Rumors flew yesterday that Wizard had canceled Anime Insider, its J-culture-themed magazine, and Newsarama confirmed:
In an email to Newsarama, Gramling writes, “…after several years of producing Anime Insider magazine, Wizard Entertainment has decided to discontinue its publication. The last issue will be Anime Insider #67. We thank our dedicated staffers for all of their hard work, and we thank our readership for their loyal support.”
Johanna Draper Carlson rounds up other recent comics magazine expirations, including Comics Now! — the last issue came out in September, now officially canceled. Comic Foundry and Write Now! are also mentioned, although it should be noted, Comic Foundry ended because its creator just didn’t have time to do it anymore, not really because of economic factors.
Is Comics Comics still coming out? I forget.
Y’know, I typically MetalSpell DeathWatch, but to each their own. ;)
Yeah, this is legit. Everyone I knew who’d done work at Anime Insider knew about it last night.
There’s a lot of anger over how the closing allegedly went down– AI essentially didn’t get a last issue. Wizard pulled with Anime Insider what they appear to be preparing to do with Wizard itself, slowly eliminating staff jobs in favor of freelancers so the plug is easier to pull when the time comes.
The word I’ve heard is that when AI closed, maybe two staff editors were left. Once #67 was out the door, work was simply stopped before #68 could be started. Which probably means the freelancers who worked on #67 are just finding out now there won’t be any work to do for next month.
If and when Wizard itself dies, I expect it to happen this way.
COMICS COMICS is still coming out. We’re just taking our time! There should be a new issue later this year, though…
…it should be noted, Comic Foundry ended because its creator just didn’t have time to do it anymore, not really because of economic factors.
Well, other than the fact that I’m guessing the magazine never pulled in enough cash that Tim Leong could afford to do it as a full-time job, so when the time he was spending on Comic Foundry came into conflict with the demands of the gig that pays his bills, something had to give, and Comic Foundry got shuttered.
I feel compelled to note that Tripwire is INCREASING our production schedule to quarterly. Of course we’re not exclusively a comics magazine either, but here we are.
And, at the same time, Heidi gets on my case for not publishing any new issues of my magazine. :>
As far as I’m aware, there were three editors on staff at AI when it closed. (Summer, Angela, and Matt Sukovich. Or at least Matt was still with the magazine when Issue #67 went to press.)
From what I’m hearing, work on Issue #68 was also completed, and the freelancers had already begun work on #69 and now none of them know if they’re even going to be paid for their work on issues 67 and beyond. (Wizard has been paying its freelancers on “good faith” for about a year now.) Furthermore, rumor is that at least one member of editorial was on vacation when the axe was dropped.
Just a reminder that TwoMorrows books are still going strong. Not sure about numbers, just wanted people to know so they can go out and look for them.
And they publish some nice comics-related books too! This one should be of interest to certain members of The Beat Staff: http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=793
Great, and I just started writing for them too! Oh well, was fun while it lasted…
“This one should be of interest to certain members of The Beat Staff: http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=793”
I thought that was going to be the new Kirby Collector TPB, since I have an interview with Karl Kesel in the book, talking about Karl’s use of Kirby characters in his early 2000s DC work.
Yayyyyyy!!
TEAR DOWN THE WALL! TEAR DOWN THE WALL! TEAR DOWN THE WALL!
~
Coat
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