PIQ MAGAZINE- Newtype: The Next Generation?

The long-running anime/manga magazine Newtype was a wonderful thing, but, as ever, all good things must come to an end eventually. The death of that magazine has left a massive gaping hole in the magazine market. Granted there are other titles out there that cater for the same audience, but nobody has managed to match the style and content of Newtype.

Now we have Piq on the market, and, ladies and gents, I think we have a winner here. The content is very similar to that of Newtype, with a similar layout. Where it differs is the approach of the con tent itself, which comes across as Newtype mixed with the UK’s own SFX mag. The emphasis is on anime and manga, but the makers are happy to include material on other areas of TV and movie fandom. For example there’s a killer feature on the new Terminator TV show in this first issue. There’s also a rather fascinating interview with John Woo on his involvement with the new Appleseed move, APPLESEED: EX MACHINA, which looks stunning form the images included in the feature. Other features include a look at the Speed Racer movie that the Wachowskis are making, as well as games, comics and more.

On the whole this is a very promising magazine that will help fill the void left by Newtype, even if it doesn’t include the DVD inserts, posters and other giveaways Newtype was so loved for. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to gather such a loyal fanbase due to the malleable nature of the mag’s content, but then again this may work it Piq’s favour, as a less-specialized batch of contents is going to make is more interesting for a wider audience.

Piq’s fantastic debut issue is onsale NOW in our store- The Last Picture Show, 38-39 The Lanes, Meadowhall Centre, Sheffield.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Anime, Comics, Geek Culture, Magazines, Manga, Movies, TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.