With the demise of Dreamwatch, in print, at the beginning of the year, it was beginning to look like SFX had a corner of the magazine rack to call it’s own, but last month saw the publication of two new pretenders to throne.

First out of the traps was Imagine Publication’s Sci-Fi Now, and it was followed shortly after by Death Ray, published by newcomers Blackfish.

As you would expect, both are glossy publications, but how do they stack up against each other, and against the current market leader?

Well, to start with, both magazines weigh in at 148 pages - that’s a whole 16 pages more than SFX – and it is interesting to note that both have contributions from the latter’s former writing staff (MJ Simpson writes a column for Sci-Fi Now and Guy Haley and Matt Bielby are Editor and Editor in Chief, respectively, of Death Ray).

At first glance Sci-Fi Now looks eerily like an SFX clone, with a not entirely dissimilar format and style, whilst Death Ray is simply confusing, with a layout that makes it hard to work out which section of the magazine it is that you are looking at.

Upon more thorough reading, Sci-Fi Now – which modestly proclaims itself to be “The Premier Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror and Cult TV Magazine” - comes across as trying to be a bit of a Jack-of-all-trades.
Covering new and classic material in nearly equal measure, the magazine includes a useful TV guide and a possibly not so useful round up of the latest media technology.
Whilst covering such a wide range of subjects may be good, the depth of some sections are sometimes found to be somewhat lacking. The amount of information contained in the Technology section, for example, doesn’t give the reader more than a passing insight into new technologies, and as such it’s hard to see anyone buying any of the products listed based on their recommendation, which kind of defeats the point in having the section in the first place.
In their retro section, the magazine covers Buffy, Friday the 13th, Buck Rogers, Planet of the Apes, Stargate SG-1, Invasion and V, and whilst this is an impressive list, again some of the articles don’t have much depth to them and one wonders how long it will be before they run out of material if they go through shows at this rate. One plus of this section though, is the range of information, however brief, that is given on a show, from production notes though to memorabilia.
In tone, Sci-Fi Now is clearly trying to fit into the same mould as SFX, from the comments in the editorial information to their setting up of a forum from which they are culling comments from their – I guess at that point – prospective readers.

Death Ray, on the other hand, is clearly out to establish its credentials as a more serious read, and it wastes no time in extolling its pedigree with a number of pieces giving background on its writing team, and showing their – and not their forums - opinions of what is good and bad in fantasy land.
The frequent referencing to the staff’s SFX past may seem odd at first, but when you realise that this is not only a new publication, but that it comes from a new publisher, it makes more sense that they are wanting to establish their credentials for any new readers and advertisers.
The magazine itself doesn’t have any noteworthy features that make it unique from the other two, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it covers all of the required bases, and does so in a more thoughtful and less flippant way than SFX or Sci-Fi Now.
The big draw back however is with the layout.
With text going in all directions, and articles broken over several pages (and quite often mixed with others), it just doesn’t make for an easy read.
Once you make sense of the layouts however, you do begin to realise that it is a very well written magazine and that it is worthy of the time spent trying to decipher it.
One nice touch in issue one, was the two page spread given over to Kurt Vonnegut’s passing, which makes SFX’s single panel look decidedly miserly, especially when you consider they had longer to come up with something.
In tone Death Ray is definitely trying to raise the bar, and seems to be positioning itself somewhere between SFX and Interzone.

So how do they fair when compared to SFX?

Well, both of the newcomers still feel like works in progress, with articles and reviews that were clearly written well in advance of their publication, that cover the last few months rather than just the last four weeks, but both magazines are well written and give a good idea of what it is they are trying to achieve.

Sci-Fi Now seems to be positioning itself to be a rival to SFX - in both tone and content – but all too often, when reading through it, you could be forgiven for thinking you were reading SFX itself.

Death Ray, however, seems to be taking a different tack and is going for what could probably be termed “the more discerning reader” who is more interested in substance rather than style.

One important area where both new magazines could score over SFX, is that they are both out before the latter, and by the time people get to SFX each month their news section will look increasingly out of date.

How the two new magazines will fair in the long term remains to be seen, but I can see Sci-Fi Now easily slipping into the slot Dreamwatch recently vacated (to which it is vastly superior) and provided people can get past the layout issues, Death Ray should become a good monthly for people who like their reading to be a little more thoughtful.

Of the two new releases I personally favour Death Ray, because it is trying to give a different perspective to SFX, but both are good reads and I suspect that as they find their feet they will come into their own.


Sci-Fi Now is published by Imagine Publishing and cost £4.00, Death Ray is published by Black Fish at £3.99 and SF, published by Future Publishing and costs £3.99.


Addendum:

Since I wrote most of the above, a couple of weeks ago, issue two of both Sci-Fi Now and Death Ray have appeared, and this week the latest issue of SFX also hit the shelves.

The good news is that Death Ray has toned down the layout of the magazine somewhat and, although it still isn’t perfect, issue two is much easier to get along with than issue one.

Both of the new magazines once again make for an interesting read, as does SFX, but oddly SFX seems to have tweaked their layout slightly this month and the result is that it isn’t as clear to read as it has been previously.

I would be surprised if this change was a reaction to the two newcomers, given the time scales involved, but it looks as though they may have shot themselves in the foot with this change.

Also, one thing I didn’t comment on above, is SFX’s increasing reliance on content generated from their forum board, which is something I feel detracts from the magazine.

When I buy a magazine I’m personally looking for expert opinions and insight, along with balanced, informative reviews and comment.

If I want to read forum board posts, which are generally reactionary rather than thought out, I’ll visit a forum board - I don’t expect to have to pay for content I can access for free.

Sci-Fi Now seems to be following this route, hopefully, Death Ray won’t.