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine became Star Wars Insider, which shifted the focus of the publication, and the fan club itself, back onto Star Wars.

The first issue of Star Wars Insider I ever got was #43, the last issue to come out before the theatrical release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999. While the official Star Wars website went online in 1996, the magazine was still the major source for Star Wars news. Particularly when it came to the novels and comics. It was especially the ONLY source for Star Wars news for me because I did not have access to the internet until 2000-2001 and that was limited to school and when I stayed with my grandparents at the cottage. I also loved reading the articles, and seeing what was available in the merchandise catalogue, which was named Jawa Trader. I don't get the magazine anymore, but from 1999 until 2021 I would get it off and on, depending on where the magazine. From about 2009 through to when I stopped buying it I would get the magazine from the grocery store. Before that I primarily got it at Chapters though some back issues I'd get from comic book stores, geek sales, or conventions. 

Star Wars Insider has over 200 issues now and, including the 22 Official Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine issues, has been in publication for 35 years. Unlike other magazines of the '90s like Star Trek Communicator, Starlog, Nintendo Power, and Disney Adventures, all of which ceased publication sometime in the 2000s, Star Wars Insider has been through all of the major changes in the franchise, from the completion of the Prequel Trilogy, to the announcement that Disney had bought Lucasfilm, Star Wars, and Indiana Jones, to the start of the Disney+ era.

In this day and age Star Wars Insider is redundant since we're in the era of live Twitter feeds, the Official Star Wars website, YouTube and other forms of internet communication that we get our Star Wars news from. Oftentimes, and this is something I've noticed recently especially, the news in the magazine is several weeks to a month old by the time an issue of the magazine is published. So it's no longer new. Some of the articles are fun to read, but can also be redundant. Which is why I stopped buying the magazine. It is pretty amazing that Star Wars Insider still exists. Especially because all of it's '90s contemporaries either ceased publication in the 2000s, or were transformed into modern incarnations such as Star Trek Magazine and Star Trek Explorer. Even the other three Star Wars magazines that I'm about to talk about ended publication by the mid 2000s. 

Around the time that The Official Lucasfilm Fan Club Magazine became Star Wars Insider in 1994, a secondary magazine, known as Star Wars Galaxy Magazine began publication. This magazine was almost redundant as it contained alot of the same information that Star Wars Insider would publish. The only difference is that the issues would contain exclusive comic strips and short stories that weren't found in the other magazine. Plus, because it was published by Topps, they would include special trading cards that came with the issues.

This magazine was very short-lived however. It ran from 1994 until 1997, with only 13 issues being published. I think that's because it was too similar to Star Wars Insider, despite the exclusive comic strips and short stories being published in the magazine. 

A year later, Topps tried again this time they revamped the magazine into Star Wars Galaxy Collector, which was a magazine that focused solely on the collecting side of Star Wars fandom. It covered books, comics, toys, and other collectibles. 

I only ever got one issue of this magazine. The one I got was issue #6 which covered all of the merchandise being released for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace throughout 1999. The issue was published in May 1999, close to when the movie was being released. Because the magazine was published quarterly, this issue was still on the shelves that summer so this ended up being the second Star Wars magazine I ever owned.

Star Wars Galaxy Collector ceased publication at the end of 1999, after only eight issues had come out. I'm not sure why this magazine was cancelled, but this was around the time that Star Wars Insider was changing things around with it's format to include departments on toys, books, and video games. But that's only speculation on my part because I can't find any reason as to why it was cancelled after only eight issues, at a time where so much Star Wars merchandise was coming out. Especially with Del Rey starting to publish The New Jedi Order, and the prequels spawning comic books, video games and toys galore. 

The last magazine I want to talk about is Star Wars Gamer. This was a magazine that began in 2000, almost a year after Star Wars Galaxy Collector ended it's run. This magazine focused on Star Wars gaming. Not just video games, but roleplaying games and board games too. It also included exclusive comic strips and short stories like Star Wars Galaxy Magazine had in the mid '90s. 

This magazine ended after issue #10 came out in May 2002, the same month that Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones came out. Again, I can't find anything that gives a reason for why it was cancelled. All Wookieepedia says is that it ended in May 2002. Again this was just after Star Wars Insider went under a restructure and the content that would be in these auxiliary magazines started to be expanded upon in Star Wars Insider. 

That my friends is it for my look at the magazines of Star Wars. Like I said, it's much shorter than my look at the magazines of Star Trek, since Star Wars has had far less of them than Star Trek has had over the years. Of course I talked about Star Wars Insider the most since it's still in publication and it's the one that I've read the most over the years. 

With that another week comes to an end here at the Geek Cave. I'll be back next week with plenty more blog posts. So until then have a wonderful weekend and I will talk to you all later. Take care.