Sirens of Cinema Magazine, which began under new editorial management with Mike Watt and publisher Robert Kuiper in 2005, is going under due to money issues. Unfortunately, it also looks like the last issue, #14, is the very best they have ever put out!
A strange mix of what awesomeness Femme Fatales Magazine used to be before it got all 'Maxim', and an oddly off-putting, self-serving vehicle for publisher Mike Watt to do 10-page editorial spreads on his own movies starring his wife and those of his close friends, the magazine's rocky history is coming to a close...
Issue #14 is being called a 'Collector's Edition'. Boasting yet another of their signature gorgeous covers, this time around by Vampirella artist Louis Small, Jr., the women-oriented magazine's Issue #14 offers interviews with Lucy Lawless (Xena, Bedtime Stories), Zoe Bell (Bitch Slap, Angel of Death), an exclusive pictorial with Sybil Danning, a rare interview with original 'queen' Michelle Bauer and much more.
This looks awesome! Why did they save the best stories for the last issue?
"The economy has really taken its toll on the country," says publisher, Kuiper, "and we'd been experiencing the downturn at Sirens almost since the first issue. Costs on everything, particularly paper, have gone up exponentially since 2005 and our readership, while steady and supportive, remained nearly constant over the last three years. With so many publications competing for space on the store shelves, it just didn't seem feasible to continue pursuing a mass market."
"Sirens of Cinema will continue on in many different forms over the coming months," says Kuiper. "Look for special digests"â€Âwhich we'll be releasing as Sirens of Cinema Presents"â€Âon a variety of topics over the coming months, all with our signature brand of feminism and style. Instead of our product being hidden on shelves behind copies of People, we'll be releasing directly to our core audience, so keep checking the website."
I would be lying if I said that I myself was not a one-time writer of the Mike-Watt-edition of Sirens of Cinema, because I was. William Wright and Amanda By Night, and even Stacie Ponder are all contributors to Pretty/Scary who found a place for stories in Sirens of Cinema at one time or another. Amy Lynn Best, who often was on the cover of the new magazine's issues and who wrote a column in Sirens called "Pretty/Scary" for a while was one of the original founders of Pretty/Scary in 2004. There was friction between myself and Mike Watt, due to some articles published in the magazine, that resulted in my not writing for them anymore. And while I did not feel that Watt always ran the magazine the way I would have, I did like what the magazine stood for and that it replaced Femme Fatales when Femme Fatales became (let's face it) stupid. It was the only magazine in the past several years where you could see awesome hot genre women being treated like the B-starlets they are. Unfortunately, I guess the mainstream magazine buyers are not so interested in these kinds of publications anymore.
For the time being, fans and supporters are invited to check out Issue 14, on sale now, and sign up for future announcements via the magazine's official site at www.sirensofcinema.com
Good luck, kids. Maybe make the magazine online only? Less overhead!
