Magazines

[Fog Dude]

When it comes to TV guides, my Nan just used the one that came free with the Sunday Mirror, and so my aunt now does the same with the copy in Saturday's edition of The Times but for whatever reason I mimicked the attempted snobbishness of my paternal grandparents instead and insisted on the Radio Times until I went away to uni for the second time. Within the past decade the only issue my family bought other than the Christmas one was the 100th anniversary special, pretty much dead on a year ago. 

Bacon mentioning the Goosebumps comic reminded me that Sonic the Comic started out like a video games mag (except cheaper and more frequent) with an editorial, gaming news, reader art and letters sandwiched between strips based on various Sega IP. Within about 18 months it'd morphed into 95% just Sonic stories which deviated massively from the games, plus the occasional reappearance by Decap Attack which Sega had no plans to bring back as an actual gaming franchise by that point. 

The anglophone internet often assumes people our age grew up with the Archie Comics take on Sonic but the Yanks really missed a treat with the humour and creativity in our version. 

[SuperBacon]

I also remembered that I bought a couple of issues of Electronic Gaming Monthly and Wizard, which was about comics and collecting comics and such stuff.

Both of them seemed really cool as they were from the states, were full of things that we couldn't get here, were A5 and cost about £6 an issue. Reckon I got them in Forbidden Planet when Kingston still had one.

I also remembered the other basketball magazine, which was called Slamdunk and was more like a paper. I think it even folded out into broadsheet size. 

By the way, I haven't been on ebay today looking at job lots of Goal and The Source magazine. Not at all.

[Carbomb]

12 hours ago, davertfnewman said:

As a pre-teen and teenager, bought all the expected wrestling, computer and video games, music and lad mags, but there were two "collect the series" I got hooked on, one good and one bad.

The good:

Great fantasy series, which used real mythological creatures and the like as the basis for their villains, which rebooted after a year as a sci-fi series.

God, I'd forgotten about that! I didn't have it, but a mate used to let me read his. It was great.

[DCW]

I used to go through a rake of magazines, even as a kid. I'd be getting the official PS1 magazine, Shoot & Match, Irish football league magazine called Kickin. When I got big into wrestling I'd be getting WWF or Raw too along with Power Slam and WOW magazine when I evolved into a smarky teenage tosser. My aulder brother was big into cars so he'd have Max Power magazines stashed under his bed that I really 'enjoyed' too, as they were basically Loaded or Nuts magazines with a few pictures of a Honda Civic or whatever thrown in. I'd then get NME, Hot Press and Kerrang later in my teens when I was all angsty and deep.

My ma was a sow for books, papers and magazines too. All those Women's Own and Take a Break stuff, plus the National Enquirer which I could never understand why she'd bother with!

I'd rarely buy any magazines these days, only the ones that come with the Saturday paper. Same for papers too really. My ma would get 2 in our house each day when I was a kid. A morning and evening edition. We'd get the weekly local paper which is long gone and had the best letters section, with the same 2 lads writing in each week complaining about important things like speed bumps or foxes eating their bins.  Basically that Accidental Partridge Twitter account in print form!

Edited September 8, 2024 by DCW

[Carbomb]

There used to be a thread on here about all those magazines like Take A Break and Chat, in which I mentioned my mum often buys them, particularly the psychic/woo-woo ones like Chat - It's Fate and Take A Break - Fate & Fortune, because they're so ludicrous. Stuff like "Psychic horse re-united me with lottery-winning ex" and all that shite.

Edited September 8, 2024 by Carbomb

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

8 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Psychic horse re-united me with lottery-winning ex" and all that shite.

It's not shite, I know that horse, he's my neigh-bour. 

Sorry, I'll get my cloak. 

[johnnyboy]

17 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

There used to be a thread on here about all those magazines like Take A Break and Chat...

The king of those being "Love It!"

Edited September 8, 2024 by johnnyboy

[SuperBacon]

Yeah fair play, Guess Who can get heated.

[TheBurningRed]

Forgot to add that in my teens I would read Top Gear magazine religiously. Looking at all the cars I’d never afford and reading their opinions on ones I might be able to afford (my dad) when I passed my test when I was 17. Taking Clarkson’s opinions on motors seriously. I was car mad and was going to pass before all my mates. Well I’m nearly 34 now and only starting lessons next month. So that was all a waste of time. 

Great free gifts though. Love my Fast and Furious key ring exhaust.  

[Lorne Malvo]

Sorry, but ''Evil ex punched my son when he won at Guess Who' just creased me.

[air_raid]

I always used to love a peruse of Closer on my lunch break. Thankfully those mags have seemingly been stopped with “Look how fat this celebrity got” shite in these days of enlightenment that body shaming the unsuspecting victims of paps leads to horrific bullying, bulimia, suicide etc. Always thought, conversely, it was slightly unjust that the women who as consenting adults were making a living from getting their kit off in print had that avenue ripped away forcing them to choose doing it on the Internet or finding a new line of work.

Gaming wise, I was a slave to Games Master. I’ll never forget them giving Sonic 2 65% and claiming it a colossal letdown, mostly on the basis of it apparently being too easy. My two favourite memories, however, were from different publications. CVG did a beat em up special with a dual feature of a complete guide to Mortal Kombat 2 on the SNES (which I bought) and a guide to the new-to-arcade Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, with all the bangles and baubles of Akuma and Super Combos, which near 20 years later I finally got to play properly, as a download on the now-wife’s PS3. The other, was my first ever games magazine purchase, a Nintendo Magazine System with a free CD of the music from the SF2 arcade system, a game I’d not played yet but through just listening to the music I knew I had to own. Which I did, when I finally got my SNES.

And… wow, “MatchFacts” just popped back into my brain. And the wall chart you got with all four divisions and little cardboard kits in the team colours to keep the tables updated.

[SaitoRyo]

I always loved sitting down and reading a magazine. Primarily wrestling ones and, in particular, Power Slam, but I also regularly read other stuff and have big boxes full of the fuckers in my parents' attic. 

When I was younger, I was fascinated by the horror film magazines that my stepdad had, which included Fangoria and the brilliant, relatively short-lived Fear. When I was doing my MRes in 2014, a chunk of my research involved sifting through archives of old film magazines and periodicals, which was a lot of fun (and fruitful as far as improving my thesis). 

I never really got into music magazines, but in my late teens I came across a big job lot of No Depression issues in a charity shop, which coincided nicely with my burgeoning interest in Americana and alt-country. A great magazine that I continued to seek out back issues of. 

As well as wrestling, film, football, LADS mags and whatever else I would read when I was younger, I also for whatever reason had a soft spot for Heat. My mother bought it every week and I'd always skim through it, despite not really caring about celebrity culture. Must have been the TV guide they had and the occasional entertaining interview, I guess. Just a weird habit, but I suppose I just got something from sifting through a magazine, regardless of what the content was. 

[RedTwoster]

A little trip through my childhood here...I remember when I got my first ever comic. I went to the shop with my grandpa, I was a toddler and I was allowed to choose any magazine or comic - and much to his bemusement I chose...

It was actually because of the free gift - I can't remember what it was though. When I turned 5, my mum said she was going to start getting me a comic - I could choose between The Beano or Dandy. I asked if I could get both, so that I could decide which one I kept reading. I never had to make that decision, as I kept getting them both each week. 

I soon added Sonic the Comic to my regular purchases - and this was the first edition I ever got, I remember the scent of the scratch-and-sniff sticker free gift as if it was yesterday: 

I would pick up most earlier magazines from boot sales and jumble sales. My mum bought Take a Break, and the first edition of Cosmic came with it. This was a genius move as she gave it to me, and I can't have been the only child who wanted to keep getting it after that. 

My first regular gaming magazine was Planet PC. My mum was happy to buy it, because she thought - since it was based around PCs - it must be educational: 

...it wasn't, but I ended up getting every edition. I would occasionally get Amiga Format too - my parents had no idea that a child probably shouldn't have been reading it. They were very much of the videogames = for kids mindset back then. 

 

[wordsfromlee]

22 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

My mum bought Take a Break, and the first edition of Cosmic came with it. This was a genius move as she gave it to me, and I can't have been the only child who wanted to keep getting it after that. 

 

Fucking hell. This has unlocked a long forgotten memory. 

[TheBurningRed]

Completely forgot about the Sonic comic. 

Also forgot about Smash Hits. My sister would get that every two weeks and I’d read it after. Always loved the lyrics cards they had printed in there.