Changes coming for The Comics Journal?

Tom Spurgeon cites reports on rumors that Comics Comics will be taking over The Comics Journal “in some fashion” in the near future.

This morning’s rumor cited here and here is that the Comics Comics team in some fashion will be taking over The Comics Journal, which would be awesome, would certainly fit the criteria for an important March 1 announcement, and would make perfect sense of the publication’s dumping of affiliate blogs The Panelists, Journalista and Hooded Utilitarian. I have no idea what this would mean if anything for longtime editors Mike Dean and Kristy Valenti (I assume Gary Groth would be safe under any scenario), and I doubt we’re going to hear much more of anything until an official announcement. I can tell you that I’m remaining right here, status unchanged, although hopefully doing an increasingly better job in whatever role a changed landscape might provide.

Evidence of an impending change include TCJ dumping three of its affiliated blogs Hooded Utilitarian, The Panelists and earlier this year ¡Journalista!. The former two have moved their blogs to their own servers and will continue on independently. See HoodedUtilitarian.com and Panelists.org.

2 thoughts on “Changes coming for The Comics Journal?

  1. God, I used to worship the Journal (so much so that I got a job on it right out of college, eventually becoming its managing editor). It pains me that it appears to have lost its footing in the digital age. I hope its new stewards find a way to inject the same energy it used to enjoy. There was nothing else like it for attitude, intelligence and audacity.

  2. The Comics Journal, the elitist snob of comics fanzines. One of the reasons TCJ lost its way is because it began focusing on such a small micro-segment of comics fandom, you had to be one of a very small group of people to have any interest in the content of the magazine. That focus became circulation suicide for a magazine that makes money based on how many copies are sold. The Internet is great for serving micro-segments, because there’s little cost to have to recoup. Not true for general print publications.

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