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In the review of #27, I expressed
some cynicism about the prominence Titan gives to reviews of its own
products. This month, it's the news section that leaves me thinking
that Titan are abusing their position.
Most of the new section can
be dealt with with the usual criticisms. As usual, there's tons of
photos of the cast, spoilers (the spoiler graphics return, but with
headlines such as "Back to Life" and a shot of the "Buffy
lives" billboard, you have to wonder why bother having them when the
damage has already been done) and a rather annoying style.
However, it's the mention of
a UK visit by James Marsters where Titan let things slip even more than
usual. Okay, as we
all know, the visit was pulled anyway, but if Titan are doing then job
properly then they should have mentioned all of his appearances, not just
the ones at Forbidden Planet. In my book, just because FP and Titan
are the same company doesn't give them an excuse not to mention a signing at
another store - in this case Into The Void at Thurrock. Let's hope
that any future cast visits to the UK are properly reported, and not just
used as a free plug for a shop. It's not as though they can use the
old "lack of space" excuse anymore, as the section has been
expanded to five pages. More than is strictly necessary I'll grant
you, but it makes Titan's abuse of their position as both retailer and
publisher even worse.
After being displaced from
last month's interview-heavy issue, a couple of semi-regular feature return,
with Random Access featuring on Tony Head and Writers'
Block focusing on David Fury. As a result, there's only one real
interview this month, which is no bad thing since few of the previous ones
have been particularly revealing. However, at least the Nick Brendon
chat this month is pretty interesting, although I'm not quite sure where the
"fab giant poster" of him is - it looked suspiciously like SMG to
me!
The same can't really be said
of a couple of the magazine's other features - yet another chat with Todd
McIntosh that doesn't really reveal anything new. As so often with the
Buffy magazine, an interesting subject wasted by a
combination of poor writing and a design that wastes so much space when this
could have been used for something more substantial. The "How to
Appear on Buffy" feature is no better either.
Yet another disappointing
issue then. The Nick Brendon interview is this month's highlight, but that's
more by default than anything else.
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BUFFY
THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #27
DECEMBER 2001
TITAN MAGAZINES
£2.75
RATING: 4/10
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