PA #89: Letter From The Publisher

Hello there,

It's been a long time; 6 whole months since our May issue. I hope everyone had a good summer and that the wait for this issue of Protoculture Addicts wasn't too hard. We're very pleased with all the positive comments we received regarding the last issue. We're very glad you like it. A few other people at a few distributors also liked the issue, so we'll be opening up some new distribution channels in the near future. Obviously this is a big deal for us, but since you already receive Protoculture Addicts at your local store or by mail, you might wonder, "why should this matter to me?" Well, more distribution hopefully equates to more sales, which equates to more revenue. Since our goal at Protoculture Addicts has never been to "get rich," more revenue simply means more money to spend on the magazine. Maybe future issues will have more pages (and for the same price, perhaps?) or we'll be able to put together better content; more money means more staff, which means more time for each staff member to do a better job on the articles they are focusing on. So cross your fingers and hope for good things for this magazine. Our only goal is to make a magazine worthy of you, the reader.

In this issue we take a look at Ai Yazawa's Nana and Paradise Kiss. While both these titles are geared towards female readers, they are still very "cross-demographic," appealing to a lot of fans who don't fall into the primary target demographic. I happen to be a big fan of Yazawa's work, and I hope that all our readers, guys included, take a look at these articles and consider sampling Nana or Paradise Kiss in one of their many incarnations (Manga, anime, or live-action).

As the cover suggests, we also have a big feature on Hellsing. While diametrically opposed in terms of their content, Hellsing and Yazawa's work share the "cross demographic" appeal. Like Nana and Paradise Kiss, Hellsing is among the very best that its genre has to offer and is worth a look, even if you aren't usually interested in supernatural action/horror. This is Hellsing's second time out as an anime, a complete redo of the series, since fans weren't happy with the way the first series strayed from the source material. This time the anime is very faithful to the manga, and fans have been raving about it.

Last issue I told you that this issue would be the "completion" of the transformation of this magazine, but I now feel that I must take that statement back. Protoculture Addicts will never cease to evolve, and it's my hope that every issue will show an improvement over the previous issue. Pretty soon we'll be reaching our 100th issue and 20th anniversary! Thank you to everyone who has stuck with the magazine all these years, and I hope you'll be with us for another 20 and beyond.

Christopher Macdonald
Publisher, Protoculture Addicts

You can give your comments on this issue either on the magazine's forum or via e-mail at comments@protoculture.ca