The Merchandise Guide
Novelisations
Compiled by Martin Willey

AMZ

The Italian hardcover books, titled Spazio 1999, are novelisations adapted by Gianni Padoan from original scripts. Each book features (usually) two episodes, all heavily illustrated with photos. (Volume 1 featured just Breakaway and a science fact article, volume 2 featured 3 episodes).

Volumes 0 and 4 were translated into German and published in new editions by Koralle in 1977/ 1978. The books were reprinted in Portugal, titled Espaco: 1999. In 1999 two books were reprinted by Fanucci in Italy (see below).

The volumes were in two series; the first series covering all 24 episodes of Year One, and the second series covering 8 episodes of Year Two. A large format edition with three episodes was published in 1975. In 1976 volumes 1-4 were printed. Then the contents of the large format edition were reprinted in volumes 0 and 5, and the other volumes followed until 1978, resuming in 1979 with the four Year 2 editions.

The initial book was 188 pages; the other first series books were 160 pages long, and the second series books 144 pages. The initial pages of each book included photos of the regulars and a full cast list. Each story lasted 63 pages and each book was illustrated with over a hundred large colour photos (the first series books had poorer quality photos, sometimes quite fuzzy). The final pages featured shots from other titles in the series.

The covers of the first series featured an episode shot, usually a head and shoulders portrait of a character, bordered to the right with an Eagle over a hemisphere of Moon. The second series cover features episode photo with various Eagles below and left. The back cover lists all titles over the black sun (prima serie) or the photo of the red moon from the Year 1 series credits (seconda serie).

• There are illustrations of the covers at Moonbase 1999 site

Below: Original first volume from 1975, later split into volumes 0 and 5. Most editions are a plain hardcover binding (left, thanks to Angelo). However, Gordon Moriguchi has one edition with a dust jacket (right).

Fanucci

Fanucci reprinted stories from the AMZ books in 1999, in a new paperback format. The episodes were in production order and included an appendix listing all episodes from both series, a brief description, and credits for each episode.

Each book was L14,000 and 288 pages with a 32 page glossy colour section. Like the original AMZ volumes, the 50 photos used were somewhat fuzzy. The covers were plain silver with a vertical logo. A glossy page inside the covers (page 4) featured a pictorial cover (illustrated here).

In October 2001, Fanucci reprinted more stories in a book for their Solaria series, sold on newstands rather than bookshops.

• Separazione (Breakaway) p5
• Questione di vita o di morte (Matter Of Life And Death) p107
• Sole nero (Black Sun) p153
• Gli occhi di Tritone (Ring Around The Moon) p215
• Appendice (episode list and credits) p271

• Destinazione Terra (Earthbound) p5
• Un altro tempo, un altro luogo (Another Time, another place) p67
• Gli amanti dello spazio (Missing Link) p143
• Il pianeta incantato (Guardian Of Piri) p221
• Appendice (episode list and credits) p275