Edited by Austin English. Published by Domino Books. Newsprint Magazine, 72 pages, B&W, 2021. Why a print magazine about comics, and why now? The answers are...not simple. More than at any other time in my involvement in comics, I feel that things are artistically as beautiful as they've ever been. More and more artists seem drawn to cartooning than at any other time, many of them making work of true beauty that doesn't fit into any mold that comics has appeared to be capable of. And yet the artistry and passion of these artists seems deeply out of sync with the institutions and structures that the comics 'industry' offers. Cartooning is a unique artform, yielding little support to artists, yet still acting as magnet for wildly ambitious expression, experimentation and thought. In starting a new print magazine about comics, it's my hope that some ideas and conversations might be preserved with an ounce of the dignity that the mediums art offers. Online criticism and discussion is important, but fades away extremely quickly and seems driven by argument rather than reflection. Early issues of The Comics Journal offered quiet pages for artists to study, piecing together the practices and ideas of favorite artists in lengthy interviews. After a month of thinking about what a cartoonist said in a discussion, some debate of those ideas would appear in the next months letter column. The weight of a cartoonists words could be digested, embraced, rejected and most importantly THOUGHT about, rather then reacted to. So, this publication is an attempt to try to do justice to the artists and implications of our favorite medium with a degree of dedication and focus that cartooning deserves. This issue features: -front cover by Zak Sally -a feature interview with Steven creator Doug Allen -a career retrospective interview with Mary Fleener by Tim Goodyear -Matthew Thurber's Picturebox memoir -an oral history of the Bay Area comics collective Puppy Toss -archival interview with Dylan Williams by Jason T Miles -an in depth conversation about what mini comics distribution is and isn't, with John Porcellino -new comics on comics by Andrea Lukic -Industry commentary by Victor Cayro -An interview with E.V. Glenn by T Edward Bak -Aaron Renier and Jessica Campbell on Tintin -Auto bio comics on comics by David King -Tim Goodyear mini comics round up -Keith Jones on forgotten comics of the past -Ariel Cooper on why she makes comics -Clara Bessijelle on dreaming about comics -Spot drawings by Stella Murphy and Cameron Forsley -Back cover by Aidan Koch
