The news arrived in email today that British SF magazine, Death Ray and its younger sister publication, Filmstar, have become victims of “harsh economic circumstances”. The press release from Blackfish Publishing MD Matt Bielby suggests that he hopes a buyer might be found, but obviously those same circumstances suggest that will be difficult.
2 thoughts on “Death Ray Exterminated?”
Comments are closed.
Now that is disappointing news.
Both magazines have brought a fresh new look and feel to the market. In fact, FILMSTAR surpasses EMPIRE (which I have bought faithfully since issue 1) and is crammed with so many great features and articles, it takes me several days to get through it.
DEATH RAY has been consistently compulsive reading and echoes much of what made SFX great in the early years. DR is more in your face, digging for more lucrative stories than the general ‘fanboy’ market albeit competing with the sudden growth of show specific magazines (HEROES, CSI etc).
I hope Black Fish gets a buyer.
A pity. I’m very fond of Death Ray, but because they did their best to discourage subscribing from abroad (no electronic subscriptions, the only way would have been to call them on the phone, and I’m well aware of what the probability of successfully spelling my name and address to them would have been) I’ve been depending on happening to be in the only local book store that carries them whenever one of the very few copies they order is available.