Yo ho ho. It's the Scuttlebutt here to bring you all the best and juiciest uh, scuttlebutt (geddit?) on the MyM vs NEO battle of the century.
Word went past your trusty Scuttlebutt that Tarik Alozdi, the man behind MyM used to work for Uncooked Media, the publishers of NEO.
Not only did he work for them, he even became a Director of the company for a while, until the other directors gave him a one way ticket to Splitzville. Word is that they did not part on the best of terms and that Alozdi has a score or two to settle.
Rumour has gone past the Scuttlebutt that a certain someone who shall remain nameless allegedly took a copy of the NEO subscriber list on the way out the door, and that list was allegedly used as a direct marketing source for sending some of the MyM Zero copies. The Uncooked Media bods were understandably less than pleased when hints of that rumour, and questions about NEO not protecting subscriber data in potential breach of the Data Protection Act appeared on the NEO forum.
Industry watchers, including your lovable Scuttlebutt were of course keen as the trade winds to get their hands on the first issue of MyM to see just how close it was to NEO and just how much Alozdi wants to piss on Uncooked Media's chips.
Comments about the mags being so similar that MyM even has adverts from the same companies that NEO does, including that one which sells T-Shirts with the blatant copy of the Coco Pops monkey (they even call it Coco) in manga character outfits, have been going around like fire up a ship's rigging the last few days. One sly old sea dog even mentioned that with a spelling error on page one of the mag (they meant Flugelhorn) the editor of MyM could have a bright future working for the Grauniad if MyM loses to it's older rival.
Speaking of the older rival, La Cox the editor of NEO and the woman behind the NEO Staff account on the NEO forum posted a stinging remark about MyM not having an editor on her magazine's forum yesterday, before editing the barb out and then removing the post altogether. The post reappeared in a further edited form later in the day laden with remarks from the delectable madame that some are referring to as "thinking denial is a river in Egypt" for trying to claim that NEO and Uncooked Media do not think that MyM is a competitor.
Word has also gone past yours truly that it is remarkable that nothing has yet been said in public by the Empress of Egy... NEO about Matt Kamen jumping overboard from the NEO ship and being picked up by MyM.
So, now that both mags are on the stands the fight is of course on and all us industry watchers are gathered around for what promises to be a truly spectacular sea battle over the coming months. Best of luck to both sides, and may the best crew emerge triumphant.
Some handy links:
http://www.otakunews.com/uk/article.php?story=1909
http://www.geeknative.com/25822/myms-ta ... comic-con/
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/tarik-alozdi/43/114/545
http://www.neomag.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=8777
http://www.mymags.net/
http://www.neomag.co.uk/