2000 AD Online Forum

Finally caught up with the latest evidence that we are living the end times...

Why are they identical?

How can they both claim to be the 'best selling men's weekly magazine'?

Okay, yesterday's post-payday impulse buy was a scanner...

Still to find a good resolution:filesize ratio, so each scan may be on the slow-loading side.

Link: More sketches

Cross-phasic dimensional physics?

Offhand I can't remember which magazine poached him, but the launch editor of one magazine was bought by the people launching the other magazine halfway through production. So they're identical because the same man was responsible for both. That's according to an article in Private Eye, anyway.

I've got my copy of Private Eye right here, and it says:

HOW MAGAZINES WORK

As magazine giants Emap and IPC lock horns with their two new men's weeklies, Nuts and Zoo Weekly, hacks have been quick to point out the similarities between the two, which range from a near-identical masthead to the bra, beer and balls content.

Could this be because Nuts' editor Phil Hilton was working on Emap's "secret" launch for more than six months before IPC lured him to be its editor instead? Of course not. Professional honour would have prevented Hilton from revealing what his previous employer was planning, so the mags' amazing similarity is simply a case of great minds thinking alike.

Strangely I can't think of any instances of magazines being released near simultaneously that were both really, really good.

there has been a 'rumour' that this has been the norm for a while now

some editors keep the same stories in a drawer once commissioned and recieved well, they then give the document to a writer and say 'update that', while moving around magazines meaning that diffrent readers get to see the same stories

a lot of the stories in the first issues of these titles have all been approached in some way, i bought them for teh tv pages and will continue to get the one thats 60p for the next 5 weeks for this reason

after i will stop (but by then they will probably commission some new material as well)

its a bit like dragging an old strip back up with a new creative team in 2000ad, bcos the new creators give the readers a fresh perspective on an old idea (which is then either liked or not liked)

Me neither Art.

To be honest nothing has changed.

i dunno, is it healthy, these type of things? are girls mags just as crap? i wouldnt know cos i hate girls mags with a passion. my sons car mags are pretty halarious, you know like FAST car or whatever, all tits & zooped up mega cars ( my scoobies got ice !), but the letters page demonstrates that clearly only 10 yr olds read it. Its all drivel really, why would sensible comic readers want to digest this pap... or is it a boy thing i can't understand?

hmm, must say I'm in agreement with Bou on this one..
I don't enjoy reading the "lad mags", but then again, each to their own...but when I look in the newsagent at all the rows of mags they do tend to look alike.

Every single lad mag has been useless.

And now all the film mags seem a waste of money...

Bar newspapers, Tooth and the Meg are my ownly periodicals

I had a look at the what about EIGHT near identical digitial photography mags today, which proved to be totally useless in my camera quest (thanks for the advice on the other thread btw)... Jesus who buys them!

The Economist is still good. Though I do wonder if the day is coming when they add a fast cars and babes section.

Personally I find I have to toss between the two.

ADE

Daily papers aside, the only thing I pick up regularly is Private Eye. I occasionally get the Official PS2 Magazine, but that's really only for the demo disc; I can find far better news & previews online.

Doesn't the newsagent get cross?

EDGE - much as I dislike the pomposity, it seems to be the only games mag that isn't LOADED up.

I went off Private Eye - it just got repetitive  - The Onion seems to be spot on but that's not really a periodical.

Is TRIPWIRE still monthly?

Is Tripwire still published?

occasionally, i dont think it has ever managed to be monthly

i asked my comic shop to order once and he refused cos they never deliver on time???

Doesn't the newsagent get cross?
thankyou for a laugh out loud moment there.

we dont get any of these mags. here. FHM Uk is banned and the local version was banned at one point for to much women in lingerie and the promotion of unsavoury life styles.
sex before marriage, disscussions on oral sex etc.

but there seems to be a huge market for this kind of mag. with the internet offering lots of free porn. so im told.
i would think its the former razzle.fiesta reader, spending his income on a what he percieves as more upmarket magazine.

Lads mag are bollocks, lets call it Blokey...dont need no bunch of 30 somethings trying to tell me whats cool to wear, cool to listen to and just cool in general. Big huge adds that promote the products of their advertising clientelle in the guise of a Magazine with infomative articles(ware stussi this year its the in thing, really translates to Stussi have the most advertising in us lets promote them more to keep em happy.  Officail Games mags are just as bad, u telling me a mag backed by Sony isn't going to biased towards Sony published games and exclusives..ha

CU Krestel(hates this cold commercial world we live in)

I kind of like Boy's Toys. Gadgets and suchlike, films, DVDs, electronics, given honest reviews in language that we can understand relatively easily while still telling us all we need to know.

EDGE is just as bad - as are unofficial games mags, when a big player like SONY comes into the market all the mags are biased bcos it means bigger paychecks for them, with lots pf corporate money being thrown around by people by a big company that doesnt really know what its doing but its attempting to buy its way to the top quicker than it would otherwise get there

even the FIA is biased towards FERRARI bcos they are the biggest/most popular car company and longest running, so when they do well formula 1 does well

This why ive always loved to read comics, maybe one day the rest of Britain will wake up to the fact, another point... how cheap magazines are compared to comics in general.

how cheap magazines are compared to comics in general.

Is this because they have a larger reader base? (purely guesswork by the way, not based on any hard facts whatsoever)

Nah, stront EDGE isn't biased towards Sssony just console games.

I shamefully admit to reading New Scientist regularly enough to have considered taking out a subscription the other day...

Apart from my subscription to the prog and Meg, I only really get Fortean Times regularly although that too has been somewhat lacking lately. In my *ahem* younger days (about six years ago) I used to get White Dwarf until I realised that it was basically an expensive monthly advert for new Games Workshop stuff.

Another thing that put me off 'review' type mags (though I did buy a couple of Computer Shoppers when I bought my last pc - it was only for the adverts) Was hearing an interview with crime writer Ian Rankin about when we was writing for a hi-fi mag and after a while used to 'review' stuff without even taking it out of the box...

Damn! I hadnt heard of Zoo! My missus wasnt best pleased to hear she'd be getting no help on thursdays! Heres hoping they come out on the same day...

hex

how cheap magazines are compared to comics in general.

Think about what's actually printed - photographers are gonna be cheaper then original artists and columnists are going to be cheaper then script writers (I assume, if I'm wrong then everything sucks).
Bish-Op/Gordon - this is true right? You do get a better page-rate for stories then text columns?

As far as video game magazines go, CVG had a period up until about 97/98 where they were REALLY good. Very honest, personal and thorough. Respect for games, talent and personality. They even had the quirky but cool 'high five' rating system (1-awful, 2-very flawed, unlikely to be enjoyed, 3-not bad. might get fun from it, 4-good! solid game, well worth a play. Great stuff, 5-creme de la creme)
And they did that with a hand holding up fingers. It was really fun, but they suddenly, for no good reason, seemed to fire a load of staff, then changed the logo and style of the mag, ripped up all the good stuff, and became a generic mag. When I last saw them they were even rating things out of 10. Switching to stars when they overhauled it was bad enough, but that's just stupid. Eesh...

Real shame!!

EDGE is biased towards towards anything that will increase its readership (and therefore its revenue)

i dunno, why don't they make an interesting magazine,
 you know,  zooped up fast cars, bit of ironic politics, whopping great motorbikes, great sound systems, latest techy gadgets, bit a science stuff, completely ignoring celebs, power tools & chainsaw maintenance, how to strip down annoyingly stubborn rusty machines, weaponary ( for over 21's & decoratative purposes only ), and the latest bargains in kinky high heeled boots.

tsk.

With an editorial policy like that there can only be one conclusion:

BOU FOR THARG!

Psst! Everyone ignore udleyDay.

One of my mates is responsible for distributing Zoo and when they sent their people out to get the mag in store they called them 'squirrels' 'cos they were after Nuts.

Aw - ain't that cute?

Did like this joke though:
Why does John Leslie Cry during sex?

Pepper Spray.