NEWS RELEASE from SkyJammer Enterprises
I’d like to announce the latest offering from SkyJammer Enterprises. It was to be the latest offshoot of CMTF, but instead, it has taken a life of its own.
Introducing — Altered States Magazine, the newest online ‘zine about Transformers and Transforming robots.
Twenty-five years ago I wrote that. July 13, 1999. It’s hard to believe that a quarter of a century has passed since I let what would become ASM out into a nascent internet world.
I was half the age I was now (oh god I’ve had ASM half my life). I remember the weeks and months leading up, figuring out the name (which I regret now, but oh, well), working on graphics and the overall look. I was wide-eyed, I had so many plans for this new online magazine. I was excited to put my stamp on the Transformers fandom, and I released it to the world.
Those plans were derailed immediately after the first issue. It took months to get the next issue online; I had to find new web space. I had to find new inspiration. I never did finish that fanfic I started (which, honestly, is typical for me).
But boy, our second issue proved to be the start of something good, even if we didn’t do anything for a year after that. Our first Toy Fair, in 2000, proved to be our bread and butter for a while. We were probably the smallest media outlet to report on the show, but somehow we got noticed for our quality of pictures. We were professional but we knew what fans wanted to see. Slowly but surely we increased our Toy Fair coverage, and soon(-ish) we started reporting news.
Our focus expanded and perhaps got too big too quickly. We tried TV reviews of all sorts. We tried reporting so many toy lines and movies. We expanded and contracted many times over these past decades, finally settling on what we started with — Transformers was our main focus.
Not to brag too much, but we were good. We weren’t the biggest site or the fastest to put up news, but we were respected. We didn’t post wild rumors, we didn’t post leaked pictures, we cultivated relationships with the companies. I’d like to think our respect was mutual for many individuals.
Times changed and we changed. We moved to blogging which helped out immensely with our speed. But I couldn’t seem to crack through with any of my big ideas. Now, blogs and websites are mere after thoughts to social media and influencers and likes.
I haven’t posted in over a year. I don’t have the time or stamina to keep up with the new way of attracting eyeballs. My life is so much different now. I have a family that is the priority in my life.
So, it’s time. Time to say goodbye. I don’t know how long things will stay online, but honestly, with the loss of my domains and WordPress being absolutely borked on ASMzine.net, nobody is reading and more importantly, nobody is complaining about missing things. If you are interested in hosting any of the old content, drop me a line. Otherwise, perhaps the Internet Archive will have what you are looking for.
I’ve been contemplating this for years and something always made me hang on. But now, it’s time to let go.
I hopefully won’t forget anyone, but I need to thank everyone who’s been a part of ASM — Daniel and Amy Lipkowitz, Matt Karpowich, Matt Greenbaum, Douglass Kern, Rogue Z, Malin Huffman, Steve and Penny Kushnir, John Howard, Exvee, and Joe Rivera. Special shout-outs go to Ant Brucale, who we partnered with on several Hasbro events, to Ben Yee, who always had great advice, to Adam Pawlus, who I bounced ideas off of, and to Brian Kilby and the RFC team, who started around the same time as ASM and have been big cheerleaders for me, and I of them.
Special thanks to all the folks at Hasbro, Hunter PR, the late and lamented Palisades Toys and Corgi, and any other PR people who reached out to us or helped us, including the staff of C2E2 and Wizard World.
A special thanks to Carole and John Barrowman for giving a small site an interview. Still one of the coolest things to happen to us.
To the people I met through the site and social media — contemporaries, industry people, writers and founders of other web sites — thank you. I’ve met some good friends through this, and I still follow so many of you on socials, even if your careers have changed in the past twenty five years.
And I want to thank you, the reader. If you were here 25 years ago or 25 minutes ago, thank you. Thank you for helping my dream come true, even if it didn’t reach the levels I wanted. It still happened, and I got to do some amazing things, meet some amazing people, and make some amazing friends.
Maybe I’ll be back; maybe I’ll do something else online. To paraphrase Johnny Carson, I hope that if I do find something else I think is worthwhile, you’ll invite me back into your online life.
Thanks, everyone.
Till All Are One.
-Phil Zeman
ASM Editor-In-Chief/Guy In Charge
ASM — 1999-2024