A 50th ANNIVERSARY SALUTE to the sci-fi classic… — UPDATED 6/23/26: Logan’s Run came out 50 years ago, on June 23, 1976! Perfect time to reprint this piece from 2023. Also check out Rob Kelly’s REEL RETRO CINEMA column on the flick! Dig it. — Dan — By WALT GROGAN One of my favorite mid-1970s sci-fi flicks is Logan’s Run. Starring Michael York as the pompous Logan 5, Jenny Agutter as the plucky Jessica 6, Richard Jordan as the deranged Francis 7, and Farrah Fawcett-Majors in a cameo role as Holly 13, Logan’s Run is the epitome of a pre-Star Wars science fiction flick in look and feel and one of the last ones before what’s now called A New Hope was released in 1977. Logan’s Run was very popular at the time. It even spawned a short-lived TV series. So I don’t think it’s quite fair to compare it to Star Wars other than to point out you should put yourself in a mid-70s mindset for special effects when viewing this somewhat-campy classic. Logan’s Run, in a nutshell, takes place in a future, apparently utopian society where the needs and pleasures of its citizens are taken care of — with a catch: People cannot live beyond 30 and on “Last Day,” they must partake in a ritual called “Renewal,” where they are supposedly reborn. Logan is a “sandman,” a member of an elite police force whose goal is to eliminate runners, those who try to escape and avoid Renewal. That is, until Logan himself is turned into a runner to find Sanctuary — believed to be a haven for those who have bolted the domed city. Logan’s Run, based loosely on the 1967 novel by authors William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, was released June 23, 1976, and Marvel Comics released a 5-issue adaptation starting in October of that year, by writer David Anthony Kraft and artists George Pérez and Klaus Janson. To celebrate Logan’s Run’s anniversary and Pérez’s artistic inventiveness, here are 13 screen captures from the movie paired with pages from the comic, showing how the penciller chose to adapt certain scenes. SPOILERS FOR A 47-YEAR-OLD MOVIE BELOW: — For the opening splash page, Pérez takes a shot from later in the movie where Logan and Jessica are on the run and gives it his dynamic...
REEL RETRO CINEMA: New looks at old flicks and their comic-book adaptations… — UPDATED 6/23/26: It’s the 50th anniversary of Logan’s Run — still one of the grooviest sci-fi films ever. (It opened June 23, 1976.) This piece first ran in 2017 — perfect time to reprint it. Also check out Walt Grogan’s 13 WAYS GEORGE PEREZ Brought More Magic to LOGAN’S RUN. Dig it! — Dan — By ROB KELLY It’s the year 2274, and life is perfect: No one has to work. You don’t have to do anything, really, except enjoy yourself all day, every day. All your basic needs — food, shelter, entertainment, companionship — are met. There’s only one catch: Life ends when you’re 30. But even then, it’s not so bad. Life doesn’t really end, exactly. Once the crystal embedded in your palm starts to blink red, you’re ready for “Last Day,” which means it’s time for “Renewal” — a process in which you and other fellow citizens are subjected to a public ceremony that vaporizes your old body, and you’re reborn. At least, that’s the official story. Logan 5 (Michael York) is a Sandman, a member of a police unit that tracks down “Runners” — people who don’t want to be reborn and try and escape. After he and his fellow Sandman Francis 7 (Richard Jordan) hunt down one such runner, Logan finds a small, mysterious ankh among the man’s possessions. Later that night, after he meets the ravishing Jessica 6 (Jenny Agutter), who wears the same symbol. He investigates, and the massive computer system that runs everything tells him that the ankh is a symbol of “Sanctuary,” a mythical place to which Runners escape—1,056 of them so far. Logan is instructed to go undercover as a Runner to find Sanctuary — and destroy it. Directed by Michael Anderson (who also helmed Doc Savage: Man of Bronze, a film we’ve previously covered on REEL RETRO CINEMA), and based on a 1967 book by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, Logan’s Run stands pretty much as the last example of Old Hollywood’s attempts at making adult sci-fi epics before George Lucas changed the world with Star Wars just a year later. It’s a cautionary tale about the dangers of the late-60’s hippie movement and the incipient Me Generation, taken to extreme, apocalyptic lengths. Everything seems great to the people who live in the collection of geodesic domes that make up the sealed city. They are told...
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