Is Comics International dead?

[PaulTwist]

I assume everyone here is familar with the brilliant Down the Tubes and, therefore, has already seen this:

http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/ ... mpany.html

It would be a great shame for this British comics institution to die... In an ideal world someone would buy it and resurrect it as a monthly, but I doubt that's too likely. Very sad indeed...

[Digifiend]

Their website says that it's being redeveloped. More like they just wanted an excuse not to update it. Sadly, this news is hardly surprising.

[STARBOY]

Sadly it's no suprise that CI has now "officialy" bitten the dust. Despite Mike Conroys ill health (the most important issue) the management of the whole situation was to say the least very poor. It's a much missed magazine IMHO

[tony ingram]

I'm not entirely convinced it was down to mismanagement. Dez's comments on DTT seem to suggest Mike had taken on a pretty impossible task-though I do think he got his priorities wrong. CI was always meant to be about news, primarily. That was what made it essential reading. Mike's features led approach didn't really work.

[Lew Stringer]

Perhaps one day we'll see a revival of the mag under a new name. After all, wasn't Comics International just a revived Fantasy Advertiser International in a slicker, more professional format?

The argument against is that fans can get their news immediately on the net, making a monthly news mag redundant. It's a valid point. However, I still think a significant number of readers would still want a "hard copy" news mag to make it viable.

There's also the commercial side of the mag that was important. As Kev mentioned the other day, it was a good place to promote events (and shops and suchlike). All in all, it was a great place to have the info all in one place rather than spread all over the internet.

In the meantime, we have Crikey! and Comic Heroes. Both of which do great job for their target audience. Incidentally, for those of us who thought the £7.99 price of Comic Heroes would be counter-productive; the first issue sold out and the publishers had no copies spare to bring along to the Comic Expo this weekend. (Roll on issue 2, out in a few weeks, with contributions from Doug Braithwaite, Dez Skinn, myself and many more.)

[PaulTwist]

What I never understood about the relaunched CI is that they were obviously failing to produce 100 pages per month - why didn't they at least scale it back to the page count that Dez ran it at (was it 64pp? My memory fails me). After all, he seemed to know what he was doing...

Glad Comic Heroes is a success - it's nice to have a comics-themed mag in newsagents. I did enjoy issue one despite its price. And Crikey is wonderful too, of course... I do think there's room for CH, CI and, er, C.

Not sure about a revival under a new name, Lew... surely the Comics International "brand" has so much kudos that it'd be worthwhile retaining the name?

[STARBOY]

Tony: I wasn't really saying the book was mis-managed but the situation when people were asking what was going on was - I personally wrote several times (very nicely) on the then CI board (who at the time were answering (very occassionaly) other questions) to no reply, total silence. Many other people (some having just paid subs or advertised in issues that didnt appear) also wrote in to no reply. I also wrote to "Down the tubes" and they tried to get feedback etc etc all to silence, hindsight I suppose is a great thing, but that could have been handled better by CI. Although I wasn't a massive fan of the article based CI that Mike tried to produce I understood why he tried it, just a shame such an important mag is gone but we have to keep in view it was someone business so thats a shame also. Lets hope all concerend get back on their feet.

[felneymike]

Whatever happened to Redeye magazine, that's what i want to know! (It was 'sort of' self published, though looked professional, and had articles and interviews about 'proper' comics alongside masses and masses of short reviews of self-published stuff).

[PaulTwist]

Whatever happened to Redeye magazine, that's what i want to know! (It was 'sort of' self published, though looked professional, and had articles and interviews about 'proper' comics alongside masses and masses of short reviews of self-published stuff).

It went PDF-only, but I think there's only been one issue, and that was in August last year:

http://www.enginecomics.co.uk/engframeset.htm

[tony ingram]

Perhaps one day we'll see a revival of the mag under a new name. After all, wasn't Comics International just a revived Fantasy Advertiser International in a slicker, more professional format?

The argument against is that fans can get their news immediately on the net, making a monthly news mag redundant. It's a valid point. However, I still think a significant number of readers would still want a "hard copy" news mag to make it viable.

There's also the commercial side of the mag that was important. As Kev mentioned the other day, it was a good place to promote events (and shops and suchlike). All in all, it was a great place to have the info all in one place rather than spread all over the internet.

In the meantime, we have Crikey! and Comic Heroes. Both of which do great job for their target audience. Incidentally, for those of us who thought the £7.99 price of Comic Heroes would be counter-productive; the first issue sold out and the publishers had no copies spare to bring along to the Comic Expo this weekend. (Roll on issue 2, out in a few weeks, with contributions from Doug Braithwaite, Dez Skinn, myself and many more.)

I'd love to see it return, but I think that at this stage the name Comics International might actually count against it. The last couple of years have tarnished its rep, unfortunately.

[chrissmillie]

In the Starscape newsletter I'm asking:

You may have been reading about the demise of the wonderful Comics International. Would anyone be interested in seeing a listings mag at their local comic store? Current thoughts are of an A5 monthly mag (GBP 2/USD 3) around 40 pages listing major comic-related news stories, advance solicitations from mainstream, indy and British comic publishers, the odd feature on current events, an interview or two and a focus on comic history. If that's of interest, or you have anything that you may want to be included, let me know and I'll consider the matter further. Likewise, any thoughts on format, price, internet/paper etc, whilst keeping it self-sustainable.

So, any thoughts?

[STARBOY]

I for one would love to see a listing type comic mag in specialist shops, not sure that A5 is the size to go for though (but understand the economics of it all) as it might get lost in the racks etc. Maybe something like the first few CIs (not as many pages of course) but A4 ish - Def need to bulk it out with snappy news based articles, cover repos, letters page, comics for sales page etc and I think it could work. Priced at about £1 - £2.50 I think, at least less than a comic to start with. Maybe a classier version of the old 70s BEM fanzine? I know PREVIEWS is out there but that's a catalouge (a good one but it has no "soul" )

[chrissmillie]

I've cooked up a trial issue of Comicscape - a news, views and listings mag to see what interest there would be in a regular mag. Print or electronic. Current thinking is a couple of electronic issues to get the feel right, then a trial issue to UK comic shop managers to gauge interest. Any suggestions, let me know.

It's a vol.0 as I'm interested in anyone's views over what they like, what they don't like, what they want, what they're not happy with etc etc. Also, if anyone wants to contribute, all the better.

The issue can be downloaded (pdf) from either Clickwheel http://www.clickwheel.net/features/343?episode_id=3244 or Lulu http://www.lulu.com/product/ebook/comic ... 1/11254028 for free.

Comics news, views and listings for June 2010.
Major stories include Roy Thomas on Conan after 40 years, htmlcomics closed by the FBI and a new Green Lantern cartoon.
Jack Kirby's New Gods is remembered in Tales That Astonished, whilst June 1970 - 40 years ago - comic releases are reviewed in This Day In Comics.

[Lew Stringer]

Good stuff Chris. I downloaded it on my iPod Touch and had a quick look. The only think I'd change is the logo, to give it a stronger look.

Is it ok if I give it a plug on my blog?

[chrissmillie]

Yeah, fine of course.

I've actually got a couple of professionals willing to help but, as I did it so soon, I didn't have time to really get them involved - and no involvement at the design stage. It's a trial issue, so I just want to see really, is a CI-style publication still viable? pdf or print? If not, what would make it so, if anything?

Thanks Lew.