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Well, here’s a press release with some familiar figures behind it, and the head shots to prove it.

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• Steve Blackwell is the co-founder and Creative Director of Champion! Magazine. Before joining the Champion! revolution, Blackwell was the creative director of Wizard Magazine and a world-class freelance designer.


• Ralph Cirella is the co-founder and Development Director of Champion! Magazine and can be heard every week on GEEKTIME!…HOWARD101…SiriusXM radio.


• Mike Cotton is the co-founder and Editor in Chief of Champion! Magazine. He spent the last decade working for Wizard Magazine and currently co-hosts the GEEKTIME! radio show.


• Sam Simon is a co-founder and Publisher of Champion! Magazine, which is second only to his long list of television credits including “The Simpsons,” “The Drew Carey Show” and nine primetime Emmys.


In addition, the PR came from April Wiggins, who used to do PR for….Wizard Magazine.

So what is Champion Magazine? An iPad-only magazine promising “In-depth, well-written content paired with innovative functionality allows fans to experience the quality journalism and design of a print product with the flexibility, timelines and functions of a website or blog.”

Cirella has already described it as “life changing” in the rather amusing press release quoted at length below. Comparisons to the ’70s Comics Journal are also certain to bring a smile. Or a smirk.

We’d give you a review, but we’re such plebians that we don’t have an iPad. Yet. However the first preview issue is available for free here. Let us know how you like it.

Listen, watch, read and interact—those are the marching orders of Champion! Magazine.

Just like the heady, thoughtful Comics Journal of the late-’70s and early ’80s gave way to the slick and glossy fan magazines of the ’90s, and the turn of the 21st century saw websites dominate, we’re proud to say Champion! is the latest progression in comic industry and pop culture content.

Download the new app to your iPad by tapping here and see why you don’t just read Champion!, you experience it.

Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief Mike Cotton explains why this new iPad app is unique.

“In-depth, well-written content paired with innovative functionality allows fans to experience the quality journalism and design of a print product with the flexibility, timelines and functions of a website or blog.”

Champion! uses exclusive tablet technology so users can decide what information they want to spend time with and what information they can return to later. It lets the reader decide how they interact and interpret the content. Unlike traditional print publications, Champion! is a living product.

Live Twitter feeds allow readers real-time access to staff and other readers. Additionally, when there’s breaking news, you won’t need to wait a month like a print magazine. An issue update will provide the reader quick access with up-to-the minute industry announcements presented in a way only Champion! can deliver.

“From the moment I picked up the iPad, I knew it would be life-changing for me,” explains Co-Founder Ralph Cirella. “I geek out when design and content are made fun and entertaining. My iPad is a huge part of my life and is always with me. I love how this magazine is jam-packed with all this great content and interactivity that can be viewed virtually anywhere you go…home, train, plane or even outer space!”*

Champion! Magazine will be coming to the Android market later this year.

Champion! publishes monthly. The preview issue is available now for FREE. Issue #1 drops on 9/1/11.

1 COMMENT

  1. I’m sure it’s nice and all but good luck getting anyone to pay for anything Ralphiecakes had his fingers on. I doubt Sam Simon even knows the name of the publication he’s bankrolling here.

  2. It’s basically wizard magazine on the iPad. What you would have expected when wizard announced they were going digital instead of that PDF thing.

    Not sure I would subscribe. Definitely not tcj.

    Would be awesome if two-morrows did something on the iPad.

  3. It looks and plays like a badly designed Flash website from 1997.

    While there were aspects of Wizard I enjoyed back in the day, a 114mb digital issue containing audio of Jim Lee plugging Justice League or interviews asking Bill Hader who cuts his hair is so far removed from good comics journalism I’m a bit staggered by the marketing doublespeak audacity.

    You just don’t read it, you experience it? I’m probably not the target audience but c’mon. Give me readable type and actual content, not content as tappable puzzles out of a children’s magazines.

    The Beat + TCJ + Tom Spurgeon is all I want or need. Gimme an IPad app featuring that crew and I’ll buy every issue.

  4. I love how Ralph thinks he is a “geek” when he only knows how to purchase and then use an apple computer. Maybe if he actually built one himself I would call him a “geek”, but I don’t feel he has earned the title.