The mag goes on sale on Thursday 20th December.
Independently published, Comic Scene focuses mainly on British comics past and present, although it includes American comics too, and recently began to include features on films, presumably to broaden its appeal.
The magazine still has a few rough edges that need dealing with (eg: sometimes attributing art to the wrong person, or its frequent mis-spelling of "D.C. Thompson"), and its design is inconsistent, so I don't know how it'll fare when displayed alongside SFX, Empire, Sci-Fi Now, etc, but as it's the only magazine out there championing British comics it deserves our support. Previously, Future's Comic Heroes couldn't even survive as a quarterly in newsagents, so I'm concerned that a monthly comics magazine might suffer too, but let's hope not!
The best way to obtain copies of course is still by subscription, and you can order it directly from the publisher at their website:
https://comicscene.tictail.com
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There's also a Comic Scene Annual being published any day now. This gigantic 320 page, perfect bound volume is all-comics, compiled of small-press and indie strips. An episode of my Derek the Troll strip is in there, as part of a promotion for Goof! - or at least that's what I was led to believe. Unfortunately although strips by several Goof! contributors are used, there's no mention of the web address or any background info on the comic. Sadly, this means that anyone curious to see more won't know that they need to go to https://www.goofcomic.co.uk to subscribe.
The Comic Scene Annual is very expensive too, at £20, but if you're interested you can order a copy here:
https://comicscene.tictail.com/product/great-big-comicscene-christmas-annual-2019
I've been enjoying this, having bought all the issues from Forbidden Planet.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I will say is that I am not a fan of themed issues. One, it can be wearisome reading about a particular theme within a magazine, I'd much rather read about all kinds of comics.
Two, it can be off-putting to some. The previous issue I read was the "War Special". I enjoyed it, especially having read the likes of "Charley's War" and "Battle". However, an online friend of mine said he had zero interest in war comics and was not going to buy COMIC SCENE purely for a few non-war articles.
I think any magazine would benefit from not necessarily doing themed issues, at least not every time.
Stephen Parry
I honestly don't think those covers will appeal for a start, but I wish them luck! Shame they're starting to cover film and TV when they championed themselves as 100% comics prior to now. IS there any reason given as to why the first monthly issue is #0? Is it less pages than normal?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Stephen. I prefer variety to theme issues. I don't know why they choose to do that.
ReplyDeletePhil, it seems to be a thing now for some comics and mags to start with a zero issue. Goof! did the same. While I can understand it being used for a trial issue, I don't see the point in beginning an ongoing run like that. The first volume of Comic Scene started with a zero issue too! (The page count won't be affected by the way.)
Hi - we are moving away from purely themed issues with a varied mix of something old and new. The TV and Film section will be comic related only - at times going back to the original comic book source material for those who are introduced to the characters this way rather than the comics themselves. With Rebellion about to mine comics from the last 40 years for their new TV and Film venture I hope you can see the logic there. Same amount of pages, the covers are original rather than stock PR photos, we iron out the rough spots with every issue and I hope we are producing something which captures all aspects of comic culture. Dedicated and passionate Comic fans will (hopefully) be aware and supportive of the magazine but with newsstand distribution we wanted a fresh start for potential new readers too. The newsstand launch issue is available for two months and then back to the regular monthly frequency from February - hence Issue 1. It’s an exciting time for everyone who loves comics and we hope we capture some of the spirit of that and blogs such as Blimey, which John Freeman of DownTheTubes mentions in his article in the next Issue. Hope you enjoy it (as much as we enjoy putting it together). Fingers and toes crossed it sells well (eek!)
ReplyDeleteI purchased the first issue this week. it has an odd 'fanzine' style of not-qute professional about it, but contains some interesting articles. I have already bought the annual and volume one compilation in digital form as well. i will stick with this, i think.
ReplyDelete