It's The Comics Journal What can I say, it's The Comics Journal. It's the only good prozine about comics out there: in-depth interviews, reviews and analysis. If you like comics that aren't just Marvel / DC / Image / Men In Tights, subscribe.
Really great, but might not be worth subscribing to The Comics Journal takes a serious look at comics as an art form, as opposed to something like Wizard which focuses mostly on superhero comics and superhero fandom. Each issue of The Comics Journal is split up into different sections and it's about what you'd expect. They have news and reviews, but the best feature is always their in depth interviews, which often span 30-50 pages and sometimes more than that. This is really great when they interview one of your favorite comic creators, but it's not so great when they interview someone you're not that interested in or even all that familiar with. And because their interviews are so in depth they rarely interview the same subject twice. So if you're really in love with the work of say, Adrian Tomine, then they interviewed him a long time ago and probably won't be interviewing him again soon.
When I subscribed, there were only a handful of interviews I wanted to read. The Journal interviews a lot of different cartoonists, including a lot of people whose work doesn't interest me. There were some issues I barely read at all because of this. That's when I realized it was best if I just bought back issues so I could read interviews with my favorite cartoonists.
As mentioned earlier, the Journal features news and reviews. Because of the time it takes to put the magazine out, a lot of times the news will be pretty outdated. The same goes for the reviews, which are sometimes written quite a while after the book they're reviewing has hit the stands. I remember reading a review of Angry Youth Comix #6 and thinking, "Um, didn't that come out like a year ago?" Some of the articles are really interesting though, like their annual Best of the Year feature.
A recent addition to The Journal is their comics section, which often features really great rare comics, usually presented in full color. This section is really cool, because, unlike their interviews, it doesn't matter if you're not familiar with the creator. Even then, they offer some info about the creator and the comics in the section.
I definitely wouldn't recommend subscribing to The Comics Journal if you are new to comics, even if you are interested in the more independent/alternative/"artsy" stuff. If you pick up an issue, you probably won't find out about all sorts of great comics that are new to you, just the few things that are being covered that month. I would recommend familiarizing yourself with comics first and then checking out some of the back issues of TCJ to read any interviews/articles that look interesting to you.
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