Dynamite 112, September 1983 / Unicorns Are Real!

Tonight I introduce the subject of childrens' periodicals to my blog, and through the years there have been many fine publications for children many of which I've scanned or plan to scan. Titles like St. Nicholas, The Youth's Companion and The American Boy, and Child Life are a few fine magazines I hope to explore as my blog unfolds. But this time around, I'm going to approach the subject from some material from my own childhood by sharing a few magazines that I remember fondly from my school days. These are objects I'd long forgotten but that I've rediscovered through this hobby that might strike a chord with my fellow gen-Xers. Magazines by their nature (or at least modern magazines) are throwaway objects, read a couple of times then discarded or recycled. Perhaps the cheap printing, thin pages, and flimsy binding signal that these are not worthy of a permanent place on the bookshelf or perhaps magazines are so of-the-now that don't really have a value outside of their purpose as purveyors of buzz or commentary on the most current of events. I throw some magazines away (or recycle them, rather) that I think are absolutely excellent, it's just part of their transient nature. This is why when we see a magazine years later it can be such a sweet recognition. It can be like something out of a time capsule, a sort of Proustian agent bringing the past into the now. I get a huge kick out of seeing people have this blast from the past - whether we're talking about a science fiction pulp someone read in high school or an underground paper that someone's older brother had in their room or that issue of Famous Monsters somebody read beneath the covers, it's so cool to see people encounter this object they thought they'd never see again that once meant something but had been almost totally forgotten until, WHAM, "OH WOW, I REMEMBER THIS!"

This first magazine gives me exactly that feeling. Thanks to McCoy for jogging my memory about this title and for the raws for this particular issue I'm sharing tonight. 1980s, here we come (cue the Night Rider theme music here if you dare).


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Delivered to my desk every month, this publication was something else. In the hallowed halls of education, what do we have here? Knight Rider? A man with a talking car? John Travolta on his career ?!?! Comics, zany humor, a poster for my wall?! My wife tells me that she absolutely did not get these in catholic school, and I'm not surprised. I'd have been about 10 when this came out, right in the bosom of public education, and looking at the thing now I'm both appalled and appreciative of the fact that such lightweight subject matter graced my desk on that day of the week when these materials were handed out by the teacher at reading time.

The History of Scholastic in our schools is long and worthy of exploration. I'm honestly a neophyte to the subject but have already found a great number of their magazines for children over the years. As a parent of 2 young school children, I've been reminded what a huge presence this company is in our schools, it is really something of a monopoly. This giant is choosing which books will be made available for purchase by children and is the conduit through which millions of children will first read Harry Potter or say Jeff Smith's Bone. My boy loves the early reader books they offer from the Clone Wars, and I think it's fair to say that this is one way that certain entertainment properties reach into the schools. On the other hand, if a kid is jazzed up about reading Star Wars, he's jazzed up about reading and that is a great way to get some children into books. By any means necessary, I say, which is one reason I like to include childrens' books and magazines in my scan repertoire. My kids love reading books on the computer (in addition to the regular places they read), and I daresay it's helped my six year old to become an advanced reader. The potentials of popular scanning to increase childrens' access to and interest in the written word is enormous. My kids each have their own digital collections of books and comics and magazines that suit their particular interests, and the idea that entire libraries of material might be available freely to any kid fortunate enough to own or have access to a computer is very powerful. From a young age, we are bombarded by images on screens, many of them detrimental or of mercenary nature. Books are beautiful, but as we move into the future, it's readily apparent that digital technologies for better or for worse are taking a more central place in our reading habits. On many levels, I see scanning as a fight for a place on these screens, as a belief that the works of the past have a potent and permanent place in the digital soup. There's more "content" in a single issue of some magazines than in 100 pages of webdrivel! Cough, but I digress (lord help me), I only mean to have my readers think about scans and early literacy. Make your kid a scan of his favorite book, I promise it will be enriching for all involved...

But back to our magazine! Here's a cool wiki for Dynamite that breaks down the issues by topic. I like the wiki's bravado that the magazine served as a guide to popular culture for a generation of school kids. Looking at the list of cover stories on the wiki demonstrates the breadth of this task.

Dynamite 112 v07n03 (1983-09) Knight Rider (McNation).cbr
Issue Contents. Get the entire scan here.


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There's a lot of variety here, a strange mix of pop culture worship and pop culture parody. That a magazine for kids would include a BADvertising section is just great. It's healthy to teach kids to be critical of ads, and this is one good way to do it. (not to let Scholastic off the hook for their earlier years of advertising, check out the army and car ads in these issues of Scope from the 70s).

I led with the Hof cover, I suppose I'd be remiss not to offer a snippet of the interview and a behind the scenes look at the show with a talking car (which I loved at the time)


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Unicorns are real! I pulled this scan out just the other day when my preschool daughter told me that unicorns aren't real. No need to kill the myth completely, she had me print out a page and cut one of the little fellows out, aww cute. This is the article I remember reading at my desk in school, I'll go ahead and post it in it's entirety for the websurfers followed by the poster.


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The poster is way cheesy, but I can't help but like it. Now that you've been through the looking glass and seen the beast, you can believe, too.

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The letters page. Valley girl talk, fer sure. My wife still tells me I talk like a surfer and I'm from the Midwest, hmm...

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But speaking of valley talk, OMG. Men At Work have busted into my romance stash! At least they've got good taste in comics, I can forgive.


And speaking of comics, some material and a bit of an interview in this ish with Joe Kubert, one of the greats.


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Back next time on volunteer radio to spin a couple of more childrens' mags from the early 80s I couldn't get to tonight.