Valerie D’Orazio has an interesting article up on her blog about the pop culture magazine Tripwire.
While there had been some cyberspace campaigning to shore up order numbers, the magazine was unable to rank high enough to meet Diamond US’s benchmark. A highlight:
With “Comic Foundry” and “Comics Now!” gone, and “Wizard” seemingly in a not-so-awesome state…I dunno, what is the fate of the comic book magazine nowadays, anyway? Or the pop-culture periodical in general?
It’s a very interesting read, and does pose some interesting questions about comics coverage in general. (And this comes off the heels of another interesting article of Valerie’s for Comixology, in which she wonders what is the “line” that comics coverage shouldn’t cross.)
Just looking at one point she mentions — of the Big Companies having an in-house comics news apparatus — I think that the companies do already have their own outlets (albeit not as all-encompassing as an all-purpose comic news site, as someone who’s covering them on a daily basis). For me, and I say this acknowledging perhaps some subtle bias, I think having a mix of inside and outside coverage is healthy, as it gives both a steady stream of new material from the insiders, as well as a perspective (and perserverence) that truly comes from a neutral but invested reader. What do you think?
