Issue 200 – will it never end? Plus news on how to come work for SFX
And 200 pages sounded like such a good idea last month… Yup, the team is still beavering away on our bumper anniversary issue with copy deadline now a smidge on the horizon of Starship SFX ’s rear view mirror. In fact we’re starting to get concerned about the coffee supplies in Bath, so if anyone from the Galactica wants to send us stems to keep the team peppy you’d be doing a service to humanity (note: not a coded plea for uppers, we’re clean-cut types here ya know).
One particular piece of good news about Issue 200 however – a good chunk of our mammoth main feature has now been laid out, proofed and been granted Dave B's seal of approval. Yay! No-one’s more pleased than Nick who’s been in a perennial state of panic for the past few months that said feature would fall short of its target. At one stage Dave B could even be heard exclaiming “That’s the best thing I’ve ever read!” High praise indeed.
Ian has spent much of the last week chuckling at the juicy goss in '80s Doctor Who companion Matthew Waterhouse's memoir of his time on the series (whilst hiding the cover from fellow commuters, obviously). Right now he's frantically working on his last two DVD reviews for this issue ( The Innocents and Daughters Of Darkness ) so that he can flee up North for his brother's wedding. If he doesn't finish them both before 5.30, he's going to be writing them on a tiny laptop in the car (don't worry - he's not driving...).
Our long serving ads manager Adrian Hill has made the long overdue move onto the top floor of SFX Towers having dwelled with the rest of the marketing types on the floor below in the past. He managed to spend his first day in the office out of the office, however, taking a trip to the London Film Museum at the South Bank in London where he wanted to take Rex from Night At The Museum home. He’s back in the office today though working like a dog to finish the 200th issue.
Rich meanwhile is caressing the beautiful new The Art Of Drew Struzan book that’s just come into the office (taking care not to cover it in mucky fingerprints) and running around putting the final touches to this month’s Comic-Con news. There’s so much of it! (He’s also been having issues getting a new bathroom fitted – and rushed home on Tuesday afternoon to sort it – but he doesn’t want to talk about that.)
In other news SFX is looking for a new Editorial Assistant. Fear not Jordan hasn’t been fired, the opposite in fact he’s been promoted to Staff Writer (huzzah!) and we need someone to sort-of fill his shoes. Rather than working on the main magazine the new Editorial Assistant will work largely on the SFX specials, Comic Heroes and the website. The ad went live this morning here and the closing date is Monday 16 August, so you’ll have to be swift to be in with a chance. Good luck!
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Don’t forget : you’ve still got time to enter our competition to win tickets for the SFX Issue 200 party, meet us in person! (only nice stalkers please)
Random quote of the week : “I love men getting tortured by their testicles.”
Random office discussion of the week : The news about Sky 1 pulling out of doing Blake’s 7 sparked the kind of discussion only a bunch of people working with words all day could find interesting…
Nick : “Dave, you’ve spelt out seven in the title of the news story. Shouldn’t it be 7 – the digit?”
Ian : “Yeah, we definitely use 7 in the mag.”
Dave G : “But it looks wrong.”
Ian : “But the show’s logo is 7 not seven.”
Nick : “There’s also no possessive ‘s’ in the logo.”
Dave G : “So it should be Blakes 7. That’s rubbish.”
Nick : “You wouldn’t spell out the five in Babylon 5 .”
Dave G : “That’s because it’s the name of the space station. With Blake’s 7 we’re talking about seven people. It’s like saying ‘Blake’s team of seven’ not ‘Blake’s team of 7’. What about Nineteen-Eighty Four ? What about Odyssey 5 ? What about The Fantastic Four ? What About Grandmaster Flash And The Furious Five? What about…”
Russell : “What about you just follow the magazine style guide, and get on with some work?”
Dave G sulks
Whose shoes? (last week’s answer: it was indeed Nick’s T-shirt!)
