Lucy Hickman era Zzap!
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:12 am
I've spent the last few days finally getting around to reading the complete set of Zzap! scans. It's the first time I've properly looked at the magazines since I was a teenager, though I've visited this site on and off for a few years and enjoyed the Retro Gamer special issue too.
It's fascinating to read some of the posts from ex staff members as a companion to re-reading issues. One thing which I was really quite surprised by on looking at the later issues of Zzap! is just how bizarre the short-lived Lucy Hickman era was.
I'm obviously on a forum full of Zzap! experts here, so don't suppose I need to go into details of the crude humour and slightly aggressive tone (particularly on the letters page). My question, if any Zzap! staffers are still lurking, is this:
It's obvious from the letters pages in the two issues that follow Lucy's first Zzap! that readers weren't happy, and before long Miss Whiplash was sidelined etc etc. But what was the feeling in Zzap! when the first Hickman issue was being put together? Presumably Hickman had the publisher to answer to and run the proposed changes through - who on earth thought this direction was a good idea? By this time, Commodore Format was outselling Zzap! month on month and despite the daft little digs at it in Zzap!, was obviously causing them real damage - was it just a case of trying to do something totally different with the feel of the magazine? And was her disappearence to another magazine mere months afterwards coincidence or not?
There were some solid, Zzap legends - Ian, Phil King - on the title at this time. I'd be interested to know what the feeling was in the office at this time.
It's fascinating to read some of the posts from ex staff members as a companion to re-reading issues. One thing which I was really quite surprised by on looking at the later issues of Zzap! is just how bizarre the short-lived Lucy Hickman era was.
I'm obviously on a forum full of Zzap! experts here, so don't suppose I need to go into details of the crude humour and slightly aggressive tone (particularly on the letters page). My question, if any Zzap! staffers are still lurking, is this:
It's obvious from the letters pages in the two issues that follow Lucy's first Zzap! that readers weren't happy, and before long Miss Whiplash was sidelined etc etc. But what was the feeling in Zzap! when the first Hickman issue was being put together? Presumably Hickman had the publisher to answer to and run the proposed changes through - who on earth thought this direction was a good idea? By this time, Commodore Format was outselling Zzap! month on month and despite the daft little digs at it in Zzap!, was obviously causing them real damage - was it just a case of trying to do something totally different with the feel of the magazine? And was her disappearence to another magazine mere months afterwards coincidence or not?
There were some solid, Zzap legends - Ian, Phil King - on the title at this time. I'd be interested to know what the feeling was in the office at this time.