The December 2008 imports of Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazine and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine have hit UK shelves. A little later than usual this month and for one awful moment I thought my local Borders had stopped stocking them.
As usual EQ scores over Hitch in the cover designs with a great retro style pic of two hoods leading a man into a dark alley. Hitch gives us a bland pic of a pair of female eyes peering through a pair of blinds. In fact I've not really liked any of the Hitch covers in 08 - they really need to go back to the old pulp lurid style of old.
Both mags though score highly on the fiction front, though as well as the usual book reviews, mystery blog round ups and genre features. Both mags have changed their size to by an inch
or so which won't bother most people but bugs the hell out of me. They no longer sit right on my shelf alongside my large collection of these mags - I've been buying both titles regularly for the last five years. I guess that's the anorak in me coming out but life would be easier if magazines such as these, titles that are meant to be kept and stored, would stick to a uniform size. The mags are also a lot thinner than usual but seem to have the same amount of content so maybe this is a cost cutting exercise.
The contents of each magazine and a readers forum , as well as book reviews and author interviews, can be found at: the mystery place website.
5 comments:
I agree with you on the AHMM covers. As a matter of fact I have a 1980's AHMM or Ellery Queen (can't remember which) that has a good looking woman with a gun peering through similar shades. I guess the main thing is the content and AHMM has had quite a few good issues recently.
David - Oh yeah I've no complaints about the content at all. It's just the first thing you see on the shop shelf is the cover and they're boring. I suppose they use a vastly different art style from EQ to set the two apart.
I take it your are a regular reader of these mags then?
Now that is a little niggling, Gary. There you are in Wales buying these mags by the bucket load whereas here, in England, I can't find anyone who stocks or is willing to order in these magazines. It does make me wonder what else I could be missing out on.
I'm a huge fan. Later today I hope to have a post about how you inspired me to run to the antique store where lo and behold I bought thirty issues of EQMM and AHMM combined.
RAY - There must be a borders close to you. My local store stock Asnimov, Analoug, fantasy and Sf as well as AH and EQ. They also stock western novels.
dAVID -I look forward to reading that.
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