Serial World
Entry updated 19 February 2024. Tagged: Publication.
US letter-size saddle-stapled Cinema Fanzine printed on newsprint-quality paper. Publisher: Norma H Kietzer. No editor named, but presumably Kietzer. 37 issues from 1974 to 1984.
Devoted to US Serial Films dating from the 1920s to the 1950s, Serial World began as a slim magazine with mostly black-and-white interior photos and illustrations, gradually developing into a Semiprozine as time passed. Even in the early issues, film posters and lobby cards were reproduced in colour on both front and back covers; full-colour internal illustrations appeared from #21. Serials covered in depth included Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941), Brick Bradford (1947) and Superman (1948), the last being examined over several issues. There were frequent Interviews with such surviving performers in these productions as Kirk Alyn, Louise Currie, Walter Reed and Duncan Renaldo. Some issues were reprinted by Kietzer on better-quality paper after the original print run had sold out.
In 1984 Serial World merged with another fanzine, Favorite Westerns; the result was Serials & Westerns, still in production and featuring occasional coverage of sf and Superhero film serials. Kietzer also published the short-lived Movie Monster magazine Thing. [GSt/DRL]
see also: Media Magazines; Westerns.
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