your sfx
You lovely lot recall spending two decades with your favourite magazine. Plus all the regular sections.
Hot Topic What are your memories of 20 years of SFX?
I remember when I first saw issue one on the shelves of my newsagents it was in the same section as FHM, Loaded and Maxim ( they did the thing of mistaking the F for an E) but it popped off the shelf. It was something new, a magazine for sci- fi geeks that was hip and cool ( yeah, 21- year- old me needs a slap). Here was a magazine one could leaf through in any coffeeshop or indie- bar. Geek- chic had arrived. ( Ooh! I need a slap!)
Jack Woodgate What’s my favourite memory of SFX? Could it be picking up issue one, all white and pink and shiny, in the Virgin Megastore on a trip to Glasgow on release day? Or getting my first subscriber copy a month after – Judge Dredd on the cover. Who thought that was a good idea again?
Could it be doing my first Couch Potato after years reading the feature – or doing the Spaced one round at Simon Pegg’s house and ending up sleeping in his spare room after we missed the train home? Could it be launching the SFX Network and seeing it fly so high ( before suffering such a bump), or seeing the My Sci- Fi feature we launched on that still being used to this day in the mag?
Nope. All those remain cherished, beautiful thoughts – but my favourite memory is being dressed in bubblewrap and Danish pastries to pretend to be Princess Leia for one of Fordy’s insane marketing ideas while young Thomas Mayo swung a baguette like a lightsaber. Thankfully all pictures from that have been lost to the ether ( he said hopefully…).
“Congratulations on 20 years of glorious genre journalism”
Congratulations on hitting 20 years of glorious genre journalism. You’ve lit up the newsstands with sparkling copy, stunning covers and the word SEX apparently peaking out the top of the magazine rack.
Iain Hepburn ( former SFX writer) I met my wife through the pen pal page. I forget the issue number, it was 13 years ago and had Harrison Ford in grey on the cover [ Sounds like the best thing ever to come from What Lies Beneath!– Ed].
Eduard Korhonen The first number I bought was in Coimbra, Portugal, in 1997, number 29, the cover was Alien: Resurrection, if I’m not mistaken [ you are – it was Babylon 5! – Ed]. It was my girlfriend who offered it to me, since she knew I loved all things related to science fiction, and even if I was a nerd, I was a cute one. I have since been a subscriber for more than 10 years. The girlfriend is long gone and the cuteness also went with the wind, but I’m still a nerd at heart, and one of the reasons for it, is because I kept reading SFX!
Gaspar Garção I used to enjoy your awards ceremonies, especially the one at Wolf 359 in Blackpool ( the year the fire alarms got set off and JMS lost the scripts for season five of Babylon 5).
Andrew Grant I got my first subscription to your magazine at Christmas 2004. It was a gift from my brother and his girlfriend. I never really got on with Lee as we were growing up, but Samantha turned our relationship around. And they always gave the best Christmas pressies! So that year, that’s what I received. A year’s worth of geek heaven on a monthly basis! I was chuffed!
Lee and Sam died in 2005. But SFX kept turning up at my
door. From them. And it always, ALWAYS put a smile on my face when it arrived. Because it was still from them. And I cherished every issue because of it. That, and it’s just a good mag, too! So, thanks for giving me these memories.
Rob Harris My greatest experience with SFX is donating the issues to my school library. They had issues from 2004- 2008, so I decided to donate my issues to give SF fans something slightly more contemporary to read. I look forward to donating future issues!
Carlos Almonacid Twenty years? Surely it hasn’t been that long?! I still have all my copies and peruse them from time to time. I love the tongue- incheek captions to the photos, and crawling through the small print to find gems that have been left for those who are patient.
Dave Hartley
Thanks for all your recollections about the mag and, of course, thanks for reading. Stay with us because, if anything, the future is going to be even brighter!
INVASION EART H! I think the future for British scifi is unfortunately rather bleak at the moment, but if any TV company wanted my opinion on ideas for a new drama I would want something around space travel and aliens coming to Earth, from a British point of view. I saw an article in the paper recently which said that SETI are looking at intensifying their efforts to send messages out into space, and the comment was made that we might be safer not to draw attention to ourselves. If that’s not a cue for a drama series I don’t know what is.
Gillian Alcock
Ah, let’s draw attention to ourselves! Who cares what might happen? If there’s a big party going on beyond the stars then we should be part of it!
NOT SO BEASTLY I found it a bit condescending that you called the renewal of Beauty And The Beast for a fourth season ( before the third season has even been transmitted) “inexplicable”.
Perhaps you should keep in mind that your readers have a variety of tastes and that some of them, like me, actually like this television show.
I like Beauty And The Beast for its romantic storyline, kickass heroine who can mostly save herself and the good- looking “Beast”. There seems to be a dearth of romantic fantasy and SF TV shows around at the moment and this just fills this gap nicely.
Ilona Kosmowsky
I’m afraid the SFX crew aren’t with you on this one, Ilona – our most ardent telly watcher reckons it’s “cheesy rubbish”. If it’s romantic fantasy you’re after we highly recommend Outlander. ( By the way, doesn’t it somewhat defeat the object if the Beast is good- looking…?) WHO THEY GONA CAL Well if I didn’t want to make a hasty exit from the planet and/ or the human race before today, I do now. I was quite supportive of the whole idea of rebooting Ghostbusters around an all- female cast, because, well, it’s the 21st century now, so why the hell not? We live in more enlightened times now, surely? But no – some
troubled ( and possibly drooling and slime trail- emitting) soul decided that that would be unfair to men, and has thus since decided to commission an all- male version of Ghostbusters. Which, quite aside from the fact that that’s actually just the original Ghostbusters, was clearly needed on account of there not being enough action/ comedy films featuring men. I mean, just look at all of the female- led MCUbased films that Marvel have put out! It’s a travesty of injustice!
Really, though, did they ( and by “they” I mean the self- important, entitlement hungry idiots that made this retrograde decision) not get the memo that SF/ F was meant to be all- inclusive? Hasn’t anyone watched any Star Trek recently? Well watch it again. And learn, people! Learn!
The Llama God, The Dark and Apparently 1800s- Locked Lands
Beyond the Wall
What’s perhaps curious is that they’re talking of a huge, overreaching Ghostbusters franchise, as if it was Marvel or Star Wars. Steady on, fellas: there’ve only been two films and a couple of animated TV series! Hello SFX from Brisbane, Australia. Thank you for such a great mag. I am an Australian Aboriginal artist, my daughter is a mad Doctor Who fan and so I did a painting for her of K- 9, which I would like to share with you.
Scott Moore
That’s well good that is, Scott. And it’s reminded me that you Aussies made your own K- 9 TV series in 2009/ 10 – completely forgotten about that! I’m pleased to note that you’ve used the silhouette of the faithful hound before he was transformed in episode one.