Mecha Press


Mecha Press is a North American anime and manga magazine that was published by IANVS Publications in the early 1990.
The magazine was released on a roughly bimonthly schedule, with 5 to 6 issues per year. Each issue usually focused on one particular anime or manga, dedicating up to one third of its page content on related synopsis, character and mecha presentations.

The magazine

Mecha Press was originally started as a sister magazine to Protoculture Addicts, the oldest anime and manga magazine in North America. Its name derives from its main focus, mecha, although the content also covered characters, stories, toys, games and scale models. The publisher of Mecha Press was Ianus Publications.
The first issue, a red duo-tone test called issue #0, was published in 1991. Issue #1 officially launched the magazine the next year. Issues #1 through 6 had an oversized format similar to a tabloid newspaper. From issue #7 and onward, the magazine was shrunk to a more standard size, but gained a color section.
When the design team, Dream Pod 9, started focusing exclusively on games, the magazine was cancelled with issue #17. It appeared in March–April 1995. The remaining unpublished content was then merged into Protoculture Addicts magazine. Archive issues are available as PDF e-books from the publisher.

Detailed content

Starting with #2, each issue has one main topic and several derivative ones. The following abbreviations are used in the listing to save space: Basics of Mecha Modeling - BoMM; Battletech - Btech; Engineering Outlook - EO; Heavy Gear - HG; Heavy Gear Fighter - HGF; Jovian Chronicles - JC; Mobile Suit - MS; Mekton II - MkII; Questions & Answers - Q&A.