Wonder
Entry updated 4 April 2017. Tagged: Publication.
US letter-size saddle-stapled Media Magazine printed on newsprint. Publishers: Rod Bennett and Lint Hatcher as Wonder Studios. Editor: Rod Bennett. 13 issues, 1987 to 1997. Publication schedule, though nominally quarterly, was highly irregular.
Unusually for a magazine largely devoted to Monster Movies, Wonder began as a quasi-religious philosophical publication with a definite sf slant that described itself as "the children's magazine for grown-ups". It became more professional as time passed, gaining considerable distribution through bookstores and Comics shops. An original sf story featured in each of the first four issues; quasi-fictional essays by editor Bennett or co-publisher Lint Hatcher continued to appear. Wonder also reprinted much short fiction from such authors as G K Chesterton, Lord Dunsany and George MacDonald, plus nonfiction by Chesterton, Brad Linaweaver and J R R Tolkien. An ongoing debate in the magazine concerned old-style Horror films versus modern Splatter Movies and their respective viewpoints regarding humanity. Issues of particular note are: #5, focusing on 1950s US sf films and Ray Harryhausen; #7, a special on Universal horror films from the 1930s to the 1950s; #8, discussing Ray Bradbury in detail; and #9, with an in-depth look at Orson Welles's notorious War of the Worlds Radio broadcast of 30 October 1938. Further coverage included Godzilla films and such Television programmes as Twin Peaks (1990-1991) and The X-Files (1993-2002). The print edition folded with #13 in 1997, but there was a revival in 1999 as a short-lived E-Zine that continued to #16 (Fall 2000). The somewhat mystical slant perhaps hurt Wonder's chances of long-term success; but it featured some interesting material not likely to have seen print elsewhere. [GSt/DRL]
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