Seems kind of crazy that it's lasted so long. I wonder if this is because someone else has got the license to publish the Buffy comic in the UK? If so, cool, although I sincerely hope this doesn't lead to imports of the Buffy comic being blocked as several other comics have been. Because, damnit, I don't want to be months behind the US on Buffy again. :(

daylight | April 25, 15:10 CET

I think it would be more likely that fewer and fewer people were buying it. But saying that, it had a good innings and it'll be sad to see it go.

You do raise an interesting point about the Buffy season 8 comic book being printed in the UK though. It'll be interesting to see if that happens. Certaintly Marvel UK are going great guns with their reprints of the US titles.

Simon | April 25, 15:22 CET

They haven't done anything to block Marvel imports though. There has been a history of some other licensors doing this; a few years ago there was a massive furor over Transformers books suddenly being unable to leave North American shores, and only last year London-based pseudojournalist Rich Johnston was suddenly unable to get a copy of the issue revealing who had killed him off in the pages of CSI!

daylight | April 25, 15:32 CET

Just too strange .... I bought my first ever issue a few weeks ago. Because of the Joss interview and Steven S. DeKnight's "Episode Dissection" of Dead Things, one of my very favorite eps ever. I hope my local Borders gets the last issue, it will most likely become an instant collectors item.

Shey | April 25, 15:36 CET

There will also be a farewell from at least one of the Buffy book authors. ;-)

OzLady | April 25, 15:59 CET

I wonder if they will finally get a new picture of SMG to publish? I used to laugh on the rare occassions I saw the magazine becuae it was always the same "arms crossed, looking at the camera" pose. Soemtimes they flipped it, sometimes they changed the colour of her clothes but always the same picture.

I looked for the most recent issue and couldn't find it. I'll have to look a little harder for this one.

Lioness | April 25, 16:04 CET

this saddens me to no end. i am an avid reader of the Buffy magazine. boo, tear.

death is my gift | April 25, 16:10 CET

It was getting harder to get a copy in my local town, so I can't say I'm too surprised. It is still sad, though.

Shade of Pale | April 25, 16:22 CET

Oh, gosh! That's such a shame. I was never a subscriber, but I really enjoyed the articles they released on-line.

Madhatter | April 25, 16:44 CET

I have every issue of the Buffy/Angel magazines starting with the very first way back in 98 when it was published by Cinescape Sad to see it go.

Buffyfantic | April 25, 16:55 CET

Even though I've usually read all news stories already on the internet I still like to get this for the interviews, articles, reviews etc so I'll be said to see it go.

Derf | April 25, 16:58 CET

I'm sad to see it go but I think Simon is right and also think that sales dwindled. It's amazing it lasted so long after the series finished. However I believe the problem with the magazine is that it placed too much emphasis on doing interviews with the actors which resulted in ongoing updates on their careers (in the most recent issue #93 find interviews with Benz, Acker, Rohm and a profile on Caulfield). Whilst its interesting to read what our actors are up to I don't think the specific actors are what resonated with fans deep down about the series, the writing did.

I think the magazine missed an opportunity to explore the writing far more. The "Writer's Handbook" seven part guide was great, but not enough. I would have liked to see more "Episode Dissection" articles per issue - these were in depth interviews with Mutant Enemy members about their episodes. For example the most recent issue #93 features DeKnight talking about his episode "Dead Things" in depth. But why was there only a few "Episode Dissections" in the past few years? Why was there never an article about Buffy academia, about fan fiction? Instead there were too many fluffy articles like "Buffy's Top 10 Weapons". I don't think the magazine had enough material to reach increasingly older Buffy fans. It's a great shame.

Dalton | April 25, 17:05 CET

Check out Wiki-article: Buffy/Angel Mags: I also have the complete collection from #1-#93 and summarised the features and interviews from every issue over at the good ol' Wikipedia.

What I'll miss most, is the insight the actors gave us on their characters in earlier interviews. For example Denisof's perspective on Wesley is really interesing to read about (Denisof interviews with the mag are used extensively in the wiki-article about Wesley).

paxomen | April 25, 17:15 CET

I only ever bought one issue, way back in 2001, but it was cool. Flipping through later issues, I don't know, I never bought it because it always seemed a month or two late as far as news stories went...which, yeah, is because of the time it takes to print such a publication.

Still, I'll be snagging this last issue.

UnpluggedCrazy | April 25, 17:27 CET

Oh that's a pity. I was hoping for a lot of coverage into the Angel Season 6 comic when it arrived. Oh well:(

angeliclestat | April 25, 17:42 CET

That's a shame it's coming to an end, but like others, I'm surprised the magazine lasted as long as it did. I'll have to pick up the last one.

maje | April 25, 18:51 CET

OzLady- Chris Golden?

Dana5140 | April 25, 19:01 CET

I don't know that it's too weird for the magazine to still be published. Doctor Who magazine's been knocking around in one form or another since 1980...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_Magazine

... and the show wasn't even on television for half of that time. I began reading in the late nineties and it was subsisting on articles about the spin-0ff novels and audios, Andrew Pixley's thorough making of archives and general articles and interviews about different aspects of the productions -- with an original comic strip every week.

The size of the readership ebbed and flowed but eventually it became again one of the linchpins in the coverage of the new series with Russell T Davies writing a monthly column about the show which has regularly been filleted by newspapers for titbits.

But the point was, through all that time it never lost sight of who was reading and who they were publishing for and I think it might have been helped by the fact that there was always the promise that the series would return to television in one form or another.

It does seem a shame though, that when there are finally 'canonical' Buffy stories being published that could have appeared within its pages, that its folding. Again though, the magazine industry is in trouble across the board in some genres because people are looking to the web for their information and this might be another casualty of that.

Plus, haven't magazines become expensive. One of the reasons I've stopped buying quite so many is because you take two to the counter at WH Smith and you'll be lucky to get change from a tenner.

feelinglistless | April 25, 19:30 CET

Aww geez....

DaddyCatALSO | April 25, 20:53 CET

That's definitely a shame.

And yes, a UK reprint of Season 8 would be nice...

Craig Oxbrow | April 25, 21:46 CET

Odd that the comic books are going through the roof, but the novels and magazine are calling it quits. Does that mean we just want to SEE more Buffy, as opposed to reading stories or behind-the-scenes about Buffy?

quantumac | April 25, 22:07 CET

Dalton, the "Buffy" magazine was licensed by 20th Century Fox, which means, as I understand it, Fox had to approve all topics. (With any licensed magazine -- Star Trek, Lost, you name it, the licensing entity has a say over content.) There were certain things they weren't going to go for, like fan fiction (we know how enthusiastic most studios are about that). It is a shame about the magazine, though.

Shapenew | April 25, 22:23 CET

Dana, yup. I figured that since it was me posting it, that was obvious. ;-)

ETA: Medication and grammar do not mix.

[ edited by OzLady on 2007-04-25 19:51 ]

OzLady | April 25, 22:51 CET

I certainly didn't buy or even read every issue but whenever I came across it I liked the "tone". It was always nice to see it in the newsagents, I'm sorry next month's will be the last.

silvius | April 25, 22:58 CET

Do we know if this is the end of all versions of the magazine, or just the UK's? The US edition is also published by Titan, and shares at least some of the same content, but it does seem to be its own entity.

LKW | April 25, 23:09 CET

Truly the end of an era. I will be slightly sad to see it go, but also relieved. I started getting the UK magazine from the very first issue, and although the articles and interviews are usually of a decent quality (although there is occasional fluff and padding), it was generally a good read.

But it's now nearly 100 issues and I'm almost certain that there have been more issues since the end of Buffy than there were when the show was actually on. I think there's only so much new material that can be covered, and lately there have been some things that are very similar to what has been done before (like top ten villains or best scenes etc) which don't really add anything new.

I think Alias magazine which was also produced by Titan did it better- it started just before the show's third season, was published every two months and wrapped up not too long after the show's finale. To be honest I only really continued getting the Buffy magazine because I had already collected so many issues and all those of Angel magazine before they merged the two back together again. I'd guess I probably have over 100 magazines which probably started off at about £2.50 and are now about £4, so I've probably spent at least £300 on them.

But it is sad to see it go because it does meant that this era of the Buffyverse is well and truly gone. There wasn't much longer the magazine could have gone on without any new projects and I don't think coverage of the comics is enough to warrant keeping it going. But it's had good innings and they have kept the standard quite high for a TV tie-in magazine so it will be missed.

Razor | April 25, 23:51 CET

It's not so easy to compare it with the Doctor Who Magazine, as DWM wasn't strictly a magazine - it always featured a comic strip, and for all those years it was off air, the Doctor's adventures continued in comic book form. Furthermore, having been on air for nearly thirty years prior to its disappearance from TV, there was an awful lot of material to chew on - and chew they did.

To my young eyes, the continued existence of Doctor Who Magazine looked bizarre to me, but not as bizarre as, when I'd become accustomed to this, they revamped it to tie in with the new series. And now Billie Piper goes on chat shows and says, despite not being in it any more, she has a subscription and loves it.

(PS I completely agree with Dalton's comments - it always appeared far too actor-oriented to me, which completely turned me off.)

daylight | April 26, 01:51 CET

LKW, it's the end of the Buffy/Angel Magazine everywhere.

TaraDi | April 26, 03:42 CET

I have a bunch of them, enjoyed them, but they were a bit pricey for me to buy them all.

Still, I am really sad about it, because it's another symbol of my Buffy world really being over.

Sad.

Xane | April 26, 04:51 CET