The current issue of PiQ (Issue 4, July 2008) will be our last.

It’s unfortunate that we’ll never get a chance to see how successful PiQ could have been, but a combination of low advertising revenue, poor business management and a lack of proper marketing and promotion all hamstrung the magazine from the start. We, the editorial/creative/production staff, did the best we could to put together a quality publication, but as we’ve discovered, without a good financial backing, it’s all an exercise in futility.

For those readers that were just starting to get behind the magazine, the staff of PiQ gives a hearty “thank you” to all of you for your support. To those of you who subscribed (or were formerly subscribed to NTUSA), more details will be coming soon.

One thing we here at PiQ always look forward to every summer is what the minds at Pixar will dream up next, and with Issue 5, we celebrate the release of Disney’s WALL•E. Check out our coverage of the crafty little robot’s cinematic adventures and even get a peek at what’s coming from Pixar in the future!

We also follow the continuing convergence of comics and movies with interviews with Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and The Incredible Hulk director Louis Leterrier, take a look at new comic collections The Legion of Superheroes and The K Chronicles. We also talk to Bang Zoom! president Eric P. Sherman, ADR director Kristi Reed and voice actor Steve Blum about their work on Ghost Slayers Ayashi, catch a glimpse of the long-awaited Maria Watches Over Us, take a trip behind the scenes at TimeGate Studios, catch some quick peeks at new games Final Fantasy IV for DS, Death Jr. and Infinite Undiscovery. To top all that, check out our features on Doctor Who including interviews with star Freema Agyeman and executive producer Julie Gardner and Stargate Atlantis where we catch up with everyone’s favorite medical hologram Robert Picardo, and discover With the Light, a unique manga dealing with the challenges of autism.

In List, you’ll find reviews of the ten most notable releases for July, including Persepolis, The Signal, Mad Men, Chocobo’s Dungeon, American Nerd, The Onion Movie and more.

In LINK, look for our story on A/V Geeks founder Skip Elsheimer (aka “the man with 20,000 films”). That’s 20,000 reels of 16mm goodness, including educational films, PSAs, industrial and training films. And here we thought our tastes were eclectic. Also check out our coverage of this year’s New York Comic Con and Japan Film Festival Los Angeles.

Stick around for Monitor’s big exploration of tabletop RPGs entitled This is How We Role, where we hear from three perspectives on the different genres of RPGs, including Dungeons & Dragons and its future, Japanese RPGs like Sword World, and even our own take on the rise of indie RPGs like Primetime Adventures and Wushu. After that, we talk to Rueben Wu from Ladytron about the band’s newest effort Velocifero, learn about the history of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast and more.

Last but not least, if you’re a Hellboy fan (and even if you’re not), be sure to catch the comic excerpts of B.P.R.D.: Killing Ground and Hellboy: Darkness Calls.

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I’m working on a piece about the upcoming DVD release of Spaced for the next issue but I thought I’d go ahead and share an interview I conducted with director Edgar Wright the other day, who is pretty much the nicest guy I’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to. He also let us in on the status of his many upcoming projects

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In our June 2008 issue, we took the opportunity to talk to some movie podcasters from all over the web about what movies they think most represent summer and what those movies mean to them in particular.

While we were certainly pleased to have them in the pages of our magazine, we’ll go one step further and tell you what they’re all about. If you’re already a listener, then props to you for knowing what’s up. If not and you’d like to see what these fine folks are like in their element, we’ve prepared the following handy guide just for you.

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Bandai Visual USA to be Liquidated by September

Crunchyroll to Stream ADV’s Welcome to the NHK

Very interesting news covering the further streamlining of the anime industry. ADV is the latest company to start working with Crunchyroll, although NHK’s being a GONZO-produced show likely has a lot to do with it.

I like Bandai Visual USA’s products a lot. But of course I’d like them — that’s because they were kind enough to send them free of charge for review purposes. If I actually had to pay the prices they wanted for them (something we’ve brought up in reviews like a broken record), I probably wouldn’t be nearly as enthusiastic. Their idea of a ‘premium’ line wasn’t unsound; it just came a few years too late for the anime industry. Premium DVD lines like Criterion exist because there are enough movie buffs who appreciate the extra effort that go behind the releases. In an anime industry primarily driven by downloading, that doesn’t really exist.