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...........

[Philip Portelli]

I still miss Amazing Heroes and The Comic Reader.

[ClarkKent_DC]

So do I.

 

The Comics Journal is going to be an annual tome? Really?

 

I guess I shouldn't be surprised; I haven't seen it anywhere in years. 

[Philip Portelli]

When I first saw The Comics Journal when I was in high school, I was so happy to see a serious magazine about comics. After reading it for a year, I was equally distraught over the bitterness, the acrimony and the out-and-out hatred they seem to have about their very subject, especially super-hero comics. Maybe it was too intelluctual for me though that seems unlikely! ;-)

[ClarkKent_DC]

I'm surprised it lasted so long, being full of such bitterness, acrimony and out-and-out hatred it had about comics, particularly superhero comics.

 

But then, Amazing Heroes, which was serious but far more lighthearted, petered out in less than half the time.

[George]

The early Comics Journal issues, from the late '70s and early '80s, are worth seeking out. They still covered mainstream comics then, and ran long interviews with Marvel and DC creators. It was a bit later that Groth's escalating hatred of superheroes changed the mag's focus (to foreign, indie and newspaper comics).

 

Every issue of Comic Book Artist I've read has been superb (the one on Warren is priceless). Roy Thomas' Alter Ego is a fun read, though it's focused on the Golden Age comics of Roy's youth. Has a lot of info you're not likely to find anywhere else.

 

I also miss Amazing Heroes (which ran from 1981 to 1992). Still pick up back issues when I come across them in the bargain bins.

[doc photo]

I agree on the early Comics Journal, those interviews were terrific. The only other fan magazine I read regularly was the short lived Heroes Illustrated in the Nineties. On the surface it appeared to be a Wizard wannabe, but instead of focusing on the latest and the hottest, Heroes took a broader view of the comic book world, which included great articles on people like Will Eisner and Dick Sprang.

[Lumbering Jack (M'odd-R8-Tr)]

If you ever come across an issue of Charlton Spotlight, you should consider yourself lucky. Not only is it hard to find, but every issue is a great read!

Unfortunately, it's not had a new issue in (yikes!) two years.

[Mike Williams]

I still remember the issue of Comics Journal that covered the Felisher vs Groth case - it was a real eye opener to the way Marvel tended to work, as well as to the way Jim Shooter and Mike Fleisher were viewed in the industry.  I also read to death the one where they reviewed Atlas/Seaboard, and interviewed everyoen they could who worked there.

 

As for Amazing Heroes, that was defintiely at it's best when Mark Waid, and then Kevin Dooley were in charge.  It seemed to go downhill a bit after that, but I still miss it - and a collected edition of their best articles would be a sure fire buy.

[Lumbering Jack (M'odd-R8-Tr)]

I also used to get Comic Scene (or was it Comics Scene). It looked good, but for all of its splashy-ness it relied too much on news of the film and TV adaptations of various comics. I believe it was a sister publication to Starlog (or a similar magazine) and that's what kept them milking the "moving pictures" industry for news when most adaptations were horrible at the time.

It should have just focused on comics and the great artists and writers who were creating them.

[ClarkKent_DC]

I liked Comics Scene. However, news of film and TV adaptations of various comics seemed to be its reason for being, so I don't understand the complaint. 

It did have one article that I well remember, skewering the notion that all those comics in your basement are going to be worth millions of dollars someday. The few people who pay high prices for any given comic do so because they're recapturing a piece of their childhood, and for them, price is no object -- but anybody else thinks of them as worthless paper.

[Lumbering Jack (M'odd-R8-Tr)]

Clark,

As a pre-teen and teen without much connection to fandom or an accessible comic book store, the only comics publication I could find at my local supermarket was Comics Scene, and I wanted more out of it than an extended advertisement for the Superboy TV show. I wanted analysis of comics, their characters and creators. For the most part, Comics Scene did not offer that.

You're right, Wikipedia says that Comics Scene was indeed meant to explore comics in other media rather than the comics themselves. I did not know this at the time it was being published, and was entirely justified with my dissatisfaction.

[Emerkeith Davyjack]

...Yeah , in a sense , Comics Scene was " better than it had to be " , while concentrating on media versions it let some " spinach " - so to speak - or " finer stuff ":-) - through as well . AS a newsstand mag , some of its articles were pretty good , I thinkseth !