Spacemen Magazine #7 (1963)

Issue 7 of Warren's Spacemen Magazine.  This is the second of only two issues published in that year and unusually has a photo cover rather that the prefered fully painted artwork.

The still is clearly from; 12 To the Moon. Which is technically the films second cover and seems a rather lackluster movie to be blessed with such exposure.

Steve

12 To the Moon (1960)

12 astronauts head to the moon where they discover powerful moon-beings who judge humanity unworthy.  They take some captives, exile the rest and then start to freeze the Earth in order to kill off the entire race.  Through displays of love and self sacrifice the astronauts inadvertently make the moon-beings rethink their rash judgement and Earth and humanity are redeemed.....The end.

Sometimes cited as one of the worst films ever made which is probably a bit of an overstatement when in truths it’s just not very good is all.  Slow, cheap and badly acted?  Agreed but with  a crew that’s radically multicultural for the era in which the film was made, you have to admire the intent to show that we might indeed one day all just learn to love each other and get along.  Which is praiseworthy, No?

And while I’m being positive about it,  I think the poster is rather neat.


Steve

Spacemen Magazine #1 (1961)

This is the cover to Spacemen Magazine #1 which was put out by Warren Publishing in 1961.

They had been doing quite well with their Famous Monsters of Filmland, magazine and thought a similar venture dealing with Sci-fi films might prove equally popular.  It didn’t especially and the whole thing ran to only eight issues and one yearbook, although due to a very erratic publishing schedule they somehow managed to get all the way to 1965 before calling it a day.

The cover art is an early example by Basil Gogos, whose work on Famous Monsters is horrifically beautiful.... but that's for somebody else to blog about.

Reference for the painting seems to be from 12 To the Moon, a bit of B-movie fluff released the previous year. 

Steve