Starburst (magazine)

Infobox_Magazine
title = Starburst
editor = Stephen Payne (group editor)
frequency = 4 weekly
category = Science fiction
company = Visual Imagination
firstdate = January 1978
finaldate = -
finalnumber = -
country = United Kingdom
website = [http://www.visimag.com/starburst/ Official site]

"Starburst" is a British science fiction magazine published every four weeks by Visual Imagination.

History

"Starburst" was launched in January 1978, just in time to cover the UK premiere of "Star Wars" by editor Dez Skinn with his own company Starburst Publishing Ltd. Its original tag line read "Science Fantasy in Television, Cinema and Comix" and included comic strips. Skinn sold the title to Marvel Comics from issue 4; according to an interview with him in "Doctor Who Magazine" (issue 344), this was because Marvel wanted him to work for them and help expand their range (including becoming launching editor of DWM).

Because of falling sales, Marvel eventually sold the title to Visual Imagination, who have been publishing it from issue 88 (1985). Until the arrival of "SFX magazine", it was the top-selling science fiction magazine in the UK. Since those days, it has gone through a variety of editors, including VI boss Stephen Payne (1985-1999, 2002, 2005-present), future "Doctor Who" audio producer David Richardson (1999-2001), former "Doctor Who" script editor Andrew Cartmel (2001), former "Doctor Who Magazine" editor Gary Gillatt (2001-2002), and former "Dreamwatch" co-Editor Simon J Gerard (2003-2005). Perhaps because of the lack of a formal Editor an inconsistency in quality has been seen over the years. Despite several issues sporting "New Look" on their cover, the interior layout and content has changed little. For a while, there was a German edition of the magazine.

Its current tag-line is "The Premiere Magazine of Sci-Fi Entertainment".

Content

"Starburst" contains news, interviews, features and reviews of science fiction material in various media (including TV, film, soundtracks, multimedia, comics and "collectables"). In previous years, some review sections have been edited by notable writers and reviewers such as Alan Jones (films) and David J. Howe (books).

For several years, the magazine also carried a column by the late writer John Brosnan.

Its television review column, "TV Zone", was used as the title of its sister publication "TV Zone".