STARLOG Magazine is Back!

And it is teeming with HOFFMAN.

Attention all planets of the Solar Federation! We have assumed control!

STARLOG Magazine, the most important publication in sci-fi, is back. To dorks of a certain age, it is a dream come true. And STARLOG 2.0 will feature a lot of Hoffman.

A peek at the STARLOG archive, back when magazines were done right.

If you’ve never heard of STARLOG (though I suspect most of you have) this was the primary source of information for science fiction dorks for decades. Indeed, it launched 50 years ago, initially conceived purely as a Star Trek fanzine, but soon expanded into much more. It covered all sci-fi, but also “Future Life,” and, in a pre-internet age, boasted a letters page and listings that acted as a precursor to all of the (good) parts of online fandom.

It shut down in 2009, but the same publishers that rescued FANGORIA in 2020 have added the necessary dilithium crystals into the intermix chamber, and a course trajectory has been laid in.

The specifics are this: a new print mag will be available in bookstores and supermarket checkouts later this year, plus you’ll be able to buy online. The editor-in-chief is my friend Annalee Newitz, the author of several fantastic sci-fi and sci-fact books and also the founder of io9. The table of contents reads like a murderer’s row of nerds, brainiacs, and weirdos — plus there’s one piece in there by me, a big fat juicy interview with Star Trek: Lower Decks and Solar Opposites creator Mike McMahan.

But right now there is a podcast — The STARLOG Podcast — hosted by me, and produced by my friend “Diamond Hard” Dave Gonzales, an author, audio engineer, and true renaissance man.

You can (and should) (and must) (and will) listen to Episode 001 by searching for “The STARLOG Podcast” wherever you listen to podcasts (Apple, Spotify, etc.) or by going here. It’s also on YouTube, but I’m not linking to that because I would prefer people listen and not watch. I sometimes pick my nose while talking.

The STARLOG Podcast covers what’s new in sci-fi, what’s happening in the wacky world of real science and future life, features a weekly dip into the vast and amazing STARLOG archive, and hosts an interview. We’ve got several banked already and it’s a glorious mix of voices. We’ve got big shots from Hollywood, eggheads from M.I.T., and a woman who lived by herself in Antarctica for 2 months. The first episode is with Annalee, the second is with Disclosure Day and Jurassic Park (and Carlito’s Way and much more) screenwriter David Koepp.

But wait, there’s more. You should subscribe to STARLOG’s weekly newsletter, The Lodestar, which happens to be written by me. It will be a lot like HOFFSTACK but less about blue cheese and colonoscopies. It further explores the deep STARLOG archive and features signals sent out to other likeminded resources on ye olde World Wide Web.

What’s amazing is that my first email interactions with publishers Abhi Goel and Tara Ansley date back to December 2020. In other words, this has been a long time coming. (Though in galactic time, hardly a blink.) If you like what’s been going on with FANGORIA, you’ll like what’s happening with STARLOG. Other than Annalee, Dave, and me, it’s the same creative and marketing team (big ups to Sabrina, Kimberly, and Jason) and my ol’ chum, Mitteleuropa’s Meredith Borders, is our senior editor. FANGORIA editor-in-chief Phil Nobile Jr. has acted as midwife, consiglieri, and matchmaker for the whole endeavor.

So that’s what’s happening. Magazine out later this fall, podcast and newsletter out now. There are other plans for STARLOG Media that I can not get into now. Suffice to say you should get in on the ground floor for all of this. Go to Starlog dot com and sign up. And follow on Instagram and Bluesky. (Not X - that place is crazy.) And fear not, I am still writing freelance for places like Foreign Policy, and my podcast with Matt Singer, Filmspotting: SVU, isn’t going anywhere. Now let’s go make Armus jokes.