Mondo 2000 and other doomed subscriptions

I was a huge fan of Mondo 2000. I have around half of the print run. I subscribed around issue 13 and got 2 issues, 14 and 15 before they went silent. I discovered today there were 17 and possibly 18 issues published which brings back the frustration and anger at paying for a 5 issue sub and only getting 2 issues. I also don't have issues 1 to 5 because they'd been published already when I discovered the mag in my local Science Fiction bookshop, (before they sold out to Forbidden Planet). I missed issues 7 and 9 also because of the erratic print schedule. I think I never got the last 2 or 3 issues because by that time I'd given up on getting another issue or my money back and so hadn't bothered to tell them I'd moved.

I also, around that time, subscribed to the UK version of Wired. Wired had been in existence for a couple of years in the US and it became my tamer and duller Mondo substitute. So when the UK edition was published I subscribed within the first few issues. This time I did get all 12 or whatever number of the issues I'd subscribed to but didn't renew my sub after the first year and they folded soon afterwards, although not because I didn't renew, they were just not very good.

More recently I subscribed to Trajectories, a zine edited by D Scott Appel and consisting of various stuff by Robert Anton Wilson. Again, I sent off a cheque to California for a 5 or so issues sub and got, a few weeks later, a VHS tape of their latest video edition which consited of an interview with Wilson about a book I'd bought and read a year previously. There were no more issues after that as Bob had become more ill and was writing less.

The thing that prompted this blog is that I subscribed to a Scottish arts, politics and media magazine called Product which was a reasonable £10 for 4 quarterly issues. I just received the first issue of my sub, which is not unusual until I say that I subscribed around 2 years ago. They have been beset by financial problems but they intend to honour my subscription even although the sub has gone up by 50%, which is a reward for my patience I suppose. I'm really glad to be supporting such a venture despite them no longer being local as the latest issue was published and written by Glaswegians rather than the Edinburghers who'd published the previous 10 issues.

I feel like a subscription from me is the kiss of death for any magazine. I just subscribed to Wired, watch this space.