Issue Description

30th Anniversary issue! "Where we came from, where we're going": The Comics Journal celebrates its 30th year as the nation's premier trade journal and comic-arts review by examining the last three decades of comics arts and industry history, and offers a look at where the medium may be headed in the next decade, in an oversized special issue guaranteed to give you a new perspective from which to view the artform. News Editor Michael Dean and Managing Editor Dirk Deppey offer a concise history of the comic-book marketplace, from the early days of the Direct Market to the turbulent 1990s and their consequences for today. Executive Editor Gary Groth talks about the aesthetics of the medium with renowned cultural critic Donald Phelps. French cartoonist and controversial L'Association co-founder Jean-Christophe Menu offers a European perspective, and a host of cartoonists (including breakout web-cartoonist Chris Onstad and others) and publishers (First Second's Mark Siegel, Top Shelf's Chris Staros, Dark Horse's Diana Schutz, Viz's Dallas Middaugh, and webcomics entrepreneur Joey Manley) discuss the future of the medium as seen from their vantage points.

Also in this issue: interview with and masterful cover by rising graphic novelist R. Kikuo Johnson; Alex Toth remembered; in our comics section, a complete presentation of the proto-graphic novel It Rhymes with Lust by Drake Waller, Matt Baker & Ray Osrin, with introductions by Michael T. Gilbert & Ken Quattro; an interviews with manga-influenced cartoonists Chynna Clugston & Fred Gallagher; and much more!

The Comics Journal (1976)

Publisher

Fantagraphics

Volume Description

The Comics Journal is a magazine that covers the comics medium from an arts-first perspective, and one of the nation's most respected single-arts magazines, providing its readers with an eclectic mix of industry news, commentary, professional interviews, classic comics sections and reviews of current work on a regular basis. Due to its reputation as the American magazine with an interest in comics as an art form, the Journal has subscribers worldwide, and in this country serves as an important window into the world of comics for several general arts and news magazines.

Despite a contentious relationship with the rest of the North American comics industry, due in no small part to its investigative news stories and uncompromising review section, the Journal has won several industry awards, most notably the Utne Reader, Eisner and Harvey trophies.

In October 2009, we announced the next phase of the evolution of The Comics Journal, beginning in 2010 as a uniquely sized and formatted, evocatively visual and tactile semi-annual event, with expanded content at The Comics Journal website TCJ.com.

A comics magazine, which originally began as the New Nostalgia Journal, started in 1976 by Gary Groth and Mike Catron after the Nostalgia Journal (which ran 26 issues) lost their battle against the competing adzine, The Buyer's Guide. Gary and Mike, both in their twenties, had no plan, but somehow convinced the maker of the Nostalgia Journal to give them the paper.

As Gary Groth recalls:

I can’t remember how we talked them into this, but I suspect they were on their last legs and decided to hell with it, let’s give it to these two kids. Shortly thereafter, a box arrived in the mail with some back issues, a list of advertisers and a mailing list, and we were the proud new owners of Journal.

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Status: Not in Collection