As Kevin Gifford covered in his weekly Game Mag Weaseling column, Play Magazine shut down a few months ago and editor-in-chief Dave Halverson set out to relaunch his old rag GameFan, which will now share its pages with MovieFan, serving as a dual publication for readers looking to read about both video games and films.

Art director Rob Duenas says the first issue of the revived GameFan is shipping to stores right now and he's posted the cover to prove it. It's a typical Play cover that spotlights a game hardly anyone's heard of or thought to feature on the front of a magazine -- Krome Studios' PSN action platformer Blade Kitten -- and it promises a couple neat features on small studios like Grasshopper Manufacture and WayForward.

Duenas adds that with 10x12-inch pages, GameFan is larger than most other gaming magazines and should stand out on shelves ("That's Rolling Stone size... Old School Rolling stone. Like NewType size. It's HUGE."). The art director also shared some great No More Heroes artwork he created for the issue's Grasshopper Manufacture features, which I've included after the break.

You can read more details on GameFan's relaunch and what's going on with Play subscriptions at this Play magazine forum thread.

[Via HG101]