The co-opting of the World’s Greatest Hero – Pizzazz #16
You know a movie’s touched a nerve when the competition has to jump on the bandwagon.
I had never heard of Pizzazz until I saw a few of them in a box of magazines a couple of months back. From what I can gather it was Marvel’s lame attempt at crossing Mad Magazine, Tiger Beat and Starlog, hence the “humor” aspects combining with nerdy movie stories and the celebritology of the day, including de rigueur profiles of someone named “Cassidy” and the like. The mag also contained serialized Star Wars stories, which may be the only feature that gives it any collectible staying power.
Here’s the table of contents of this particular issue, just to give you a taste of what the vibe is — should you want to imbibe any at all:
What made me buy this one was, of course, the Man of Steel’s appearance on the front cover. Kind of cute. And while I certainly read nothing in the accompanying article that either I didn’t already know or wasn’t completely useless, here’s the story on the original Christopher Reeve Superman:
I could go on for hours and hours about that movie and how gobsmackingly perfect Reeve was in the role. Maybe someday I’ll treat myself and blather for a good long while on that topic. And that “connection” between Superman and Spider-Man? I think there was a less tenuous connection between Dark Helmet and Lonestar in Spaceballs — “uncle’s cousin’s former roommate” and so forth.
There’s one other item of interest here, and that’s a fictitious interaction between Doc Samson and the Hulk written by Roger Stern. Once again I reproduce the whole thing for your viewing pleasure:
I think that this was the last issue of this mag. Not a great loss.
Jared
blog into mystery 
Just rewatched Superman the movie the other day -forgotten how good it was
I remember “Pizzazz.” More precisely, I remember being completely uninterested. It seemed to be a response to the “Bananas” magazine that enjoyed some popularity around the same time. “Bananas” was always foisted off on us at school book fairs to encourage us to read more. Because naturally pre-teens only want to read about John Travolta and Valerie Bertinelli and Lee Majors.
Is that Linda Rondstat advertised as being on page 46? You know you’ve gone back in time if she’s still considered a sexpot. But come to think of it, I remember at least a couple of “Stan’s Soapbox” pages where an editor drooled over her, so she must have been a big deal in the 70s “bullpen.”
It is indeed Ms. Ronstadt — at first glance I thought it was Sally Field. My memories don’t encompass Linda’s time as a sexpot. I only remember her attacking Howard Stern sidekick and fellow guest Robin Quivers when both appeared on The Tonight Show. She came across as a fat cranky washed-up bitch in that appearance, likely because she was by that point a fat cranky washed-up bitch.
Think I had every issue of that magazine as a kid. Read them over and over… right in the target age, I guess.
Curious that the stunt scene mentioned in the sidebar was actually shot for Superman II and was never seen until the Richard Donner Cut came out. I remember going to see the first film and wondering where the fruit cart scene was.