I have been thinking about the Montana Blue project from back in 2010-2014. It started with me having a couple of photo-sessions with my lovely model Nina in the Summer of 2010, and then I wrote the novel that was published through the Retrofuture platform. The novel was eventually reprinted twice, thousands of people have seen it in these parts since I was handing out copies for free all around The Great Lake (Storsjön, Jämtland County) back in the day. I had my eye on a comic book version as well and artist Richard Svensson was drafted into the project. I was looking to print it through Retrofuture but the project stalled and in the end only 18 pages saw print (in Retrofuture 7, back in 2014). In 2015, I printed the final issue but this project had been abandoned by then. Quite a shame too since Richard had done a marvelous job with the existing material. And the novel is probably the best piece of work in that field that I have ever done (Western theme, Norse Gods, Great Lake Monsters, you name it, it is all in there). I have had plenty of good feedback over the years and I am very happy about it. The 18 pages that saw print in Retrofuture 7 was in black/white, but the original was in full colour (I highlighted that fact on the back of the magazine). If this comic was ever completed, maybe it could be picked up by a publisher and released as an album? I am basically floating an idea here. Who knows… Crazier things have happened. If somebody out there wants to get in touch, I am right here. Of course it would be up to Richard too, but if interest existed, maybe it could happen. I guess it is one of those loose ends. And I am a dreamer.
(My Montana Blue shots, drawings by Richard Svensson – much more on the “My western gals” tag on this blog)
I was contacted a few months ago by Swedish Phantom (Fantomen) editor Andreas Eriksson on whether it was OK if he reprinted the Retrofuture 6 article on Polish television show Stawka (Kapten Kloss here in Sweden) that Maciek Szatko had penned for the magazine, and of course I said yes. I would say that recognition like this is quite nice to achieve. So why did Andreas think that an article about Stawka/Kapten Kloss suited this book (“Den inbundna årgången 1971 – Del 5”, Egmont 2023), which is, after all, dedicated to the Phantom? Well, this television show was very popular back in the day and it spawned a Swedish comic book as well as pocket sized books, and within the pages of the Swedish Phantom comic, there were ads about all this at the time. Ads that can be seen in this edition of the highly exclusive reprint series. So Andreas probably felt that a bit of history that represented the day was a good idea. I was not sure when exactly this would pop up but now it has. Seen above is said book, the issue of Retrofuture that inspired Andreas to include this in the book, and some Polish media from when Stawka star Stanislaw Mikulski passed away in 2014. The following images is from the Phantom book and from Retrofuture 6 and 7 (Maciek Szatko did manage to give a copy to Mikulski, and so there was a page about that in issue 7 – see also this blog, November 18 2013). In any case, enjoy this trip down memory lane…
(My shots of said book and magazines, many thanks to Maciek Szatko and Andreas Eriksson)
I guess I should have mentioned this in yesterdays post about the “Legend Of Frenchie King” Soundtrack, but here it is. Back in 2010, when I launched the Retrofuture fanzine, I was very fortunate in having Hanz F. Lindström being part of the team. A renowned Swedish author, magazine editor and translator, he was a fan of my work and it was fantastic to have him come in and write exclusive stuff for my publications (usually about legendary movie stars). In the first issue of Retrofuture, as “The Legend Of Frenchie King” had just seen release on DVD in these parts, we decided to go for major articles on Brigitte Bardot and Claudia Cardinale. He did a wonderful job and I am honored to have published such outstanding work. For the layout, I largely used old magazine covers and classic posters/promotional stuff from the movie itself. Eight pages in all. The western theme was something that I was very interested in, and I did present the first part of the Dakota Jane novel in this issue, with exclusive shots of model Lina. Good times.
(My shots of Retrofuture 1 – BB & CC articles by Hanz F. Lindström – movie Soundtrack album inserted)
Found this image of my model Nina signing Montana Blue fanzines back in February 2011 in the old archive. Nina and yours truly both signed 50 copies. Still have some, so I will make sure that anybody that contacts me through the Fanzine Newsstand tag on this blog in order to get a copy gets one of these (as long as I can). This shot was taken in my old place in the city (Östersund, Jämtland County). Brings back good memories. Glad to have the Fanzine Newsstand up and running, first contact came out of France. Got to love that.
And so we have reached the end of the journey, the final months that spawned the last two issues of Retrofuture (7 & 8). I had planned to end it with 10 issues of Retrofuture but when I worked on issue 8 I changed my mind and aborted the project.
Retrofuture 7 was published in May 2014 (1,000 copies). Swedish Blues Maestro Michael Mojo Nilsson on the cover. I was glad to give him this cover and a proper interview in this issue. He is one of the all time greats in these parts (Jämtland County). The Tommy Bolin/Deep Purple parties in Sioux City & Östersund is covered in detail with loads of images from both nights. Also Michael Schenker, Alien, Stawka, The Great Lake Monster, and Montana Blue. I presented the first part of the comic book version of Montana Blue in this issue. In the end I never got it delivered in full and this had me rethink the future as I worked on Retrofuture 8. Kind of sad too, because the first part that saw print here is really good. When yet another project for a future issue collapsed, I decided to pull the plug with Retrofuture 8.
Originally, I had planned a Xena cover for Retrofuture 8, but when I decided to end it all with this issue, I remade it and showed the aborted cover around one of my Montana Blue shots. Retrofuture 8 was published in March 2015 (1,000 copies) and we launched the issue with a Kiss/Deep Purple night at Jane Doe (in Östersund) with friends acting as DJs (see the “Retrofuture 8 – final issue” tag on this blog). Well, at least I ended it with a Bang! Lots of good stuff in this issue. Big interview with legendary Swedish publisher Hans Hatwig, huge story on Lucy Lawless. Interview with Tornado Blaze model Ellinor Nordbakk. Final word (and exclusive reports) on The Great Lake Monster. Some Purple Family stuff of course. Huge article on Prepping (got a lot of feedback for that one too) and some local history that also made waves in these parts. But most important of all, the massacre at Charlie Hebdo had happened and a good chunk of this issue was dedicated to the importance of free speech. My friend Jens Ganman joined in with a piece too. I am glad I did that. It had to be done.
People ask me now if there will ever be another issue of Retrofuture, or any kind of fanzine at all from me. I think the answer is no, but it bugs me that I never got around to cover Babymetal. I guess the old James Bond title “Never Say Never Again” is wise to observe. Time will tell, and if I am still here a couple of years from now (and if this world is still OK, which I kind of doubt), then who knows. For now, this is it.
(My cover shots, except for Xena, which is promo stuff)
And so we have arrived at the period that produced the 100th publication (Retrofuture 6), and the hobby also moved towards the final chapters in 2014-2015. At first glance, 2013 belonged to the third Western heroine (Tornado Blaze), but there was more. Much more. Tornado Blaze was a pretty interesting project though.
The Tornado Blaze novel saw print in March 2013, 1,000 copies. I was able to expand the Dakota Jane and Montana Blue universes into this tale, and now we had not only Northern Gods and Valkyries, but extraterrestials as well. The Tornado Blaze novel begun in this edition and ended with a second part in Retrofuture 6 (Tornado Blaze edition). I had a great time photographing the model (Ellinor Nordbakk) and creating what was to be the final novel character of them all. This is pretty eccentric stuff. Glad I did it.
The 100th publication then consisted of a double issue of Retrofuture (104 pages in all) and this is the main 60 page magazine (that I refer to as the “Tornado Blaze edition” because of what you see on the cover). Retrofuture 6 was produced between June and October 2013. 1,000 copies printed of each part of this double issue. Most of them given away for free around the lake as usual. The Tornado Blaze edition had a lot of good stuff in it. First of all, loads of history from the fanzine journey. Big feature on Audrey Hepburn (biggest ever in Swedish media). The Polish tv-show Stawka (a WWII drama from the late 1960s) is highlighted by guest writer Maciek Szatko (with exclusive images from the 2009 opening of Stawka exhibition “Café Ingrid” in Katowice with stars of the show). The Great Lake Monster is featured (as usual) with more exclusive reports. Montana Blue model Nina is interviewed as she looks back on her work with Retrofuture. Also, the Batmobile in Östersund and a close look at the Arvesund Museum (Jämtland County). There is more.
The 44 page half of Retrofuture 6 has a Deep Purple MK4 cover and is therefore called the “Purple edition”. And there is a lot of Deep Purple in it, it is almost a Deep Purple magazine. First of all, this edition sports a huge Fanzine Index that goes back to the early days, with every fanzine showcased and detailed (in fact, this has helped me out a lot lately). This issue also sports interviews in English with David Coverdale and Johnnie Bolin (brother of late Purple guitarist Tommy Bolin). 100 copies of the Purple edition was sent to Sioux City to be handed out at the annual Tommy Bolin festivities over there, and copies of Retrofuture 6 (and backissues) was also handed out at my Deep Purple Party in Östersund at Jane Doe on November 23. I later covered all this in detail in Retrofuture 7 in 2014. But more about that later. There is a “Retrofuture 6” tag on this blog, and a “Deep Purple Party 2013” tag. So there is more to check out.
Seen here is a couple of shots that was sent to me by Trace Keane in the States. He took the Johnnie Bolin shot at his home as the Retrofuture 6 magazines arrived for the Tommy Bolin Party and a friend captured Trace and Black Oak Arkansas singer Jim Dandy posing with a copy on the night in question. Johnnie plays drums with Black Oak Arkansas. These magazines (like all the Retrofuture mags), has never been for sale. The Purple edition is almost gone.
(Tornado Blaze shots by me, the Ian Gillan shot of him holding Deep Purple Forever! magazines was taken by Michael Johansson)
I published this 60 page magazine about The Great Lake Monster (the Swedish equivalent to The Loch Ness Monster) in May 2012. There has been a number of publications about this mystery in the last 120+ years in these parts and this is still the latest. Some of the contents is lifted from earlier issues of Retrofuture, some was created for this magazine. The Montana Blue novel was added as a bonus at the end, which makes it a bit special (and it did get some attention at the time). One of the big newspapers in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter, wrote a very enthusiastic review about this creation. Printed in 1,000 copies, over 900 was handed out for free around the lake (and to libraries etc).
In June I published a title called Gunslinger that featured reprints of the Dakota Jane and Montana Blue novels back to back. Just flip the magazine around and you have another cover. So half the magazine is printed “upside down”, if you like. I just had a bit of fun with this hobby at the time. Printed in 1,000 copies, handed out for free. This one gave me an opportunity to go for previously unseen images as well.
Retrofuture 5 was printed in September 2012. Nice promo shot of Summer Glau from the tv show Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles on the cover. I handed out copies on DVD to some lucky winners at the time. Another novel saw print in this issue, Dracula Black. A succubus/Vampire Hunter gone Rock Star. Michael Johansson photographed (photographer/model) Tallee Savage for it. We had plans to expand this project but it only survived for one issue. Fake album cover, fake tour ad, we had a lot of fun with this, and the novel is fucking brilliant if you ask me. I kind of kick myself now for not taking this further back in the day. Music: Dio 2001 interview (reprint from Top Secret 2009), Hughes Norum 1988 interview, big 220 Volt special with classic articles in reprint (Swedish & international press), Glenn Hughes & Tony Iommi book reviews, Judas Priest and the censorship hysteria etc. Also, Maureen O´Hara (book review, full page), James Bond, The Great Lake Monster, Ingrid Pitt 2001 interview (reprint). This is a top notch magazine. I can just say that. Printed in 1,000 copies, about 900 handed out for free around the lake and in record shops, Östersunds library etc.
(Background shots by me – Retrofuture 5 shows first spread of Dracula Black with Johanssons images)
The Montana Blue novel was published in February 2011. 24 pages in all, including some very nice shots of Montana Blue model Nina (whom is interviewed on this blog, October 2013). This is a wild tale of Scandinavian settlers in the West that includes our heroine, indians, villains, a Scandinavian God (Oden), a Valkyrie (Svava) and a final battle at the shore of Lake Flathead in Montana that will make the main bad guy pay in a way that he could not have foreseen in a million years. Needless to say, I had a blast creating this publication. The novel would see reprint in two publications that I was to put out later.
Retrofuture 4 saw print in September 2011. Printed in 1,000 copies. Again, my model Nina (Montana Blue) on the cover. Loads of great stuff in this issue. The Great Lake Monster (the Swedish equivalent to The Loch Ness Monster) is heavily featured, old and new tales, plus an actual theory on what kind of an animal that it might be. Music: Ian Gillan/Black Sabbath 1983 interview, Toto/Steve Lukather interviews, Deep Purple has released “Phoenix Rising”, Ronnie James Dio has passed away, Tarja etc. Comics: Commando interview with editor in chief Calum Laird, Thor, Classics Illustrated, The Phantom. Big story on old school Swedish movie star Sickan Carlsson etc etc. 60 pages.
I interviewed legendary (German born) Swedish magazine publisher Hans Hatwig in 2015 for the final issue of Retrofuture (issue 8, March 2015). The magazine was launched at the Jane Doe Bar in Östersund on March 4 and we had Thomas Drevin (220 Volt) and Björn Höglund (Hoven Droven) as DJs playing Kiss and Deep Purple tunes all night long. This is a translation into English for obvious reasons and the second part of this interview will be up on this blog on December 24 (2021). This first part takes us through his early life and into the successful years of Hatwig publishing Tiffany and POSTER in Sweden. The magazine also sports a full page about his two books but this is not featured here. Enjoy.
We have decided that this interview will deal with your career publishing magazines, so I would like to start this interview with you describing what you could read as a youth in West Germany. Did BRAVO exist back then?
– ”Yes, BRAVO did exist when I was a teenager, but I never read it. As a kid I read comic books like Sigurd, Akim, Tarzan and Donald Duck. There were also some German ones, Fix & Foxi, Lupo and Pit & Alf. The latter was my favourite as it had a young boy and a shepherd dog solving mysteries. As I had very little money I never bought these comics, I got them second hand or by trade”.
Could you get magazines on import back then?
– ”No, I do not think that that was going on in any real sense back then”.
Reading your books, one can understand that sexual content in magazines was still outlawed in West Germany when you arrived here in the mid-1960s. Are we talking about publications like PLAYBOY as well then?
– ”There was striptease and nudist publications, and we did have PLAYBOY with its long interviews (with famous people like Roman Polanski), that I loved as a teenager. The pictures of nude ladies were nice to see but what I really enjoyed the most in PLAYBOY was the interviews”.
What is your opinion on Hugh Hefner, the man that created PLAYBOY.
– ”I admired Hugh Hefner and thought that he was a pioneer of his trade and I thought he was cool, with the mansion and all that. He had this big bed and you saw him smoking a pipe in his pyjamas creating the magazines, drinking Pepsi Cola. It was a very exclusive magazine, thick with fantastic illustrations, knife sharp colour images, big foldouts and loooong interviews. This all made me want to be a publisher some day”.
What was your take on the Swedish magazine scene when you arrived in Sweden?
– ”In the early days I was not really aware of what was going on in Sweden. That came when I started to work for HSON. I was really not that interested in the Swedish weeklies, except for SE. I did like Berth Milton Seniors pornographic magazine PRIVATE though, that was sold in bags that you had to cut up back then. The print and the content was outstanding for the day”.
You had not been here long before you got to work for HSON, that published erotic titles. Were the models Swedish or did you buy the pictures from abroad?
– ”When I did the layout for HSONs RAFF and PAFF most of the pictures came from France. Later, when I did layout for PARLEK and PRINCE in the early 1970s, the models were Swedish”.
Tell me about the formats that these publications had and what was positive or negative about it.
– ”The erotic publications RAFF and PAFF was made in pocket format, while MODELL NATURELL and PARLEK came out in the same format as comic books. But with thicker and better paper. It was all good, I never had a problem working with these formats”.
You also produced a publication for the German market called GEIL that you had to smuggle into the country. How many issues came out and how many did you print?
– ”The made for Germany publication was pocket sized and I did eight issues. I sold 4,000-8,000 copies of each issue, it used to differ. It was so small you could put it into a small envelope. But each issue still had two foldouts”.
What is the second hand value these days on auction sites?
– ”I have no idea, I have never checked it out. My old pop magazines are very expensive to collect these days though”.
After HSON you met your soon to be wife Marie-Louise in Umeå and after a while the two of you moved to Stockholm as the publishing business was what you wanted to be involved in. You worked for Prince Press and Träffen and then you was offered a job att Svenska serier that had the pop magazine TIFFANY going. Was it good to leave the sex field behind you for something new?
– ”Yes, that was a relief but I had only landed there by chance initially anyway. Most of all I wanted to create weekly publications but it took me years to reach that goal. That did not happen until I sold POSTER to Saxon & Lindströms. When I joined TIFFANY they would sell about 12,000 copies per issue on a monthly basis. When I remade it into a pop magazine sales increased to 98,000”.
You worked on TIFFANY for a few years and at that time you also launched POSTER. How did you get the idea for POSTER and was it easy to sell the idea to your publishing company?
– ”I got the idea for the POSTER magazine from the West German youth publication BRAVO-POSTER. I never went to a publishing company, I went to a printer – Universaltryck – that helped me publish it”.
POSTER was outstanding at the time, the quality of the paper and the print was superb. Did you have to fight for it?
– ”Not really, the printing company was in full agreement that a poster magazine had to have a very high quality”.
You worked with some of the best known photograpers of the day, which made POSTER even better. Back in those days pictures could not be mailed from a photographer in seconds. How was it done, was it sent by special delivery somehow?
– ”Sometimes we got pictures by mail but the photographers also used to drop by the office and showcase what they had”.
I have to assume that POSTER was a wonderful publication to create for somebody that loves layout and great pictures. I am looking at the book about POSTER now (”POSTER – Nordens största poptidning 1974-1980”, Premium Publishing 2008), and they showcase all the covers. To start with, I have to say that the logotype for POSTER was very successful. Do you recall coming up with that?
– ”I do not recall how that came about, other than creating it in my kitchen in Handen where I lived. It looked Rainbow like with the colours and I liked the stars”.
Most of the covers had famous people on the covers. Who was the semi-nude young girl at the third issue, 1 1975?
– ”I have no idea who the girl was, only that she was really pretty. I bought the image from one of these photo agencies, I do not recall which one”.
In the beginning you went with stars like Jane Seymour (3 1975), Brigitte Bardot (5 1975) and Raquel Welch (6 1975) on the covers, before switching to pop and rock stars.
– ”I was very influenced by BRAVO in the beginning, and since they had that sort of thing going I just followed them. But after a while I thought that BRAVO-POSTER had too many landscapes and not enough pop artists so I went my own way. At that point I think I created a better magazine than they did”.
Deep Purple were often part of POSTER, even after Ritchie Blackmore had left them and Tommy Bolin had joined. What did you think of them?
– ”I never had a lot of opinions about Deep Purple since I did not know a lot about that group. But they were hugely popular among the readers and so I made sure that they were part of the magazine. I do feel that Ritchie Blackmore was more interesting than Tommy Bolin though”.
KISS popped up in issue 3 1975 and then became part of basically every single issue. How did you discover them and how long did it take you to establish a working relationship with them?
– ”The American photographer Barry Levine showed me pictures of KISS on a rooftop in Los Angeles when he visited the office in Stockholm and I was immediately fascinated by their image and ordered more photo sessions from Barry. Later I would also ask Fin Costello and Andrej Csillag and others to take pictures and they all sent them to me. No other publication cared about KISS in Sweden at the time, it was just me and POSTER. KISS themselves thought it was cool that a Swedish publication showed such an interest in the group. The rest is history”.
For fans of KISS, POSTER was a huge source of joy and it has to be said that you made their success over here, at least it happened way faster than it would had you not done what you did. In the fall of 1977 you printed the first KISS Special and that must have been a bit of a risk since it was now down to only one band to sell the magazines. How did KISS react to the news?
– ”The KISS Special was made because the public demand was huge. The band loved it.”.
In 1978 you repeated the idea with an ABBA Special. According to your book, they had some ideas about that. So what happened?
– ”They had a bit of an issue with me using pictures from Barry Levine before they had had a chance to see them. Their manager Stikkan Andersson threatened to sue me but decided not to since POSTER was such a big publication. We became friends again and I did get to visit him in his home for an exclusive story”.
The cover with Agnetha Fältskog, on which she is licking a lollipop (2 1976) is awesome. How did you get her to do that? These images are very saucy. In my opinion, these images are among the best that has ever been taken.
– ”It was not a problem to ask Agnetha to do that, she was a true professional. She respected me as a photographer and a magazine publisher”.
You also gave The Runaways a lot of space. The first cover was for issue 3 1977. What was it like working with them?
– ”The manager Kim Fowley used to call me up in the middle of the night and play new songs from different artists that he wanted to hear my opinion on. I decided to publish The Runaways in POSTER after such a call”.
You also gave Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) and Angus Young (AC/DC) covers (10 & 11 1977) at a time when hard rock was hated by Swedish media. You really were the one guy in this country then that defended our music.
– ”Yes, I was the first guy to support hard rock in Sweden. I was simply ahead of my time”.
Mats Olsson and other music journalists at the time had no problem hating both the artists and their audience in print. POSTER had a more positive attitude. It was quite a contrast.
– ”Mats Olsson discarded the hard rock bands until POSTER helped make them popular in Sweden. Then he changed his mind and pretended that he had always liked them”.
PLAYBOY model Barbi Benton had a huge hit in Sweden in 1977 after having been seen singing in the tv-show McCloud, and you gave her two covers (6 & 10 1977). Did you meet her?
– ”Yes, it was me that took those shots, both for the covers and the posters inside. I took them at Hotel Sheraton in Stockholm”.
You also published SUPER-POSTER in West Germany. Tell us a bit about that.
– ”I set up a deal with a magazine distributor in Hamburg and sent over 125,000 copies per month of SUPER-POSTER to my old country. It was the biggest export out of Sweden ever”.
The stars in the logo disappeared after issue 6 1979, was it at that point that the problems started?
– ”As soon as Saxon & Lindströms had bought the rights for POSTER from me it started to drop in circulation. The owners, Mats and Bosse Lindström just wanted to make money. At that point the fun went out of it. Also, I wanted to create a new magazine at the time, OKEJ.
To be continued…
By Mike Eriksson (if quoted let me know about it) – Retrofuture 8 (2015) / Trinkelbonker (2021)
(My shots of the POSTER book, Retrofuture 8 and bar flyer etc)
…
CLASSIC ROCK INTERVIEWS ON TRINKELBONKER: CARINA LIROLA 2008 (November 9 2021), TOTO 1987 (September 17 2021), HEAVEN & EARTH 2001 (July 25 2021), STUART SMITH 1998 (July 4 2021), RAINBOW 1997 (June 28 2021), MARINA AMMOURI 2021 (February 12 2021), VISIONS OF ATLANTIS 2007 (November 10 2020), RITCHIE BLACKMORE & CANDICE NIGHT 2001 (October 27 2020), JOHN NORUM 1988 (October 18 2020), ACCEPT 1986 (July 17 2020), DEEP PURPLE 1996 (June 27 2020), EUROPE 1986 (June 16 2020), DEEP PURPLE PODCAST 2020 (April 6 2020), KIMBERLY GOSS/SINERGY 2002 (March 31 2020), RAINBOW 1997 (March 9 2020), RAINBOW 1996 (March 6 2020), MICHAEL BRADFORD 2003/MAKING OF DEEP PURPLE´S “BANANAS” (March 2 2020), URIAH HEEP 1988 (February 18 2020), ANNE-LIE RYDÉ 1984 (January 21 2020), CRYSTAL VIPER 2020 (January 16 2020), JOHN NORUM 1988 (January 12 2020), ARTOMUS FRIENDSHIP 2019 (November 10 2019), NAZARETH 1989 (August 26 2019), VELVET INSANE 2018 (September 11 2018), JON LORD 1981 (December 15 2015), DAVID COVERDALE 1981 (November 13 2015), GLENN HUGHES 1996 (May 12 2015), TOTO 1988 (March 31 2015), YNGWIE MALMSTEEN 1990 (March 1 2015), MARTINA EDOFF 2009 (December 4 2014), MICHAEL MOJO NILSSON 2014 (January 21 2014), THE HUGHES TURNER PROJECT 2001 (December 29 2013), JOE LYNN TURNER 1996-1998 (October 9 2013), GLENN HUGHES & JOHN NORUM 1988 (September 21 2013), JOE LYNN TURNER 1994-1995 (September 9 2013), JOE LYNN TURNER 1993 (September 7 2013), STEVE LUKATHER 1989 (September 4 2013), BLACK SABBATH 1983 (August 22 2013), RAINBOW 1995 (July 19 2013), MICK UNDERWOOD/GILLAN 1982 (June 11 2013), DEEP PURPLE 2002 (May 2 2013), DEEP PURPLE 1998 ( February 25 2013), BLACK SABBATH 1986 (February 12 2013), BLACK SABBATH 1987-1989 (December 31 2012), JOHNNIE BOLIN 2012 (December 24 2012), MARTIN POPOFF & RICH GALBRAITH 2009 (November 12 2012), DAVID COVERDALE 2000 (October 14 2012), JON LORD 1984 (September 7 2012), JOE LYNN TURNER 1992 (August 31 2012), JUDAS PRIEST 1986 (August 22 2012), RONNIE JAMES DIO 2001 (August 20 2012), NIGHTWISH 2002 (August 14 2012).
We have a local phenomenon in these parts as hundreds of witnesses has seen The Great Lake Monster in Lake Storsjön (The Great Lake) over the years. You can find hundreds of reports in the vaults of the local museum Jamtli in Östersund. As I was working on Retrofuture 2 I was told by my good friend Thomas Drugg that I could find many scanned reports from (very) old newspapers within the Royal Museum´s Digital archive in Stockholm. They had been ordered by the government to scan all newspapers and to put them online. This opened up a treasure trove of old articles (going back to the late 1800s) that dealt with the mystery and I realized that it would be great fun to scan and republish a large number of these in this issue in order to save it for posterity and to present a hugely entertaining piece of journalism to the locals. So I included 17 pages of scanned material as well as current talk about the mystery and printed this magazine in 2,000 copies and handed out 1,700 for free in different ways locally. People could pick the magazine up in stores, at the library, and I also made an effort to give copies away to people that actually lived at the shore of the lake. The interest exploded and the phone started to ring off the hook. People wanted to talk about it, share their personal experiences and so on. The reaction was far greater that anything I could have imagined. This issue also sported the usual assortment of articles. 1990 interview with Yngwie Malmsteen, Two and a half men story (they got the cover too), the second part of the Dakota Jane western novel, book reviews, Xena & Lucy Lawless (Spartacus), Mother´s Finest etc. And two articles by Hanz F. Lindström (one about a famous train robbery that took place in 1907 and one about actress Rita Hayworth). All in all, a pretty good publication.
I was interviewed for a couple of big publications in this neck of the woods (that everybody gets for free), and the first was a story by Ann-Charlotte Eisfeldt in 100% Östersund. This probably meant that even more people made sure that they could pick up a copy. Retrofuture 2 had been published in April 2010 and the campaign lasted right through that summer.
The second story was published by Fredrik Alverland in the publication Stan Idag that fall. I recall that I gave him a bag of back issues. Fredrik would later go on to publish a fantastic book about local cinematic history (that would earn him great respect) and he actually mentioned me and Retrofuture in the book and thanked me for the inspiration to do anything you like (got it signed too). How cool is that?
At this point I had decided to continue for a while even though there was no money in it any more. Retrofuture 3 saw print in November 2010. Printed in 1,000 copies (which would become the new norm), and I gave away 800 for free around the lake. The reports were still coming. I was really enjoying myself with this hobby and I had a tremendous freedom as always. In this issue you had (apart from The Great Lake Monster bit) Legend Of The Seeker (nice cover shot too, I enjoyed that show), Tommy Bolin, David Coverdale & Whitesnake, a report from the 2010 Rock Weekend Festival (Over The Rainbow, Purple, Tarja, Kamelot, Martina Edoff and the Cougars etc), a WWII comic, a complete guide to the Swedish book series Victory, Raquel Welch etc. Loads of cool stuff. I had also photographed the wonderful model Nina for an upcoming western novel, Montana Blue, and a Making of Montana Blue story was included in this issue as well. And a few pages of images from the grand opening of Teknikland, a museum covering local military history (air, artillery and infantry) through the ages. It was fun to include more stories that would mean something in these parts. Looking back, it still looks good. I was having fun and 2011 was just around the corner.
trinkelbonker 