‘RetroFan’ #16: The Conskipper Review

RetroFan (the sister magazine of TwoMorrow’s long-running Back Issue! magazine) is a veritable smorgasbord of pop culture references for those that grew up between the 1950s and the 1990s. The current issue RetroFan #16 is no exception, and is full of nostalgic features on films, cartoons, tv shows, toys, and American cultural standards such as the drive-in movie theater, Wolfman Jack, The Weekly Reader, and the mullet.

The features in the September 2021 issue include another diverse selection of pop culture gold with interviews with Logan’s Run star Michael York, novelist William F. Nolan, and vehicle customizer Dean Jeffries, and extensive looks back at the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons of 1966, H. R. Pufnstuf, Leave It to Beaver’s Sue “Miss Landers” Randall, high end comic book art collecting, as well as the aforementioned topics. This issue’s writers include: Ernest Farino, Andy Mangels, Will Murray, Scott Saavedra, Jim Trautman, and Scott Shaw, and the editorial skills of Michael Eury.

Eury does a fine job each month in terms of assembling the topics, as the 80 pages never sacrifice breadth for depth, and always represent a balance of content from various decades, ensuring that no matter the age of the reader, they will most likely find an article that hits that nostalgic nerve that “retro fans” buy the magazine for. It also allows readers to indulge in topics (Like Logan’s Run or the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons) that may not be large enough topics to write a book about, but one that can certainly be dissected over the course of 8-10 full pages.

Like Back Issue!, this is the type of magazine that can take you a while to get through (which is a good thing) and is also one that is great for those doing further research (such as Trautman’s extensive look at the drive-in theater phenomenon, which would also make a great topic for a full length book) on the topics and trends of yesteryear.

RetroFan #16 is currently available at finer book stores and comic shops everywhere, as well as on the TwoMorrows website.

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