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...........
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.. Yow !!!!!!! .A magazine called AMERICAN ROAD (www.americanroadmagazine.com) , dedicated apparently to " oddball stuff you can find on USA road trips " , has a " Comic Strips "-centered issue !!!
The magazine is new to me, but I saw it at Target yesterday , it's in its 14th volume so (Even if they didn't follow Bill Gaines' philosphy of magazine volume-numbering .)...You could just lick a Doggie Diner head !!!!!!!!!
I think I said I'll cover " real " magazines' comics features here ~ Didn't I ???????
...T'other nite I bought a new issue of a long-running fanzine , COMETBUS .
It's is the long-running zine's 57th issue , and 35th anniversary issue .
It is not a comics-centered/-originated zine , but this issue is a special " New York Comics Scene " issue - with no comics beyond the front/bacover and head illos for each of the interviews which fill the issue , interviews with various comics-world personages - Including , for some likely to be recognized by many here , Kim Deitch , Drew Friedman , Al Jaffee , Gary Panter , and - Now THIS appears a bit suprising for a more " alternative/indie "-based venue - a friendly interview with Paul Levitz !!!!!!!!!!! (I.e. , you might think hed've seemed " fallen ex-corporate comics dude " to such a mag) (The editor of that " Best Comics Of The Year " series , which I've seen in stores anyhow , is another interviwee)
...Just five bucks for Cometbus , I just corrected and added above but it appears not to have gone up .
...The current issue of VANITY FAIR has an interesting piece by VF contributing editor Cullen Murphy,, an excerpt from a forthcoming book by him, which recalls how Westport, Connecticut/Fairfield County " was the comic-strip capitol of the world ", in the post-WWII American Century era. Murphy's father John Cullen Murphy drew PRINCE VALIANT and another strip, and Murphy assisted him on it for many years.
I first read the piece on-line. Murphy follows something of an argument that, in those times, his father and his peers weren't REALLY that well-off, just kind of, okay, nice upper-middle class, maybe not the Cleavers but no more than the Petries really...This is a touch undercut in the magazine by a picture that didn't appear in the Web version, a 1960 picture of (barely discussed himself - hm?????) Mortt Walker with a Mercedes-Benz or similar other upscale forigen car, REALLY a luxury in the year I was born - He argues, too, that in those times, the comics page of the New York JOURNAL-AMERICAN (A newspaper I barely remember from when my father would bring it home) was (In a New York-based sense and this illustrative metaphor is mine, not his.) the "the Palace/Broadway at last !!!!! " of the comic-strips biz...On another slick front, ESQUIRE magazine's latest issue (James Brolin cover) advertises " The Return Of Cartoons "...which, however, seems to mean just illustrated one-line gags featuring their old-man Esky character...And I could just find two of them.
...A British politics-and-culture magazine, THE SPECTATOR, has a piece by a columnist of theirs, one James Delingpole ~ which offers an, errr...rather jaundiced!!!!! view of present-day comic books! You have been warned!
In the E-mail plug for the magazine I receive, the column's title is given as " Save us from ' woke ' superheroes "! The magazine's weekly and British, maybe it's last week's ish by now...A lot of American libraries carry this magazine, maybe try and find it there. It IS somewhat critical!!!!!!!
...I got a Superman anniversary/history one-shot, published by an outfit called Centennial Productions IIRC. It very much emphasize s Christopher Reeve on the cover, not Henry Cahill!
If it's a history, that makes sense. He was in four movies and he was the best liked. I know I'd buy it with Reeve on the cover before I'd buy it with Cavill. There seem to be a lot of these one-shot magazines for various superheroes now, especially tied to the latest movie. I wouldn't be surprised to see a few Aquaman ones toward the end of the year.
The new issue (#96) of my fanzine DITKOMANIA came out last month. Copies are available on eBay currently. (I have around 85 copies left, out of a print run of 300.)
I also published recently the 250th issue of TETRAGRAMMATON FRAGMENTS, the newsletter of the United Fanzine Organization (UFO). Forty copies were printed and I have three left (also on eBay).
UFO member Alan Sissom has been publishing some mini-comic-sized fanzines recently, such as Weekly Spotlight #12-14. Alan has pushed back the frequency (no longer weekly) so it will be called Spotlight something-else. Another UFO member, Jim Main, also publishes various magazine-size fanzines, such as SPECTRUM #1 (a revival of a long-time Main title) and PULP FAN #2 (a Doc Savage themed issue).
...Two other history/salute one-shots I also saw and bought at Walgreen's were:
A Mickey Mouse 90th birthday salute, published by LIFE magazine. I'm planning a move, it's stored away now, I haven't opened it.
A Frankenstein's 200th Anniversary one, published by the PARADE Sunday newspaper magazine people.
The cover's the Universal/James Whale version (Karloff? Strange? Another?), various manifestations of the Monster are looked at...The one page on comic books is pretty glancing and had at least one real whopper of an error.
The above comment about remembering Super George vs. Super Christopher was rather an - ironic? mocking? - commentatary/satire on nostalgia - And " Baby Boomers "'d eternal self-obsession - vs. later generation 't thusly...MSA, since you actually wrote a book with " Baby Boomer " in the title.........!:-#
AAAANNDD, besides which, we all know that the admiration of a bubcha stinkin' self-obsessed " Me-Me-Me-Me!!!!!!!!! " Boomers (Well, perhaps barring the late-end " Generation Jones " boomers, some of whom have their redeeming...) M
meand nada, naught, zip, zero, nowt next to the REAL KEWELL ones who preceded them, the Silent Generation kiddies crowds into their postwar Bijous and Ritalos, sneaking past the grumpy "Gidoutt here you kids!!!!!!!!! " ushers with this JuJubes and licorish (Sp??) whips to gaze their Truman-protected eyes at...KIRK ALYN!!!!!!!!!! Now, THAT was real livin'. Movies are your BEST entertainment!