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Tim Looks at Comics Now! Magazine
I first heard about Comics Now! magazine a few months ago when I was trolling around on the Comic Geek Speak message boards (they’re behind the magazine). I was surprised because I hadn’t heard of it before then and still didn’t until Johanna posted a review this week. Having worked on print publications in some capacity for the past 9 years, I’m a magazine man at heart, so I was very excited by this new comics mag. That is, until I bought it. I like the Comic Geek Speak guys and I like their podcast, but they have really no idea how to make a magazine.
Bryan Deemer and Peter Rios are two of the top guys over at Comic Geek Speak and are editor in chief and assistant editor of Comics Now!, respectively. The issue is 96 pages at comic book size and has a pretty nice paper stock.
Editorially, they open with a 12-page cover story about Nova, who, to the best of my knowledge, doesn’t have a book and is not currently in any books. It’s followed by Podcasting Communique, a story about why podcasting is neat and a runs down some podcasts — one of which is Comic Geek Speak and written about in third person, which is like Wizard magazine writing about a Wizard World convention (which they actually do in the new issue). There are also stories on keeping new readers and also a breakdown of all the Crisis books, which is actually helpful, but three times as big as it needs to be. The back of book hosts an assortment of columns ranging from the format of TPBs to Fangirl Talk! (about a woman’s point of view). There’s a 5-page step-by-step from the cover artist and the Meanwhile section. Meanwhile is interesting in that they summarize what’s going on in X-Men, Spider-Man, Superman and Batman books (read between the lines: this magazine is for mainstream comic fans). Though, a lot of these issues are quite old by now. It’s a good idea to have, but is probably best suited for online.
The layout and design of the magazine looks something out of freshman year (high school, not college). Margins are inconsistent and they lose a lot in the gutter. There is no consistency in text styling (in font choice, point size, leading, tracking, H & J’s, etc.), there’s no discernable color palette, page structures differ from story to story, it’s often hard to tell the difference between ad and edit, and in some cases the page layout makes it difficult to even read the story. Visually, it’s an airplane crash on top of a train wreck. I’m a harsher critic here because this is my area of expertise, but it just looks like no thought whatsoever was put into the visual concept and structure of the magazine.
Pacing is another problem area. The book opens with a 12-page story, followed by a 4-pager, a 12-pager then a 20-pager. I know they’re trying to do in-depth stories, but just because a story is 12 pages doesn’t mean it’s in-depth. it’s just a bear to get through. It becomes problematic when most of your longer stories aren’t timely or have any news peg — It realllllly makes the reader work hard to get through each story and significantly lowers the chances of someone reading the stories in their entirety.
Running Nova on the cover was a curious decision to me. I understand the appeal of exposing the readers to a character the editorial staff likes (but who they admit is marginal), but when that character doesn’t even have a book out? (I know he was in those Annihilation books last Fall, and that this issue says it’s a Fall 2007 issue. But Comics Now! didn’t hit stands until the third week of January, and the Annihilation books were long gone by then). I just don’t see the sense in it. And honestly, I’m not sure the story accomplished its goal. It did a fantastic job taking me through the history of the character and the comics, but it certainly didn’t make me like Nova any more or less. I like that they stuck with their guns though. If promoting marginal characters that they love is their MO and they want to feature them on the cover, more power to them. Branding-wise, I’m curious why they don’t have “Comic Geek Speak Presents…” somewhere on the cover. I think their biggest readership draw would be from their listeners and that they’d exploit that as much as possible, but maybe they have a different strategy in mind. I talked to a floor worker at Midtown Comics and he said the first shipment sold out quickly but the re-order supply hasn’t really moved, for what it’s worth.
I will say I was definitely impressed with the amount of ads they had in the book. I counted 13 ads and 6 house ads, which is a great, great accomplishment. It’s worth noting that the mag is published by Brent E. Erwin and David Hedgecock, two of the top guys at comics publisher Ape Entertainment (though the words “Ape Entertainment” don’t appear anywhere). The other connection is that Comics Now! editor, Kevin Freeman, is the managing editor at Ape.
With all of that said, a lot of these critiques could be chalked up to first-issue woes. From an analytical perspective, I’m interested to see what they come up with next, what they learn from this issue and how their editorial evolves. You can see they’re going for a less corporate and less Hollywood version of Wizard. Sigh, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but stick with Wizard for now. I may not agree with their approach to a lot of things, but at least Wizard has a reasonable idea of how to make a magazine. Hardly any of the stories have sources and 90 percent of them are written in first person, which makes them read like really, really, really long blog posts. My recommendation to the guys (and girl) over at Comics Now! would be to put the comics down for a while and pick up some magazines. I applaud their intentions and efforts behind producing Comics Now! and I’m all for more comic magazines, but this one just isn’t there yet. The tagline on the cover reads: “The magazine FOR comic BY comic fans.” The latter part is definitely true. Just because it’s made by an amateur doesn’t mean it needs to look like it is.
Update: Ah, it’s been pointed out to me by two very loyal Nova fans that there actually is a Nova comic series in print. My bad, I regret the error. It doesn’t really change my opinion on any of this though.
19 Responses to “Tim Looks at Comics Now! Magazine”
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February 29th, 2008 at 12:50 am
Nova doesn’t have a book!?!?!?! It’s one of the best titles currently published by Marvel!
February 29th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
[…] Leong, professional magazine designer (and competitor as Editor-in-Chief of Comic Foundry), looks at Comics Now! (which I reviewed last week) and has some harsh criticism. Based on the reactions I’ve seen […]
February 29th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Tim, Tim, Tim - I almost stopped reading your review at the beginning of the third paragraph when you - the man behind another COMIC magazine - reveal that you have no idea that there’s a Nova comic out. I think I’d rather have someone say “but they have really no idea how to make a magazine” than “but they have really no idea what’s going on in the comic industry”. But that could be me.
Regardless, many of your issues have already been addressed both on our podcast and the Comics Now forum: we had to switch from staples to perfect bound entirely at the last minute at the printers so there was no way to adjust the look of the margins and such. All good for #2. Same thing with the typesetting and such - it’ll get better. No clip headlines here. We all have things we can “make better” from our first issue. Even “Wizard” had to start somewhere.
About the podcasting column (and it is an ongoing column) - that wasn’t written by anyone from CGS. So I’m not sure what you mean by “written in third person”.
And we certainly looked at various comic magazines (but stayed away from anything too current like Wizard, CBG or Maxim). I’m a huge fan of Amazing Heroes from back in the day. People talking passionately about comics without hype, promotion or trying to be cool. I miss that in magazines.
So thanks for the review and the coverage. Best of luck with CF!
February 29th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
As the author of the podcasting column, I can tell you that it is NOT like Wizard writing an article about Wizard World. It’s like Comics Foundry writing an article for Comics Now!
As Peter said a lot of the criticisms mentioned in your look at Comics Now will be addressed in the second issue. However, I can tell you for a fact that CGS will once again be mentioned in the third person. Sorry about that.
March 1st, 2008 at 4:01 am
[…] Review: Tim Leong Looks at Comics Now! Magazine. “Looks” is the appropriate word because it seems that he never actually read […]
March 1st, 2008 at 10:22 pm
I wanted to respond so some people can understand more clearly what I said in my original blog post.
I already addressed the Nova issue, but if you want to bring it up again, the main reason I wasn’t aware of the Nova book is that at Comic Foundry we cover superhero, indie and manga — the whole spectrum. I’m just used to looking at a wider array of comics than just Marvel and DC, so it’s harder to pick up on everything. We also bring in teams of experts to write about each genre, so even if miss a title like Nova, we’re still covered. But like I said, my bad. Maybe I’ll have to pick up next time I’m at the shop.
Derek:
You also seem upset that I called “Podcasting Communique” a story rather than a column. I’m a reasonably intelligent guy — especially when it comes to magazines — and if I, the reader, can’t tell that your story is actually a column, I can assure you the problem is not mine. Like I mentioned in my original post, the presentation is incredibly unclear. 1) Nowhere does it actually say the word “column” in the text. 2) The design of the “columns” in the issue are very inconsistent (in fonts, format, margins, length, sidebars, layout, etc) — how is a reader supposed to know it’s a column when it looks nothing like the rest of the columns that are in the back of the book? 3) Columns typically aren’t written by two people, since the idea of a column is to express opinion in the text — if there’s two of you writing it, whose opinion is whose? You might think this is all inconsequential, but these are the things you or the rest of the staff need to communicate clearly before you get all hot and bothered because someone can’t tell the difference between a story and a column.
You also just seem really intent on making this about you. Nowhere do I imply that you personally are part of CGS, nor do I even mention you at all. I’m talking about the editorial voice of the entire magazine — your piece is just part of the entire Comics Now! puzzle. What I alluded to and what Johanna mentioned is that when two of the top editors at Comics Now! are part of Comic Geek Speak and part of its writing staff was culled from avid CGS listeners, yes, it’s INCREDIBLY weird to write about Comic Geek Speak in the magazine and pretend like there’s no relation. Just because the author of the article doesn’t personally work at CGS, it doesn’t matter — that story is part of the magazine and the impression that readers are left with is that magazine is part of Comic Geek Speak. Hell, Comics Now!’s message board is even part of the Comic Geek Speak message board. Also, Comics Now! is published by the top two guys at Ape Entertainment. There are also several ads for Comic Geek Speak, Ape Entertainment and Ape Entertainment comics, which begs the question: Is Comics Now! published by Ape Entertainment? I shouldn’t have to bring these things up — all of this should’ve been made clear in the first issue.
And look, maybe some people think it’s bad form for me to say all this because I work at another comic magazine, but honestly, I don’t care. Magazines are my passion and there’s nothing I love more than reading a good magazine. Just because Comics Now! absolutely refuses to ever, ever give a negative review — as stated in the first issue’s editorial — doesn’t mean I’m not going to.
March 2nd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
So, because you are so passionate about magazines, you must tear them apart in this level of detail on your blog all the time, right? Funny, clicking around the archives a bit, I didn’t seem to find that passion for magazines directed at other publications. Rather, this passion for magazine reading and criticism seems to have only popped up in time to pan another quarterly launching and sharing shelf space around the same time as you.
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Wow!
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:41 pm
There are two kinds of negative reviews: 1) the kind that point out flaws and mistakes in an effort to get that which is reviewed to a better place, and 2) the kind that just tear that which is reviewed a new one for sensationalistic purposes. I think Tim’s review of Comics Now! is very definitely of the first kind. He doesn’t make any personal attacks against any of the staff or even at the magazine itself. He instead points out flaws and mistakes that maybe the Comics Now! staff didn’t pick up on or maybe didn’t know were flaws and mistakes. When the first issue of Comic Foundry came out, I told Tim about the horrible copyediting that had let through pretty bad spelling and grammar errors, not because I hate Tim, his staff, or the magazine itself, but because I wanted it to be better. I think this is a pretty clear case of Tim wanting Comics Now! to be better, even if they are competing with him.
And for the sake of full disclosure, I do have some reviews and columns in the second and third issues of Comic Foundry, which I guess technically makes me staff, and their Senior Comics Editor Laura Hudson is my sister from another mother. That should not, however, invalidate my critique of this post or my critiques of past, present, and future issues of Comic Foundry.
Though not knowing about Nova is pretty weird. It had a talking Cosmonaut dog, for Pete’s sake! How do you miss that?
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:53 pm
You mean constructive comments meant to encourage improvement in the future, like this one, from the final paragraph?:
“You can see they’re going for a less corporate and less Hollywood version of Wizard. Sigh, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but stick with Wizard for now. I may not agree with their approach to a lot of things, but at least Wizard has a reasonable idea of how to make a magazine.”
A comment that basically calls for readers of this blog to skip Comics Now in the future and ’stick with Wizard’. Yeah, really sounds like Tim wants Comics Now! to get to a better place to me.
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:36 pm
I have one last comment, regarding Adan’s defense of this blog post, and then I will move on (as, I imagine, others want me to). Regarding this:
“When the first issue of Comic Foundry came out, I told Tim about the horrible copyediting that had let through pretty bad spelling and grammar errors, not because I hate Tim, his staff, or the magazine itself, but because I wanted it to be better. I think this is a pretty clear case of Tim wanting Comics Now! to be better, even if they are competing with him.”
I have to ask- did you communicate this to Tim via email? Or did you post your critique on your blog, and basically advise your blog readers to skip Comic Foundry in the future? Because I think there is a key difference there in intent. It is one thing to draw from your expertise and send constructive feedback (as Tim clearly read the magazine in detail, he knows there are contact points provided for readers to do so) but it is another thing to tear a fellow publication apart on the blog of your publication, essentially advising your readers not to buy it. That is not constructive, and I think the intent of that is pretty transparent. If Tim is such an avid magazine critic, why does this blog not feature such thorough, laundry-list red pen criticisms of other publications? I just think it is bad form.
For what it is worth, I enjoyed the first issue of Comics Foundry. As a reader/consumer, it is not an either/or proposition- both magazines seem to be going for different things and have a different personality. But the personality that Tim has displayed in this blog are making me think twice about supporting Comic Foundry’s second issue. I think the world of comics, and certainly the world of comics magazines, is small enough that individuals could conduct themselves better than this.
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:38 pm
And, in the interest of fairness, I will say that, while I am a CGS fan, if they took an episode of their podcast to tear apart Comics Foundry in the same way, I would post these same kind of sentiments at their place, and similarly think twice about supporting their next issue. Maybe I am a Pollyanna, but I just think that comics publishers and pros can be more cordial than this.
March 3rd, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Adan probably remembers this better than me, but I believe he talked to me about it, talked to Tim about it, and also posted about it on the Comic Foundry blog, and his own. Adan has never worn kid gloves in his criticisms of CF, despite being my close friend (and brother). And I appreciate that, because this is how we learn.
Some of the criticism of Comics Now! was somewhat harsh, but if you truly believe something you’re critiquing is not up to snuff, you have to call it like it is. I know criticism can hurt, especially when it’s about you or your friends, but it’s an inevitable part of both writing and putting out something as ambitious as a magazine. Both Tim and I (and CF itself) have had some pretty unpleasant things said about us in various corners of the internet, because that’s comics, and the internet, and writing, and life. And believe it or not, a lot of the changes we made in our second issue were direct responses to some of those criticisms. Comics Now! would do well to do the same.
While there’s certainly something to be said for civility, critical reviews are inevitably going to run the gamut from softball to hardball. The palpable personal offense taken by members of Comics Now! and CGS to this criticism doesn’t bode well for them in this regard, because if they’re going to be successful, then much more lies ahead.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:47 am
“Palpable personal offense”? Laura, you should hear the episode we did where the other hosts of CGS reviewed the first issue. And those were our friends! lol.
We’ve taken plenty of criticism and used all that for future issues. But ultimately, there is no one way to do things, regardless of what “professionals” say. For instance, we have info on our spine, CF #1 doesn’t. CF #1 is black and white and has pages devoted to fashion. Some of the headlines look like clipart. We all have places we can grow - even the professionals. I’m just excited that there are valid alternatives out there.
Tim - In case anyone missed it, Bryan and his daughter are wearing a CGS shirt in the picture used for the editorial page. Also, at the end of the Crisis article, Adam is listed as a host of CGS. So I’m not sure where the confusion is coming from. And why wouldn’t we pull from our listeners and our connections? Isn’t that what creating a project like this is about? Isn’t that why Image and Valiant made Wizard the hit that it was? Surely your staff isn’t made up of all strangers. Ultimately, our writers take our ideas and run with it. I don’t see the conflict of interest there. (Oh - and we’ll be getting to manga as well - almost had it in the first issue but cuts had to be made).
By the way, we have an issue of CF #1 on our shelf and I have one that I bought in my own personal collection. I even purchased printed versions of the online content at MOCCA 06 and a mock copy of #1 from 07. So I mean what I say, best of luck with CF!
March 4th, 2008 at 5:03 am
“You mean constructive comments meant to encourage improvement in the future, like this one, from the final paragraph?:
“You can see they’re going for a less corporate and less Hollywood version of Wizard. Sigh, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but stick with Wizard for now. I may not agree with their approach to a lot of things, but at least Wizard has a reasonable idea of how to make a magazine.”
A comment that basically calls for readers of this blog to skip Comics Now in the future and ’stick with Wizard’. Yeah, really sounds like Tim wants Comics Now! to get to a better place to me.”
He very clearly says “for now” and not “in the future.” When that second issue of Comics Now! comes out, and if it’s appreciably better in his opinion, no doubt Tim will say so, and he will stop recommending Wizard over Comics Now!.
Hudson is correct in her assessment of how I brought up the proofreading flaws. I told her first, then Tim, then I reviewed the magazine on PopCultureShock.com, and most recently (before this, I mean), I brought it up in the comments of Tim’s post hyping the second issue of Comic Foundry.
The funniest thing about this, and I can only speak for myself, is that I hadn’t heard of Comics Now! before following a link to Tim’s critique, and now I want to buy that first issue to see for myself if Tim is right or wrong in his assessment. Alas, Hong Kong is a wasteland of comics-related magazines (and also comics in general) and I’ll most likely have to wait until my next trip to Singapore to get it, and if Singapore fails me, until my next trip to New York.
March 4th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Tim,
You didn’t know there was a Nova ongoing and that he’s one of the stars of Annihilation: Conquest?!?!
That sting you just felt was part of my heart breaking…
March 6th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
The fact that there IS, in fact, a NOVA ongoing certainly SHOULD change your opinion of the magazine, because a major criticism on your part was that the cover article was too long to be about an insignificant character. Knowing now that the character does have an ongoing monthly and is more relevant than you’ve given him credit for, this criticism is pretty much rendered null.
I haven’t picked up this magazine, but I don’t have a problem with lengthy articles at all. In fact, my biggest problem with the insufferably dim-witted WIZARD in recent years is that they expect their readership to have the attention span of a fruit fly. A 12 page article would logistically give the writers MUCH more room for discussion.
It seems that your OTHER criticism (besides the fact that too many pages are devoted to a character that you don’t recognize) is poor layout and design. This is a bad problem but it’s easily fixed. They could have that remedied by next issue. Picking out niggling quibbles regarding font style and article length doesn’t make them look incompetent, it makes YOU look petty and trifling.
I’m sure COMIC FOUNDRY is fantastic, but mindlessly bashing your opposition is a poor way to build yourself up. And I know you pride yourself on covering a broad spectrum of material, which is outstanding and I completely applaud that, but you’re giving yourself a black-eye by not being aware of what’s going on at Marvel. That should be a prerequisite.
Again, nothing against you or your magazine (I look forward to the new issue) but I call shenanigans on this “review”.
March 28th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
^^ Shenanigans, I tell you! Shenanigans!
Pfft… a rival magazine tearing down a start-up competitor… hmm… sounds pretty tasteless to me despite the unsuccessful attempt to sugarcoat it as “constructive criticism”.
This so-called critique lost a loooot of credibility by the very fact that it didn’t even know of the Nova ongoing and the focus Marvel has been spotlighting on the character lately.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:32 pm
As a reader of both magazines and a listener of CGS, I think that criticisms were harsh, but fair. Aside from the Nova remark, which the author has since corrected, the criticisms are well founded.
Both magazines are in their infancy, but Tim does seem to have more experience (I honestly don’t know of Tim’s prior experience, so I’m speaking out of ignorance a bit), so it would be fair of him to give someone a helping hand.
I seriously doubt Tim wants Comics Now to crap out and vice versa, so I don’t think this should be a huge issue.
I wish both magazines the best of luck and as soon as they offer subscriptions I’m on board!