Remaining Fanzines and Magazines?

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

Oh , the irony . Let's continue something that was discussed at the MSA Old Home , namely , remaining print comic fanzines - And , for diversity , pro/semi-pro/" pro-zine " comics publications as well .

  CBG remains in business . The Comics Journal has now announced that they will come out annually , with " a 600-page plus " issue .

  I am Facebook friends with Jon B. Cooke but I haven't yet checked to see if his Comic Book Artist has managed to continue recently , post-its Old Home...

  Toomorrows , which indeed has itself a little nook/corner , with The Jack Kirby Collectore , Alter Ego , and Back Issue .

  Now , including the " fan " side too...........

[John Dunbar]

I'm sure Mr. Silver Age is very supportive of his LCS.  Implying otherwise based on him subscribing to one fanzine seems to be a bit of a stretch to me

[Wandering Sensei: Moderator Man]

Exactly. I'm sure that MSA is like most of us around here, and supplies his LCS with plenty of money in exchange for their ware.

John Dunbar (the mod of maple) said:

I'm sure Mr. Silver Age is very supportive of his LCS.  Implying otherwise based on him subscribing to one fanzine seems to be a bit of a stretch to me

[Mr. Silver Age]

Not exactly " supporting your local shop " as CBG used to preach , eh , MSA ?????????

There are actually quite a few magazines that I provide with a year's funding in advance of service rather than buy individually on the newsstand, so they receive an infusion of cash for investment purposes and a monetary commitment so they can budget for their year. 

Oh, sure, I could be reaping the benefits of significant savings' interest if I kept that money in the bank and bought individual issues. But I prefer to show my support for journalists and express my belief that the magazines will still be in existence in one year. I've been burned on that a few times, receiving nothing or next to nothing (eg, a half-year's replacement subscription to Men's Health), but that's the price we high-risk investment capitalists must endure to encourage high-quality journalism.

Thanks for the support, guys, I'm sure ED didn't intend his comment to sound QUITE as insulting as it was. At least, I hope not.

Guess it really is the 21st (or your LCS don' give no' discount...) Century..

I do get a discount, but buying magazine subscriptions has actually been going on since the 19th century, ED, you should look into it. It'd be a 21st century thing if I was downloading comics stories onto my tablet or Google Glass, but I'm not doing that yet. 

-- MSA

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...It was humorous , basically , MSA responded to it , fine .

  I don't even know that GEEK is distributed to comics shops at all (Though I would imagine that it is , but , this might be an imaginary universe thing anyway , but...) , and , John , I think it was certainly be considered a " magazine " - fully pro - not a " fanzine " . (Even the 70s term " prozine " might be giving-it" street-cred "-it-doesn't-really-deserve .)

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...The first two paragraphs of MSA's response cite times he made subscriptions to magazines and claim (Um ~ " Imply " , I suppose .) that he loses out on interest he could have received from leaving the money for a year's subscription in the bank and buying them issue by issue .

  However , assuming that MSA is referring to non-comics world magazines , in my observation , most " mainstream " magazines that offer subscriptions tend to offer a year's subscription at such a savings over a month-by-month newsstand purchase (Just for the price itself , never mind sales tax or transportation/time expended in getting to said newsstand .)  that MSA would probably have saved considerably more , his noble contribution to fledgling journalistic excellence aside , with his sub , in that the difference between the monies expended on a year's worth of newsstand copies and a year's subscription is more than his interest-bearing account would be deprived of by his buying a subscription with monies taken from that account .

  Just sayin' .

[Richard Willis]

I think the comment about interest from a bank was facetious. Such interest in modern times wouldn't buy you a single modern comic book. I also hate either losing my money or receiving unwanted substitutions when magazines go belly up.

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...Yes , Richard , perhaps quite possibly , but I was answering it literally .

[Mr. Silver Age]

I don't even know that GEEK is distributed to comics shops at all (Though I would imagine that it is , but , this might be an imaginary universe thing anyway , but...)

Let me just be sure I have this conversation straight, ED:

1.  I said I got a subscription to GEEK rather than buying individual issues from my comics guy.

2. You "joked" that I wasn't supporting my comics guy.

3. You now are expressing uncertainty that GEEK is distributed to comics shops, despite what I said in #1 and nullifying your own joke in #2.

4. You want to be sure I know that buying a subscription saves me more than the interest I receive from a savings account, because this deserves a literal response.

I'm going to assure you that GEEK is available to be sold in comics shops, as it's offered in PREVIEWS. Then I'm done here, since I don't recognize your jokes at my expense and you don't recognize my hyperbole, We're generating way more heat (and punctuation) than light.

-- MSA

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...I'm sorry if I failed to recheck your initial post and see that it had a reference to buying from a comics shop from the beginning , as you say above is so and I assume then is the case , MSA .

  I do not read Previews myself and I have not for a long time .

  Yes , I made the joke - It did play off what Don and Maggie used to say !!!!!!!!!!! I don't think you (or I ~ or anybody else) are obligated to buy everything that is sold at a comics shop only from a comics shop - However , I think that it was a joke - Joke - worth making , and it certainly seemed to hit a target .

  Yes , I joked back/made a literal response to your comment on subscription prices !

  Why not ?????

[Captain Comics]

I think the TwoMorrows output is considered "fanzine," but I'm not sure why -- they sure look like professional magazines to me. That includes Alter Ego, Back Issue and Comic Book Creator magazines.

[Mr. Silver Age]

I think it was because they weren't on slick paper and were in b&w, which isn't a professional magazine look. They also didn't have many ads, being supported mostly by purchases--even subscribers mostly only saved postage costs.

Nowadays, though, they're all on slicker paper and in full color--a great move for comics magazines. They're also sold on some very inclusive newsstands, so there is some distribution.

Fanzines to me are low-circulation magazines distributed through the mail, regardless of their production values. The Internet makes those pretty obsolete, but some of them, as I noted, also post their issues to the Web.

I have copies of one that was put out on a CD and mailed to readers. It saved on production costs but not mailing costs. I thought it was interesting that they'd do it that way rather than post the digital files to the Web, but some people (ie, those our age) like getting those packages in the mail.

-- MSA

[Richard Willis]

Many of us are long enough in the tooth to remember the old ditto and mimeograph fanzines. I had limited experience with ditto when I (without permssion) used school resources to create a ditto master and run off some copies for an ad. I later used mimeograph for a Rocket's Blast/Comicollector ad followed by work in my office and in the Army.

Typing on a mimeograph stencil is sort of a pain. For those that don't know you would use a typewriter, bypassing the ink ribbon and cut into the stencil. Errors were corrected by repairing the hole that was cut and retyping over it. In the military the phrase "cutting orders" referred to the mimeo process. They probably still say "cutting orders" even though I'm sure it isn't done this way anymore.