Slides Down
Only the King gets his own magazine.
A search for magazines often yields webzines, and the Web presence of a hard copy publication.
Another point of confusion is the way that the comics that feature an artist's work are included in the search, frustrating our desire for insight into their working methodology and/or insider gossip.
Wizard tends to focus on the latest big events and the showiest aspects of the medium, while the Comics Journal is at the scholarly and interrogative end. Other trade publications are geared toward a sector of the market i.e. the Comic Book Buyer's Guide.
Amazing Heroes shared Wizard's enthusiasm for superhero hijinks and had a number of cool articles on powers and suchlike. Comics Scene was as (or more) commercial and had a wider purview into funny animal and situation comedy.
If you're interested in the history, as well as the hot items, then it might be worth hunting down such periodicals as David Anthony Kraft's Comics Interview or any of the other print magazines that have made an impression on the enthusiast market.
The task of finding an artist in one of the specialty magazines is no easier than locating them in a book on comics. Nowadays, as comics take their part in multimedia, you can as easily find
How then would one find Steve Leialoha in a magazine on comics? This depends a great deal on your plan of attack. Given that he has done some interesting work, concentrating on the kind of publication that might have as its readership, Star*Reach fans of old or Fables fans of new.
As with books, periodicals have index and contents that allow the customer the quick flip to see whether their artist is profiled. Along with Leialoha's name (even allow for misspellings!), it is better to focus on the more idiosyncratic collaborations; not because there will be more articles on them - though there could be - but because they are more likely to yield mention of Leialoha than his work on mainstream books, where work can be eclipsed by the artist before or after, or be downplayed for the writer and editor's take on the direction the series is taking.
Depending on how 'hot' and stylised an artist's work on a series, there can be quite some interest in the art. Ideally, you get a feature that has samples of the artist's work, along with an insight into their techniques, their tribulations, the approach they took.
You can often find sales of back issues in the latest issue of a magazine, so that is helpful for tracking down features and interviews you are interested in.
Posted by berko_wills
at 8:24 PM NZT
Updated: Friday, 16 October 2009 11:09 PM NZT