On thurs I picked up the second issue of Comic Foundry, Tim Leong’s comics and pop culture (to paraphrase Jack Kirby’s iconic cover to New Gods #1) magazine for our times. Aimed at the more modern centred comic fan, who enjoys Marvel and DC, but also likes indie books and well, having a life.
Being in that target demographic, I grew out of Wizard many moons ago and while I enjoy the depth of the articles found in the Comics Journal, I do find it a bit too harsh on the mainstream stuff, so I thought I should check this magazine out and it turns out I loved every page of it.
Editorially, this feels like Esquire for comic fans, covering things like fashion and lifestyle as well as the comics world. Wisely they’ve decided not to go down the route of reporting breaking news as the internet does that better than any magazine could and in a commendable move, they treat webcomics and manga and their creators as being on the same level playing field as American mainstream comics, which more accurately reflects the current climate of the sequential art scene(bit wanky of me, but I got fed up of saying “comics” all the time).
Of note here is the cover feature with Matt Fraction, writer of Casanova, Punisher War Journal and Iron Fist with Ed Brubaker, with reflections on his career thus far and detailing his upcoming work. A feature like this in wizard would maybe cover 2 pages, here it’s granted seven, which allows it to be a little more introspective than these things normally are, showing us how Fraction feels about the state of comics and how digital formats and bookstores will affect the market in the future. It’s a great piece and I must say, it’s done the intended job, I’m definitely going to check out Fraction’s Uncanny X-Men, and I never read X-Men(or at least not consistently).
Another fun bit is the fashion section, where they dissect a fictional character’s wardrobe and suggest real life items to match, so for example this issue features annoying sidekick turned geek icon Jimmy Olsen, the items on display here include a lovely messenger bag by uniqlo and some sweet shoes by Tretorn that I wouldn’t mind owning.
The only negative thing I have to say is that the magazine is only 64 pages, so I implore you all to give it a try so they can up the page count!
Comic Foundry is out 4 times a year and is available in both comic stores and general magazine stores, priced at $5.98 and well worth every penny.
