Stay Tooned!

Last week I mentioned that John Read‘s new quarterly magazine, Stay Tooned! had been released and was arriving in subscriber’s mailboxes. Two days later I got my copy, and was finally able to give it a good read through yesterday.

First off, it weighs in at a whopping 88 pages, and most of that is content, not advertising. That’s an impressive collection of articles and interviews on cartooning. It’s printed on a white, sturdy stock paper with a color cover. Photos and artwork reproduce well on that paper, and they all look great in the magazine.

The issue includes profiles of no less than nine working cartoonists (in order of print): Greg Cravens, Marcus Hamilton, Steve Kelley, Steven Butler, John Rose, Mashall Ramsey, John Deaton, Rob Corley and Scott Stantis. The interview-style profiles of the artists are of good length and much better conceived and thought out than your typical generic question interviews. Each one asks questions tailored to the specific artist and his style or area of expertise. It’s fascinating to learn how and from where these artists came to be professional cartoonists, as well as what they do and how they do it.

There is also no lack of artwork. Each interview, column or article contains no small number of cartoons and illustrations, in some cases including early stages of drawings and rough concepts. Marcus Hamilton’s profile shows the process of the conception and revisions on a Dennis the Menace panel that is particularly interesting.

Article contributions and columns by the likes of Daryl Cagle, Norm Feuti, Brad Fitpatrick, David Fitzsimmons, Bob Harvey, Rob Smith Jr. and Richard Thompson are informative and/or entertaining. I especially liked Brad’s story of a clueless guy who wanted to use some of his artwork for nothing and the resulting correspondence (complete with bad internet spelling and grammar). Any cartoonist with a website can relate.

I was duly impressed with the magazine and hope it meets with great success. It’s a worthy successor to Jud Hurd‘s Cartoonist PROfiles. My only complaint about the magazine was the hack that contributed the “Mail Q & A” column… John must owe that guy money or something.

Anyway, if the $9.00 cover price seems steep the magazine and content is worth it and more. You can visit the Stay Tooned! website to order a copy of the premiere issue and subscribe.