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For all of anime's increasing popularity, there is only one regularly-published
anime magazine in the U.S., Animerica from Viz Communications. Two other
prominent anime magazines are from outside the U.S. - Protoculture Addicts
in Canada and Manga Max in Great Britain. In 1999, a new publication popped
onto newsstands. Animefantastique was a title from the Chicago-area publication
house, owned by Frederick Clarke, which grew Cinefantastique from a fanzine
to one of the most respected magazines in the genre world of horror, fantasy
and science fiction films. Dan Persons (pictured), editor of Animefantastique,
was on hand at Otakon to talk about his magazine. |
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Persons said he talked Clarke into starting Animefantastique. "He looked
at where the market was and decided that the market was ready for an animation
magazine that combined eastern and western animation, which was my idea,"
said Persons. That combination, which saw stories on U.S. TV shows next
to articles on Japanese productions, led to some criticism, but Persons
said the criticism wasn't as bad as he expected. |
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Some of the criticism came when people saw Animefantastique covers
featuring the Prince of Egypt movie and the PJ's claymation TV show, and
wondered whether the magazine was really going to have an anime emphasis.
Persons said that was part of the company's marketing strategy, and that
the early issues of Animefantastique had two editions and two covers. Issues
sent to newsstands and general-circulation bookstores had covers with American
series, while issues sent to comics stores had the anime covers. The issue
with the PJ's cover had the Neon Genesis Evangelion review, for example.
That changed for the issue with the Mononoke Hime feature (Persons feels
that is a very important film) and the upcoming issue which features Batman
Beyond: both issues have only one cover for both kinds of retail outlets. |
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The Cinefantastique publishers tried twice in recent years to expand
their magazine line. One publication, Vision, lasted one issue, while the
other, Femme Fatales, is still going strong. Animefantastique's future
depended on its circulation, which is why Persons asked people at the panel
to spread the word about the new book - so more people subscribe.
"Good publicity, bad publicity, just get our name out," he said. Inevitably,
it didn't work. Animefantastique planned to cease publication after the
fall of 1999. |
