Down the Tubes Magazine News and Reference




downthetubes is run entirely by volunteers. Please help with our running costs by making a donation. Thank you.

See also: Titan Magazines FAQ

• DNA Publications
DNA Publications is home to half a dozen SF, fantasy and horror magazines, such as Absolute Magnitude and Weird Tales, with story excepts, essays and more that illuminate the heart of print magazine publishing.

• Mr. Magazine.com's New Monthly Magazine Titles

• Wooden Horse
The latest happenings in the magazine world. Just e-mail Meg Weaver at newsalert@woodenhorsepub.com for a free subscription. Voted one of the 101 Best Websites for 2001 by Writer's Digest magazine

Led by companies such as Deagostini (www.deagostini.co.uk), Fabbri (www.gefabbri.co.uk) and Del Prado, these are ongoing 'series' of magazines building up into a collection. Recent examples include Star Trek -- now being re-issued with DVD -- Carry On and Lord of the Rings.

Usually there's a gift to accompany each issue.

Del Prado publish titles where you build the Titanic one piece at a time over 100 issues (talk about patience!). In the past, they have been rapped over the knuckles for misleading TV advertising on their Doll's House series (See: this report on the OfCom web site).

Recently, the companies started breaking into titles with plenty of comics material in them. Terry Deary's brilliant "Horrible Histories" has been adapted into a part work -- loads of former Marvel UK people working on that including Nick Abadzis -- and Jackie Chan Adventures.

The difference between Part Works and regular titles is that they go firm sale after about Issue 7 and depend on subs sales and high sales to keep going. Most are very short-lived, maybe two years tops, although the Star Trek one apparently set records by lasting for over six on its first run.

Of course the titles can be re-released because they don't carry much time sensitive material. They're also re-published across Europe. The Star Trek title was repackaged as Star Trek Magazine for the US and as Fact Files in Japan where it proved extraordinarily popular.

The publishers do a lot of market testing and have plenty of material under their belts before going national. My friend Marcus Hearn had to plan the entire run of the Star Wars Fact Files in minute detail before it even began to go into commissioning.

The business has grown massively in recent years and the Part Works companies are competing aggressively for new licences, to the extent that apparently there's little chance some big TV successes will become regular comics but instead become part works.

The Guardian did a feature on the success of part works: click here for that story (registration required to read this).