Last week Tom Dobrowolski announced to subscribers and Genii forum readers that the monthly magazine, The Disclaimer, is coming to an end. The Disclaimer has lasted a little four and a half years with an almost perfect on time record.
Each issue had three close-up effects from a group of high quality magicians: Tom, Curtis Kam, Bill Goodwin, Jack Carpenter, John Bannon, Michael Rubinstein, Bill Citino, Mark Tams, Rick Holcombe, Jeremiah Zuo, Danny Cheng, Richard Hucko, David Campos, Raj Madhok, Bulla Lepen, David Fragione, Luiz Castro, Michael Kekoa, Gary Goldberg, Joe Cole, Miika Lehti, Bill Wheeler, Joseph Berman, Chris Rawlins, Dominic Miles, Jack Tighe, Alex Saxon, Gary Berard, and Albert Chou. Most importantly, the list includes people who have flown under the radar and aren’t well known.
The subscription structure was a bit different. One became a member through Ko-Fi which allowed the Disclaimer team to charge you right before the issue was released. This will allow them to simply stop charging you after the final issue is released.
Each issue was released around the middle of the month – with the exception of an issue in May. It was due to unfortunate events: co-founder, Curtis Kam, passed away and when flying back from his funeral, Jeremiah Zuo’s luggage was lost. Amongst the items lost were the drawings for the next issue. It was released without the drawings as the luggage was never recovered.
Subscribers had one month to download the issue as it would be deleted when the next issue was uploaded. Some probably were unhappy about this. I thought it was perfect as much of life, you have to be present to win.
If you hadn’t jumped on the Disclaimer bandwagon, there were annual collections printed. Most are out of print however not unavailable. A little perseverance may be required.
I’m going to miss my monthly Disclaimer fix after November. I am grateful to Tom, Jeremiah and the rest of the team for their hard work and dedication. They created a wonderful small run publication in the tradition of the Jinx, the Phoenix, and Hugard’s.
