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Well, I'm finally braving the sordid world of publisher Myron Fass' Stories Layouts and Press Inc., and its many cheapo Starlog rip-offs. The eccentric Fass, who passed away in 2006, was a notorious publisher of low-end magazines and comics, the print equivalent of an exploitation film mogul, publishing anything and everything he thought might make a few bucks, especially if it appealed to the basest of tastes or could ride the coattails of some pre-established moneymaker.
In the mid-70s, that meant the burgeoning genre of sci-fi film fandom and its newsstand herald, Starlog magazine. Fass' Stories Layouts and Press Inc. company published at least five different ongoing genre film mags - including the derivatively-titled Space Wars, Space Trek, Star Warp, Star Battles... and this 3-issue wonder, Star Encounters.
As with the majority of his other titles, it was printed on the cheapest possible newsprint, with little-to-no interior color, and ugly, cluttered layouts. Fass' sci-fi mags were virtually indistinguishable from each other, as they all had the same editors, contributors and production staffs. They even used the same articles quite often (not to mention, recycling quite a number of features from the company's plentiful UFO magazines). His company was also notorious for paying its contributors peanuts... but that didn't stop aspiring writers and artists from taking their chances. It was national newsstand exposure, after all.
I had a number of Space Wars and Space Trek issues, and I think I had all of these, too.
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