Muppet Magazine[]
This page says that this was a special edition of Muppet Magazine. Is there any evidence of such, as opposed to it being a one-shot magazine to promote a movie? After all, Muppet Magazine had ended production for a few years before this. Are this and Muppet Magazine even published by the same publishing company? --Minor muppetz 04:29, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Yeah, I asked Danny to check out this talk page. --Minor muppetz 16:52, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
- Hi -- yes, this was a special edition of the magazine... I'm at work right now, but I can add more info when I'm at home tonight. It actually said "Muppet Magazine" in the indicia, and there was a note from the Frog-in-Chief about it. I'll post more when I'm home. -- Danny (talk) 21:59, 14 November 2008 (UTC)
Hey, sorry it took me so long to post about this. Here's what I know.
The last issue of Muppet Magazine was dated Winter 1989; the MXC magazine was published four years later, dated Winter 1993.
The magazine isn't marked as a continuation of Muppet Magazine -- the indicia says "The Muppet Christmas Carol Magzine... Issue #1."
(Sidebar: Now that I look at it, the front cover says "The Muppet Christmas Carol: The Official Movie Magazine", so we may want to change this page title to The Muppet Christmas Carol (magazine). Although the indicia does reflect the current page title, so I dunno.)
Anyway -- despite the numbering, there's a lot of continuity between the Muppet Magazine series and this magazine:
- It's published by the same people -- Welsh Publishing Group. The same people worked on it from the Henson side -- Jane Leventhal as Publisher, Louise Gikow as Editorial Director and Lauren Attinello as Art Director.
- The design of the magazine is very similar. Muppet Magazine had a distinctive way of printing photos -- tilted, with a brightly colored shadow border behind the picture. The MXC Magazine uses the same design.
- The first page has an editorial from Kermit called "From the Frog's Desk", although Kermit isn't credited as the "Frog-in-Chief".
- Some of the pieces are written in the characters' voice -- Gonzo tells the story of the movie, Rizzo has a two-page spread about Christmas traditions, and Miss Piggy is in her traditional back-page spot for a spread on "Miss Piggy's Fabulous Movie Fashions".
- There's a two-page spread of the Muppets' bulletin board, similar to photo spreads from Muppet Magazine. The bulletin board includes a page from the shooting schedule, a message from the costume department to Miss Piggy about her wardrobe complaints, a complaint from Rizzo about the rats' working conditions, etc.
- There's also a centerfold poster with a promo photo of Kermit, Piggy, Gonzo and Robin around a lamppost.
- On the other hand -- there are also some behind-the-scenes pieces which are not written by the Muppets. There's interviews with Brian Henson, Jerry Juhl, Paul Williams and Michael Caine, and an article on the set and costume design. The Juhl and Williams interviews are even credited to (gasp) real human beings. So that's a break from Muppet Magazine tradition.
So -- it's not explicitly another issue of Muppet Magazine, but it's by the same people and the same publishing company, and it's clearly an offshoot. I can write all this in the article itself; I just wanted to put it all here first. -- Danny (talk) 18:55, 28 November 2008 (UTC)