NOVELS |
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COMICS |
THE BASICS
Mondstation 1999 was a line of Year 2 Space: 1999 novels published in Germany 1977-78.
THE HISTORY
When new Year 2 episodes arrived in the fall of 1976, Space: 1999 had changed in very dramatic ways in almost every aspect of the show (characters, style, tone, etc.). And it wasn't until early in 1977 that Michael Butterworth's episode adaptations began to appear in print. Unfortunately, the cancellation of Space: 1999 in the late spring of 1977 resulted in publishers worldwide quickly terminating their imprint lines. This was most likely due to an anticipated waning of interest in a show that would no longer be produced, and a reduction of sales for any merchandise associated with it.
In the UK, Star Books terminated Space: 1999 publishing early, stopping at book 5 of the 6 written episode adaptation novels. In Japan, Mikasa stopped at book 3 of the 6. And although the US sales were stronger and all 6 of these books saw publication, Warner Books decided not to continue the series onward with any original material after these adaptations completed - unfortunately declining to purchase the original novel The Brilliant Suns which Michael Butterworth had already submitted in outline form.
But the US, UK and Japan were not the only countries publishing Butterworth's Space: 1999 books...
In 1977, the German publisher Bastei Lübbe began a line of books under the imprint Mondstation 1999 - an odd confluence of the English and German titles for the series (Space: 1999 and Mondbasis Alpha 1, respectively). The initial publications were translations of the six Butterworth books. But then they did the unexpected. Bastei Lübbe continued the fiction line in 1978 by adding six full length, original Space: 1999 novels that featured the Year Two scenarios and characters. The first four novels in the set were written by H. W. Springer, the fifth by Kurt Brand and the sixth and final one by M. S. Thomas. These novels were written in German, published in Western Germany and were never translated for foreign publication. Because of their relative scarcity outside of Germany, and due to the fact that they were not translated into English, or any other language, they have maintained their obscurity to the majority of Space: 1999 fandom to this day.
Space: 1999 appeared to great fanfare in the fall of 1975 along with a fairly extensive merchandising campaign. Novelizations were published for all of the Year 1 episodes in both the US and UK, which were then followed by a string of original Year 1 novels in 1976.
THIS WEBSITE
With this web site I hope to reveal to those interested in these 'lost' Space: 1999 materials a comprehensive overview of all these books and comics from Germany. There are web pages devoted to all 12 novels and the dozens of Zack comics.
For each of the six original, German-only Mondstation 1999 novels I provide some Comments on the book, some Stats and Summary of the story, and a translation of the Back Cover blurb. For a few of the novels and comics, I also provide links to various amounts of translated material for your enjoyment. These comic and book 'pages' are my prose interpretations of translations I've done over the years.
I've worked to smooth over the roughness that a purely literal translation provides, while also trying to stay true to the original source. Even so, there still remains some awkwardness to the prose due to both the differences in German sentence structure and elements that are simply 'lost in translation'.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy these 'lost' items as much as I did.
To everything that might have been.
Patrick Zimmerman
Even though I've been a diehard Space: 1999 fan ever since watching Breakaway on September 13, 1975, and buying all the books and other merchandise I could find, it wasn't until the early 1990's that I discovered that these books even existed. And soon after realized that there were also over 20 comic book episode adaptations and original stories, that had been published decades ago, lurking about!
To everything that was.
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