In the 1990s I was writing for several periodicals including Applied Arts and EC&I (Electronic Composition & Imaging) magazines. They were aimed at artists and designers in the print industry. Applied Arts is probably the best art directed magazine in Canada (Georges Haroutiun) and is still being published today. The editors of TV Guide wanted me to write a piece about video games and the future of the electronic game industry. They really had no idea what was coming. This was pre-SONY PlayStation & XBox. We were still playing SEGA and SNES. I also did some covers for Starweek (it came with every Saturday Toronto Star). On the left is a 6-page brochure I made for Side Effects Software. (who created Houdini). They took it to the CES show in 1990. Back then, it was definitely overly-ambitious. As a devout movie fanatic, I was also writing for Showbill (Famous Players Theatres) and Marquee (Cineplex Odeon Theatres). These were lobby magazines that promoted upcoming films. Famous and Odeon have both gone away, but Cineplex remains and still publihses a version that is a descendant of these. I also wrote a few thousand movie synopses for a cable guide in US markets called Program Guide (published by Maclean Hunter). It wasn't much fun - hats off to Leonard Maltin! One of my favourite highlights of all has to the day I met Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford. The interview took place at the Royal York Hotel in Toronto in the spring of 1977. Star Wars had not opened yet and I had not seen the movie, so I didn't know who they were.. For the story, click on the image at right >> < PREVIOUS		Link Electronic Magazine was sub-titled the "how-to magazine of digital creativity." That's my Jewels game on the cover. EC&I was also a "how-to" magazine. My MetaBytes column was a source for art, digital colour and printing advice. I eventually took on art direction of the mag. That's my cover illustration on the right. My chapter on advanced drawing techniques for PeachPit's Mastering CorelDraw got me back into the Windows world. Adobe Illustrator was originally Apple only. Until the mid-'90s, Corel was the vector program for the PC world. On the right is one of my sample sheets. Note the logo in the middle for MS-DOS. On the right is Cheap Thrills Magazine which was published by CPI (Concert Productions International) run by Michael Cohl - rock legend promoter (ask the Rolling Stones). I was the Editor of the magazine while still at University. This was where I ran my interview with the cast of Star Wars - even though I had to try to keep an angle on music instead of the movie. During this period I could be found on stage with The Who, The Bee Gees and Supertramp during concerts as a stage hand while also spending long hours in hotel rooms doing interviews with phenomenal musicians. I guess that explains why the pay was so lousy. NEXT >