DwarfCast 179 – The Smegazine Rack – Volume 2 Issue #1 DwarfCasts Posted by Ian Symes on 5th February 2026, 13:31 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes “INT. Chris Barrie’s Arse” 8 extra pages! 2 free postcards! Smeggier than ever before, it’s the new-look Smegazine Rack! Yes, after a prolonged gap since our last sojourn to the early-to-mid 1990s, we return to discover everything’s become glossier, wider and more densely packed, as we finally reach Volume 2 of the Red Dwarf Smegazine. There is much to discuss, not least the most unfortunate cover line of all time, but also a comic strip with remarkable parallels to a much later TV story, the latest news on just how messy the production of Series VI was, the evils of red chairs, the soap opera parody that refuses to die and the crossover event of the century. Plus, we give a very special welcome to a new Smegazine writer, who would go on to have a very, ahem, “interesting” career. DwarfCast 179 – The Smegazine Rack – Volume 2 Issue #1 (144 MB) Show notes The magazine, via archive.org or Stasis Leak, whatever’s your poison It was actually us that tweeted a list of all the times the crew could have got back to Earth, although Curtis Threadgold did indeed come up with a number of other suggestions. We haven’t managed to dig up any of Chris Barrie’s Jackanory episodes, but we have figured out the TX dates: Jack Crater, 1st-3rd March 1993; The Fox and the Chicken, 25th February 1994; The Greatest, 9th March 1994 Ace Rimmer Worlds Tour Smegazine signing event at Forbidden Planet, May 1993 What Stanley Didn’t Say, by Anthony Frewin
I kept (keep) all my Smegazines nice and neat easily in clear A4 sleeves. Volume 2 fucked that right up.
They definitely know what they’re doing now. It still gets a bit too weird and obscure a bit too often, but there’s less of the half-arsed kids’ annual padding and more of worth. I had all of the mags from this point (bought a few years later), except issue 7, which the local comic/record shop didn’t have for whatever reason. – God, a 1993 Christmas special would have been amazing. A final Grant Naylor episode of Series VI.5. I guess they knew it wasn’t happening by the time they edited Out of Time to be a cliffhanger, rather than resolving that in a special, but maybe not and it would’ve just been a much shorter wait. – Nigel Kitching seemed to consider Lister the God his best Smegazine work, at least I saw him mention it once. I like his Dibbleys best though. – Super-Ace is distinctively drawn and coloured by the late Nigel Dobbyn, also of Sonic the Comic. He drew comfy Knuckles. – Since you brought it up, Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) broadcast three years late on the post-Doctor Who, sci-fi-averse BBC, starting in September 1990 (so Kryten was before Data). Like when they started late with The Simpsons, the gap gradually narrowed and Deep Space Nine (1993) started in September 1995, Voyager (1995) in September 1996. Enterprise (2001) was broadcast by Channel 4 from 2002, apparently. Even I wasn’t watching by then.
Oh ok, not straight in at the contents page, that’s new. Potted history of the show, is it? Mike Butcher writes the “Smegatorial” (ugh what), have Howarth and Lyons gone now? If so that would make the overall “this is a much better magazine” tone amusingly nasty. Lister the God. Ok so this is The Promised Land, yeah? Er, who repainted Holly? Replaced by a green Norman. Ok we’re going heavy on the lore here. Also Norm’s Holly returns, and immediately acts against the crew in a story about Lister being a false Cat God. Oh and Kryten’s broken. Is this where the idea for Krytie TV came from? I love Cat calling Holly ‘face’, is that from Infinity? This is a really weird mix of early and mid era Dwarf, Lister being called Monkey and Master David. Well, you can’t deny that that was bold. Not very funny and it doesn’t feel like much actually happened. I suppose part 2 will have the meat of the story. News from the Dwarf. Well, I think the Four Gunmen of the Apocalypse is a better title. Amazing the titles were given out so early. Hard light draining Starbug’s power doesn’t feel like something that ever got off the ground. Him indoors and an album for Acid Jazz. It’s astonishing how many things never got off the ground. Behind the Scenes Well I’m glad they acknowledged the elephant in the room about more Red Dwarf and Holly. Bloody hell, they’ve given away the episode titles, the setup of the series, and now a blow-by-blow account of the last scene of Call Me Legion. Danny thinks he’ll be getting his six nipples out, with a vixen on each. Ok, Danny. Craig – other than Gary Glitter in space, I don’t have anything to respond to here. The Junior Encyclopaedia of Space Oh, I like this. It’s the unanswered questions thread. The light bee one is a bit of a stretch. I liked the sentence “this is the sort of pedantic question we get from some people.” Red Dwarf is a very rare example of a long running sitcom without a proper Christmas special, isn’t it? I wonder what it might have been like. Especially as it would have followed Out of Time. Androids. Yeah, I didn’t miss this. Super-Ace Smegopolis. Right. wtf is that picture wtf is any of this Yeah, ok. The End Ok, mostly stuff we’ve heard a thousand times before, but I imagine it was great at the time. Looking forward to the next 35 instalments of this series. Books Howarth and Lyons get a bit of a kicking here. Was there a falling out? Captain’s Log Speak of the devils, here’s their first contribution to this issue. Hollygrams I mean, someone fell for that terrible April Fools joke? Really? Jake Bullet and Dwayne Dibbley Oh fucking hell this thing. WHAT IS GOING ON
The increase in page size is interesting because a few years later 2000AD editor David Bishop would cut millimetres off that comic’s in order to save “a five figure sum” of money per year so presumably this had the opposite effect on the Smegazine’s production costs? Thought I’d also throw in a random memory from around this time when I asked my mum to see if they had the Smegazine at our local Spar and she came back with a copy of ‘White Dwarf’.
Mike Butcher writes the “Smegatorial” (ugh what), have Howarth and Lyons gone now? If so that would make the overall “this is a much better magazine” tone amusingly nasty. Worth noting that Mike’s been the editor since day one, Howarth and Lyons were only ever features writers. It’s just that in the early days, they were the only features writers, so it may have felt like it was “their” mag.
Thought I’d also throw in a random memory from around this time when I asked my mum to see if they had the Smegazine at our local Spar and she came back with a copy of ‘White Dwarf’. My brother requested a video of Dinosaurs, the Jim Henson sitcom, on his Christmas list, and he got this:
Thought I’d also throw in a random memory from around this time when I asked my mum to see if they had the Smegazine at our local Spar and she came back with a copy of ‘White Dwarf’. My brother requested a video of Dinosaurs, the Jim Henson sitcom, on his Christmas list, and he got this: Oh my god, I must have watched that on video a thousand times as a kid. Bloody awful.
Fantastic Dwarfcast. You were really surfing on cream with this one. I was driving while listening to part of it, and nearly had to pull over because I was almost crying laughing so much at Call Of Duty: Dad’s Army. (I would also humbly nominate Simpsons Doom as another great, albeit unofficial/modded TV-based videogame. Also there’s 24: The Game on PS2 and some levels of Lego Dimensions, but I’m really clutching at straws at this point.) It was also great to hear the Masked Singer/Can of Worms revelation happening in real time. Oh, and one other quick thing before I go through this issue – I’m pretty sure that the first run of the original Ace Rimmer T-shirt (which I had) didn’t have the “Worlds Tour” text on the back, and that was only added for the second run onwards. So you were an OG if you had the one without. Onto the mag… My postcards are still attached! And they’re a bit crap! The recap pages are a good way to kick off a new #1 but it’s written in an odd voice that feels like it would be confusing and not much help to a genuine newcomer to RD. I also thought it was interesting to see so much book continuity bleeding in, like the Monopoly board pub crawl and the Cloister/Clister stuff. Also the Heseltine/Tarzan joke got a laugh from me. That “Smegatorial” font is 90s as fuck. Lister the God is a decent start. I like Nigel Kitching’s art style and I think he does the best Norman-Holly yet. The cutout image of Red Dwarf is a bit crap looking, but some of the other stuff is great – I’d love to see the original art for that Kryten destruction page. News From The Dwarf is interesting mostly for how much information about VI was out there at this point, like the titles and hard light stuff. Behind the scenes with Red Dwarf VI is a good feature – I think Jane Killick is the Smegazine’s best writer by a considerable margin – so it’s a bit of a shame that it’s accompanied by what might be the worst quality photos ever printed in a professional magazine. The Craig Charles interview is interesting and thoughtful, not just for the part where he talks about missing the meaningful conversation of the early episodes, but also the part where he’s downplaying the contribution of actors in bringing these stories to life. It’s a lack of ego you rarely see from an actor. A shame then that the design choices of these pages with the blown-up image in the background make some of the sections barely legible. The Junior Encyclopedia of Space is a useful little feature and exactly the kind of thing a magazine like this from the pre-internet age should have been doing. Androids is back. You have to laugh. The mention of Old Bignose, as ever, reminds me of Old Bignose Is Back from Blackadder, and the comments in the Dwarfcast about an accurate parody of something crap still being crap reminded me of Tarantino’s Death Proof. Visions 92 is an interesting little feature – I thought the reference to ego problems at previous events was an interesting aside. I wonder who they’re getting at. Ref Dwarf: I’m glad this still exists, but only for the running joke in the Dwarfcasts. Super-Ace: ah, now this is more like it. There’s tons of fun inventiveness here. There are good background gags (“No flame on” at the street crossing is a Fantastic Four reference), and some fun comics references in general too. The smiley face on Lister’s costume is almost certainly a Watchmen reference but the rest of his black costume, with the headband and all the pouches, feels like a riff on how the Punisher was being depicted at the time. (Pouches, headbands, straps and belts were big in superhero costumes in the 90s.) Holly’s appearance, meanwhile, is an X-Men reference – her White Hole-style floating-head appearance is a reference to how Professor X used to appear psychically to the X-Men… …and Lister calls her “Professor H” in the story to make the reference a bit clearer. Elsewhere, there are fun references to other weird fashion trends in early 90s superhero comics, like the outfit with the headpiece that looks like something Gambit would wear. I also picked up on the typo in “stronger than a raging stimulant”, which made me laugh. The art in general is really good in this one. Nigel Dobbyn does a lovely shot of the Wildfire when Ace first turns up, and his takes on the Inquisitor and Flibble are great too. Moving on… The End making-of feature is full of interesting tidbits, many of which I’d never heard before. Although I do wonder whether some of it is revisionism to sit better with the contemporary version of the show (was Holly really initially intended to be a woman, or is that just being said to be supportive of Hattie?). That T2 toy ad is a total nostalgia hit. The toys are nonsense, there’s nothing like it in the movie, but that was the same with stuff like the many costume variants of the Batman movie toys too. The discussion of adult characters being marketed towards kids is an interesting one – Predator, Robocop and the like were all video-shop staples of the 80s and 90s, and most kids definitely had an awareness of these adults-only characters. Oh, and the T2 Endo-Glow figure was glow in the dark: Also, Ian’s Arnie impression is a perfect McBain. The “Red any good books lately” page was highly amusing. In the Primordial Soup review they basically invent the concept for the Six of the Best VHS boxset, and I had to laugh at Killick slagging off the programme guide. Captain’s Log sees Mac being as entertaining as ever, and the “would he come back?” question is an early foreshadowing of VIII. And no, wait, *these* are the worst quality photos ever printed in a professional magazine. Holly Grams – as if Gary Glitter on the cover wasn’t bad enough, we also get the jumpscare of Clayton Mark. Brrrr. The Jake Bullet and Dwayne/Duane Dibbley strip was ok, but while the concept is inventive and I love the mixing of the art styles, the story doesn’t really grab me. Also the creepy face at the bottom of the first page looks like Les McQueen from Creme Brulee. The mention in the Dwarfcast of taking a bite out of the city background is something that I hadn’t noticed – could it be a reference to “chewing the scenery”? News From The omni-zone is an interesting idea. Shame the author sounds so deranged and untrustworthy.
Thanks guys, if I ever watch that episode of South Park again, I’ll not be able to shake the idea that I’m seeing the inside of Chris Barrie’s rectum…
Looking forward to listening to this tonight but here are a few rambling notes I made as I read the magazine. Good cover. Nice new logo. Lister the God is one of the very few strips I had already read prior to the Smegazine Rack. I remember it being a really good one but not that much about what happens next. Great artwork though, and a pretty gripping story so far. As for the other strips, I enjoyed Jake/Duane as usual and Super-Ace is alright, although the punchline confused me. I thought he was just allergic to being hit but in the last panel he’s passed out just because the bank manager shook his hand? Androids is crap. News. I didn’t know Chris had ever been on Jackanory. I’d like to see that. Craig and Mac both come across very well in their interviews. Interesting to read Mac’s thoughts on being typecast, and his somewhat mixed feelings about being a UK-based American actor, or “rent-a-Yank” to use Shane Rimmer’s term. Joe Nazzaro’s Visions ’92 write-up. Here’s a video of Craig and Robert on stage: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YKDs_U9M9FA But much more interestingly, on the same YouTube channel there’s also this footage from the 1994 event, where Joe, having written the ‘Making of’ book by then, got to be on a Red Dwarf panel himself, along with Robert, Danny and Rob Grant. It’s very interesting indeed to hear Rob fielding questions about working with Doug, the American pilots, the Series VI cliffhanger, plans for Series VII, the third novel, etc. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A3PKmUtq6_Y I never seem to tire of hearing the same old anecdotes about the very early days of the show, so The Making of The End article was a highlight for me in this issue, and there were one or two brand new morsels like the ship was originally meant to be French? And I laughed at Rob’s description of the American Frankenstein as “an absolute dream-boat”.
Regarding the same money going round, the back of that same issue of Judge Dredd Magazine returns the favour from the Smegazine, and therefore needs a whole new bit of podcast about the typeset, layout and colouring recording immediately:
New Smegazine Rack? It’s my favourite time of year! This was a pretty good issue too. Despite the increased page count, it didn’t feel padded out compared to the early days of the magazine, so they’re in a good groove. – The comics continue to be a highlight in this new era, with the obvious exception of Androids. But hey, at least it provided a lot of reference images for Geek Chase! I wonder if that game will ever work again. – I knew the story about Primordial Soup revealing the whole of Psirens months early, but I never would have thought that the Smegazine would be so nonchalant about it. I guess anti-spoiler culture wasn’t as much of a thing back then, but a bit more shock and excitement would seem appropriate! Maybe this was some sort of confidence trick from GNP, that if they acted like dropping the full script of a new episode 6 months before broadcast is totally normal, people wouldn’t spread all the plot details and punchlines around like hot gossip. But the fans on the ground must have been going crazy anyway, right? It’s honestly unbelievable that they chose not to delay the book release. – “I want [Lister] to go home and I want him to be happy.” Me too, Craig, me too. Maybe it can still happen in a novel or an AA ad. – The discussion about TV show video games made me want to think of an all time classic video game based on a live action series. I had no luck, but I did remember that the first console game I ever played was based on a TV show: – Anyone else find ‘The Junior Encyclopedia of Space’ especially difficult to read in the scan, in particular the left column? I hope the colour and font choices have a bit more contrast if the feature comes back. – This may be a better discussion for the end of the run, but it really was the delay of Series VI that killed the Smegazine, wasn’t it? It was pretty self-evident from their final issue being at the end of 1993 when the UK had just received a fresh new series with plenty of details to cover, but seeing them do a big relaunch issue that was meant to coincide with the beginning of that series pulls into focus how sad it is. I suppose they wouldn’t have made it that far into the ’93 – ’97 hiatus anyway, but they could have still sqeezed a bit more juice out of the grape. … or maybe people saw the cover saying “Smeggier than ever before” and thought “smeggy means bad, I want a magazine that’s good”. – I enjoyed the Bullet/Dibbley crossover, but I’m not convinced that having Duane be aware that he’s just The Cat hallucinating was the right call. Once characters are aware they’re in a dream, they’re ultimately just waiting to wake up, there aren’t many stakes beyond that. Also, is Jake meant to be Kryten hallucinating too, or is Duane Dibbley the only real person in there? It just being Cat doesn’t explain how so much of the story is from Jake’s POV, but if the hallucination is just a bump on the head then it shouldn’t be able to be a shared one. – A superhero with an “A” on his forehead, you say? As for the other strips, I enjoyed Jake/Duane as usual and Super-Ace is alright, although the punchline confused me. I thought he was just allergic to being hit but in the last panel he’s passed out just because the bank manager shook his hand? – He said his weakness was flesh, so being hit is an example of what will knock him out, but any skin on skin contact will do it. It is worded in an open way though. There was of course a split second where I thought he was going to say he was a shagger. – I knew Nigel Kitching’s designs for the Hollys reminded me of something… am I alone in this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9MhRfgR8Eg
Cracking Dwarfcast. Clearly a few years later Craig talked about Him Indoors on the set of Captain Butler. The discussion of adult characters being marketed towards kids is an interesting one – Predator, Robocop and the like were all video-shop staples of the 80s and 90s, and most kids definitely had an awareness of these adults-only characters. It backfired on at least one occasion. McDonald’s had to withdraw their Batman Returns Happy Meal toys when parents complained that the film wasn’t suitable for children.
Regarding the same money going round, the back of that same issue of Judge Dredd Magazine returns the favour from the Smegazine, and therefore needs a whole new bit of podcast about the typeset, layout and colouring recording immediately: That ad has the postcard details mixed up (issue #1 seems to have the information for issue #2’s postcards and vice versa). An outrage.
Yeah, I remember having the Dibbley set still attached to my old issue 1, but my issue 2 came postcardless. I guess Starbug’s more tempting to blu-tac to your wall.
Fulfilling Ian’s wish to see Judge Dredd’s mega-jigsaw: A jigsaw themed magazine cover, reproduced on a jigsaw, attached to the jigsaw themed magazine cover. The jigsaw should include a tiny jigsaw of itself too, and so on until infinity.
Another thing I forgot to mention: I’ve definitely had Stasis Leaked turn up in Amazon searches, but I always completely glossed over it because its cover made it look like one of those hurriedly written game guides that people just throw onto the Kindle store with a price of 99p and a length of 12 pages. Sorry Jane.
It backfired on at least one occasion. McDonald’s had to withdraw their Batman Returns Happy Meal toys when parents complained that the film wasn’t suitable for children. I wouldn’t have thought Mac’s character warranted its own toy, let alone that it would be the one attracting the most complaints… (I know, he was in Batman, not ‘Returns’, let me have this)
Batman Returns was one of the first “mature” video rentals a parent invited me to watch when I would have been 7, maybe feeling I shouldn’t miss out. That doesn’t explain why I was also allowed to watch Alien 3 around the same time, which was a bit more full-on. A few years later, the same parent was unhappy that Forrest Gump featured unseen/obscured breasts. Just not suitable for children.
I wouldn’t have thought Mac’s character warranted its own toy, let alone that it would be the one attracting the most complaints… He had to settle for burger sponsorship instead.
Batman Returns was one of the first “mature” video rentals a parent invited me to watch when I would have been 7, maybe feeling I shouldn’t miss out. I saw Batman Returns at the cinema when I was 10 and loved it, having missed out on the chance to see Batman ’89 until it came out on video. Excellent times.
That ad has the postcard details mixed up (issue #1 seems to have the information for issue #2’s postcards and vice versa). An outrage. From stasis-leak.org, here’s the correct version.
Worth noting that Mike’s been the editor since day one, Howarth and Lyons were only ever features writers. It’s just that in the early days, they were the only features writers, so it may have felt like it was “their” mag. Bloody hell, I had no idea! Sat through two and a half hours of that and not a single bloody outtake. Lovely ‘Cast, I enjoyed it a lot. The Adrian Rigelsford stuff was interesting, I only know him as the writer of Doctor Who: The Dark Dimension, the scrapped 30th anniversary story, although I’ve just spotted that he wrote a fairly forgettable Five, Peri and Erimem story for Big Finish. My mum taped Trainspotting for me when it was on Channel 4, I would have been 13 or 14. I’d seen a lot of horror stuff before that because my mum always watched it – Evil Dead 2, It and other stuff – but that felt like my first proper grown up film experience.
Rigelsford used to have a quite wonderful line on his Wikipedia page about how he had the distinction of being the only person to write an officially licensed Doctor Who story and be incarcerated at the time of its release.
I’ve definitely had Stasis Leaked turn up in Amazon searches, but I always completely glossed over it because its cover made it look like one of those hurriedly written game guides Why the fuck is the italicised word “complete” sitting in the middle of the cover? What’s that supposed to mean?
Afternoon all – I thought you might appreciate this. It’s a signing at – we think – a Glasgow Comic Con. Left to right, Jake Bullet artist Carl Flint, Carl’s studio buddy (and model for the Captain) Woodrow Phoenix, Jake Bullet writer Steve Noble (me!), RD artist Alan Burroughs, Kev ‘Androids’ Sutherland and Smeg Ed Mike Butcher.
Adrian Rigelsford is attempting a comeback with a forthcoming book on the Patrick Troughton era which was previously credited to ‘Tim Dexter’, which has now been confirmed to be him. https://downthetubes.net/patrick-troughton-celebrated-in-new-book-when-i-say-run-run/ In case anyone’s wondering if he’s learnt anything, the press release includes a fictitious and repeatedly debunked story about Quatermass.
