Whitman's "starstream"

[Red Oak Kid]

I just ran across this series on the GCD.

http://www.comics.org/series.lasso?seriesid=2341

Did anyone here ever see this comic? Looks like a serious attempt to adapt SF stories into comics.

Were these sold on newstands or just in plastic bags? For that matter, were any Whitman comics sold individually on newstands?

And how did they come up with the oddball price of .79 cents?:eek:

[T GUy]

Pending the arrival of Mark Evanier on this thread, I'll have a go at a couple of these questions.

were any Whitman comics sold individually on newstands?

I believe originally the Whitman logo was used on the covers of copies sold in bags, I presume in the same retail outlets other Whitman products wre sold (colouring books, Big Little Books, etc.), while the Gold Key logo was retained for U. S. newsstand distribution (I saw the odd one over here in the U. K. as well ocassionally, sometimes with a U. K. price on).

And how did they come up with the oddball price of .79 cents?

Standard commercial practice. Why do half the auctions on ebaY start at 99p?

And ISTR seeing some issues of Starstream over here in a comics/sf shop back in the day. I now assume that they were part of the 1970s format experimentation to make something more profitable for retailers.

[MichikoS]

I have all issues of the four-issue STARSTREAM series, which feature so-so SF story adaptations by the usual gang of Gold Key/Whitman/Western writers and artists: Frank Bolle, Jack Abel, Jack Sparling, Jose Delbo, Arnold Drake, Steve Skeates, et al. But surprise! Al McWilliams is here too, along with Jose Luis Garcia Lopez. I think this was something of an experiment, capitalizing on the then-current, short-lived Sci-Fi boom in comics and b&w magazines. (See Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction from Marvel, for example).

But the execution was typical of Western -- lackluster, if serviceable, art, and clunky, choppy scripting that was entirely lacking in personality (sorry, Mr. Drake). The adaptations are generally taken from works of top-drawer authors like Niven, Asimov, Bloch, Anderson, Campbell, Sturgeon, Van Vogt, etc., but they are b-o-r-i-n-g.

Although roughly comic-sized, and looking exactly like comic books inside (except there are no ads), they sported cardboard covers. Also, the distribution and store placement of these titles was nutty. I remember seeing them in grocery stores, drugstores and dime stores in the kids' toy and coloring book areas, never on comic spinners or with other comic books. They really were marketed just like coloring books, right down to the 79 cent price point. No wonder they didn't do well. The mixed message continued with covers which were trying for an adult paperback SF feel, (I think one or more of them was by the well-known paperback cover artist Richard Powers) but they aren't very interesting.

Many (most? all? I never bothered to do a precise inventory) of these stories were reprinted in 1979 in a thick, 224-page perfect-bound book (no ads) that sold for $1.95 and also had cardboard covers. This was called QUESTAR ILLUSTRATED SCIENCE FICTION CLASSICS. It's fairly hard to find. I have two copies that I bought used on Amazon a couple of years ago. It's a clear attempt to recoup some of the investment made in the earlier, failed series. I doubt it helped Western much. Once again, the market positioning was all wrong. What comic book reader would bother with a thick coloring book with a boring "educational" cover of some Chesley Bonestell-looking space station? Bad, bad marketing choices on Western's part.

I collected them years after I first saw them, because I thought there might be one or two hidden gems among the dross, but I was disappointed even in those modest expectations.

Michi