After some teasing of comic fans last month, Multiverse - a new comics news magazine from by former Comics International editor Mike Conroy and team, which will be distributed to UK comic shops - has been announced.A 20-page sampler available to read online here (or download here, PDF link) and other places on the web.
Visitors to the British International Comic Show this weekend will be able to pick up copies of a print version and the actual magazine itself is set to debut at the London MCM Expo at the end of the month (although copies may also reach BICS, too).
The free Zero Issue, which includes items on developments for Batman into a global franchise and Marvel's Spider-Girl will also be distributed in comic shops.
Barry Renshaw, perhaps best known for his work on the new Eagle Initiative and Redeye Magazine, is also involved in the project.
"I’m extremely proud of Multiverse," says Mike in his editorial. "It will be a £2.50 news magazine running to 52 pages and will plug the huge hole left on this side of the Atlantic by the demise of Comics International."
Unashamedly populist each issue will offer a mix of reports, interviews and features covering all aspects of the comics industry.
"It’ll provide straight forward reportage without hype and without bias alongside the much-missed rundown on all the UK-based comics events, in-store happenings and new
shop openings," says Mike.
After the problems Comics International had, why is Mike, who came off badly from that whole debacle, taking the risk of lanching a similar title? Is he mad? Isn’t print heading the way of the dinosaur, the dodo and the great auk?
"Well, if I thought it were, I wouldn’t be staking my future on Multiverse," he says. "Neither would I be as excited as I am over the prospect of being management-free, to produce the
kind of comics magazine that I envisage. And as for my sanity in taking this on… the jury’s out on that one!
"Digital – whether Internet news sites or downloadable comics – isn’t a replacement for hard
copy magazines, it’s simply a new competitor, which can coexist," he argues. "It won’t kill off publishing any more than television finished off radio or DVDs brought an end to cinema."
We certainly hope Mike's right. From forum posts over on the downthetubes forum, we know a lot of people miss a title like Comics International. Let's hope Multiverse fills the gap.
• Read the Mulitiverse sampler available online here
• Download the sampler as a PDF
• What do you think of Multiverse? Discuss it in the downtheubes forum (registration required)
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