graphixus
graphixus
Media & Graphic Creations February 1978 – March 1979
Graphixus was an alternative-type British magazine launched by Mal Burns in 1978 and ran for five issues. Burns started the mag as his other title, Brainstorm Comix (a Lee Harris publication that Burns edited), was just about done with its run. As Burns explained in his editorial in the first issue, “Even though Brainstorm was most certainly a success story in itself, publication was very irregular and the economics rather fragile…. Thus, although I have asperations [sic] that require an eventual mass-readership for Graphixus, I am launching it on a very small scale.”
The magazine folded after five issues, primarily because Burns lost his much-needed American distribution deal and had not received a large sum of money still owed to him. He went on to play a hand in editing Pssst!, a very interesting anthology magazine that lasted twice as long as Graphixus but probably lost twice as much money (thankfully, not his money). Burns got out of the magazine business after that and focused on a career supporting comic artists and producing computer graphics. There is a Mal Burns website that provides links to his many blogs and various ventures, demonstrating that Burns is in tune with the times and active in all manner of social networking.
Graphixus was a one-man publication that showed a lot of promise by the time it kicked the bucket. Like so many enterprises that Burns was (and is) involved in, it gave new creators an opportunity for much greater exposure than they could find through conventional channels. For that reason, and for the valuable historical information contained within its articles and columns, Graphixus is still an entertaining read.
