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Post by fenris on May 6, 2007 12:41:43 GMT
A couple of new genre magazines have emerged to fill the gap left by Dreamwatch;
Sci-Fi Now launched last month, but apparently the editor has already quit, which doesn't exactly bode well. And the first issue of the wonderfully titled Death Ray went on sale last week.
Obviously it's too early to make any judgements, but based on what I've seen so far, Death Ray seems the more promising.
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Post by fenris on May 20, 2007 15:29:58 GMT
Sci-Fi Now launched last month, but apparently the editor has already quit, which doesn't exactly bode well. My local W.H.Smiths was the only place in my vicinity that stocked the first issue of Sci-Fi Now. They haven't bothered stocking the second, which (according to what I've read on other forums) went on sale a week ago. Ho hum.
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Post by fenris on Oct 6, 2007 14:58:42 GMT
Death Ray has only published six issues so far, but it's already established itself as the best British sci-fi/fantasy magazine currently on the market, much better than SFX which in comparison seems very juvenile and much too pleased with itself.
The only downside is that while SFX and Sci-Fi Now are both easily available, Death Ray can be harder to get hold of.
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Post by fenris on Jan 7, 2008 18:48:55 GMT
The monthly Prison Break and 24 magazines, both published by Titan, are ceasing this month. Personally I've never been particularly keen on magazines dedicated to a single TV show. In order to have unrestricted access to the writers, the cast, the designers, and to make use of the authorised photos, such magazines aren't allowed to be critical at all, and are effectively little more than mouthpieces of the show's publicity department.
Also, there's a limit to how much you can actually write about a single show, especially during the wait between seasons. As a result, such magazines tend to have a low page-count, and often rely on extensive use of photos to fill space. Arguably this makes them grossly overpriced.
I can't help but wonder what made Titan think magazines dedicated to 24 and Prison Break would be viable in the first place. Only science-fiction, fantasy and horror series tend to generate the kind of fanbase that buys such publications. For example, the Titan monthlies dedicated to Buffy, Angel, Xena, and Charmed all kept going 2 - 3 years after those TV series were cancelled (the record is undoubtedly held by Doctor Who Magazine - not published by Titan - which maintained strong sales throughout the 15 year period when Who was off air). The fact that Prison Break and 24 can't support magazines despite still being broadcast proves my point.
With this in mind, how much longer can Titan's magazines dedicated to the rapidly fading Lost and medical drama/soap Grey's Anatomy (huge in the States, not particularly big over here) last?
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Post by fenris on Oct 15, 2009 12:23:08 GMT
Genre magazines are dropping like flies this year. Starburst, TV Zone, Cult Times, Shivers (the only magazine to give extensive coverage to Hex when it was being broadcast), Film Review and Xpose all permanently vanished from the shelves in March, when their publisher Visual Imagination went bust. Last week it was announced that Death Ray and Filmstar have ceased publication (the latter after only five issues) because Blackfish Publishing has been shed by parent company Rebellion, due to the credit crunch. Also departing to the great newsagent in the sky is The Dark Side, which has cheerfully covered the European horror scene for almost twenty years.
Yet somehow the truly woeful Sci-Fi Now (the Heat of genre magazines) and the plucky and likeable but incredibly amateurish Gorezone keep going strong.
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Post by orokiah on Oct 19, 2009 21:25:05 GMT
The death of Death Ray is a real shame. Absolutely packed with content, and its book coverage really set it apart from SFX. Loved the short stories too.
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Post by fenris on Jan 17, 2010 14:15:24 GMT
The current issue of SFX has a lengthy article about fantasy (science-fiction & horror) material in UK girls' comics. But to my absolute amazement, DC Thompson's Spellbound isn't even mentioned. This must be either a massive oversight or just sloppy research, as Spellbound was entirely dedicated to fantasy (mostly horror, with a scattering of sci-fi, such as outer-space heroines the Supercats) and as it debuted in 1976, I believe it was the first British weekly comic to be fantasy exclusive, pre-dating 2000AD which came out in 1977. In fact, after finishing reading SFX's article I found the omission of Spellbound so bewildering that I immediately read the whole thing again in the belief that I must have somehow missed a couple of paragraphs.
True, Spellbound didn't last very long: 69 issues, cover dated 25/09/76 - 14/01/78. But that's not too bad when you consider that it's more famous rival Misty only lasted two years: 101 issues, dated 04/02/78 - 12/01/80. The SFX feature mistakenly claims Misty stopped being published in 1984, but the writer may be referring to the Summer Specials and Annuals that publisher IPC/Fleetway kept producing for a few years after the weekly comic ceased. And Spellbound's longevity looks positively impressive when compared to the IPC/Fleetway boys' horror comic Scream, which had a blink-and-you'll-miss-it lifespan of just 15 issues: 24/03/84 - 30/06/84.
Many UK comic fans believe that Misty actually owed it's existence to Spellbound, in that Misty appeared to have been created by IPC/Fleetway to directly compete with the DC Thompson title, in the same way that IPC/Fleetway had launched war comic Battle a few years earlier in response to the success of DC Thompson's Warlord. Ironically, Spellbound folded three weeks before Misty debuted in newsagents.
Considering that the SFX article is mostly devoted to IPC/Fleetway's Jinty (which started out as a traditional girls' comic, but an increasing amount of sci-fi content gradually crept in over several years), with Misty only being mentioned relatively briefly, I'd love to see a follow-up feature dedicated to Spellbound, Misty and Scream, as they were the only horror comics published by the two biggest and most important publishers in British comics history.
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Post by fenris on Feb 4, 2010 17:00:16 GMT
Future Publications, the publishers of SFX, are launching a new sister magazine in March - a brave move, considering the frightening large number of genre periodicals that have fallen victim to the recession during the last twelve months.
Comic Heroes will be dedicated to reviewing & reporting on comic books and the currently in-vogue genre of superhero movies. It's going to be published quarterly and unfortunately will be on retailing at the too-pricey-for-me cost of £7.99 per issue.
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Post by orokiah on Feb 11, 2010 18:11:15 GMT
Comic Heroes will be dedicated to reviewing & reporting on comic books and the currently in-vogue genre of superhero movies. It's going to be published quarterly and unfortunately will be on retailing at the too-pricey-for-me cost of £7.99 per issue. I like the sound of it, but even quarterly I'd probably draw the line at that price. I'm loathe to pay £7.99 for any of their specials either, no matter how many mouse mats/posters/badges/coasters they throw in to sweeten the blow.
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Post by fenris on Feb 14, 2010 17:29:34 GMT
I'm loathe to pay £7.99 for any of their specials either, no matter how many mouse mats/posters/badges/coasters they throw in to sweeten the blow. Yep, the last few SFX Specials have all looked very intriguing, but I haven't bought any of them because eight quid is just too steep a price for a magazine. Of course the counter-argument would be that you're not just getting the mag, but several free gifts as well, to which I say (1.) if the price has been inflated to accommodate the gifts, it means they're NOT ACTUALLY FREE, and (2.) the gifts don't interest me anyway. Badges and double-sized posters might delight the pre-teens, but I've no use for them. * The high cost of the Specials is often raised on the SFX forum, whereupon a member of the editorial staff can be guaranteed to swoop in and post that since they bumped the price up, sales of the Specials have increased dramatically. If so, then fair enough and good for them. But they're not getting my money. * One compliant often directed at SFX is that it's directed at the teenage/early-twenties market. Personally I don't have a problem with that, because the publishers want the magazine to be a success and aiming it at the younger age group is simply good commercial sense (although I still buy SFX, I preferred the sadly defunct Death Ray, mainly because it was written by and for older sci-fans). However, recently SFX's editor has declared on the magazine's forum that the vast majority of SFX's readers are over the age of twenty five. If this is the case, then why are so many of the not-actually-free gifts that accompany the Specials clearly intended for kiddies?
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Post by fenris on Jan 22, 2011 15:22:56 GMT
SFX have a weekly 'genre knowledge' quiz entitled 'Blastermind' on their website. This week, they're challenging visitors to identify twenty one ghosts from various movies, TV shows and comic books. Hmm... number four looks familiar; www.sfx.co.uk/2011/01/21/blastermind-hauntingly-familiar/
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Post by fenris on Jan 24, 2011 20:43:59 GMT
Two more genre magazines have bitten the dust, clearly unable to compete with the up-to-the-minute news and interactive functions provided by dedicated websites and internet forums. It's farewell to Wizard (the most high profile magazine covering the American comic book industry) and it's sister publication ToyFare; Wizard magazine has ceased publication after nearly 20 years, laying off its remaining staff and canceling freelance assignments. Its sibling publication ToyFare has also closed. CEO Gareb Shamus followed a morning filled with reports of the magazines’ demise with a press release announcing the February launch of “an all-new digital magazine called Wizard World” that will target the same audience. Curiously the release, which you can read below, doesn’t mention Wizard magazine. Instead its focus is on the news that Wizard World Inc. is now a public company with Shamus as its president and CEO. Wizard World has since confirmed the closings of Wizard and ToyFare: “Wizard Entertainment is ceasing publication of the print magazines Wizard and ToyFare. Wizard World, Inc. will begin production of the online publication ‘Wizard World’ beginning in February. We feel this will allow us to reach an even wider audience in a format that is increasingly popular and more readily accessible.” Calls to the Wizard offices this morning office went unanswered. The Wizard bullpen blog Pie Monkey has been taken offline, with assurances from its Twitter feed to “Please stay tuned — there’s a good chance we’ll be up and operational in the next 24-48 hours.” The link to magazine subscriptions on the Wizard website is also dead. Launched in 1991, Wizard was once a dominant, if controversial, force in the comics industry, with its price guides, Top 10 Writers and Artists lists and annual Wizard Fan Awards carrying significant weight. But in recent years the magazine’s star faded even as its scope expanded — it rebranded itself as “The Magazine of Comics, Entertainment and Pop Culture” — becoming known more for its staff firings than for its exclusive coverage. ToyFare debuted in 1997 as a companion publication devoted to toys and collectibles. Posted on January 24, 2011 - 09:24 AM by Kevin MelroseSource: robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/01/breaking-wizard-magazine-folds-after-two-decades/
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Post by fenris on Apr 28, 2011 19:27:38 GMT
Genre magazines are dropping like flies this year. Departing to the great newsagent in the sky is The Dark Side, which has cheerfully covered the European horror scene for almost twenty years. Popped into my local branch of WH Smiths today (I only get the chance to visit it about once a month these days), and was very surprised to see that The Dark Side has returned from the dead. The new version continues the numbering (#141) from the magazine's original run, has undergone a revamp that makes it resemble Nineties vintage Fangoria, and is being published on a bi-monthly basis.
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Post by fenris on Oct 5, 2011 14:51:46 GMT
Yet another movie magazine has departed to that great newsagents in the sky. The current issue of DVD & Blu-ray Review, published by Future Magazines (who also produce Total Film, SFX and Comic Heroes), will be the last; We are sorry to announce that the decision has been made to cease publication of DVD & Blu-ray Review magazine. Issue 160, on sale 28th September 2011 will be the last issue of the magazine. Subscribers will receive a letter from us very soon. Thanks for your support of the magazine.Source
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Post by fenris on Oct 29, 2011 15:51:42 GMT
As it's almost Halloween, the weekly 'Blastermind' quiz on the SFX website is challenging visitors to identify twenty five witches from various movies, TV shows and comic books. Hmm... number seven looks familiar; www.sfx.co.uk/2011/10/28/blastermind-witch-watch/
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