Yeah, its funny, I just got the mook for christmas and I'm done, I've read everything. I am still enjoying the pictures but as people have said, its old news. But then as still other people have said, we have the internet which is a faster outlet to news they any printed publication could be. But that still doesn't fill the void of having the tactile goodness of a magazine in your hands to read, full of articles you are forced to read (in that, you paid for it, you'll probably read it all, whereas on the internet you'll pass by the stuff you're not interested in because its essentially free). So who wants to start/contribute a toy 'zine? =) phil
You guys send us the articles/pictures and Monkey and I will compile them and do some editing, who wants to publish? My high school newspaper training will serve a toy zine well. Honestly PM me if you're in.
Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't someone, not sure who, Brian or Glenn maybe, mention a little while back that the S7 mag might actually make a bi-monthly comeback, or was I just having a flashback...
funny this thread would pop up today, last night my daughter spilled hot chocolate all over my stack of old super7 mags.. doh!! anyways, i really liked the mook but agree that the waiting time in between is brutal. i would prefer bi-monthly, but i also totally respect flynn's vision... i'm glad to have a mook, mag, or whatever s7 decides to do in the future
i never got a chance to read any old super7 mags, when i was getting into kaiju and j-vinyl, the mook came out a couple months later. i've been meaning to pick up the back issues, but i keep getting sidetracked. but i imagine an actual magazine would be better than the mook. the mook is cool, and a great reference tool for sb and rxh collections, plus the photography. but what i would like to see more of is articles. like i said, i'm a n.k.o.t.b. when it comes to a lot of this stuff still, and i would like deep, informative articles on a wide variety of different things. i want to learn more about the toys that i collect, instead of numerous pages of "check out these pics, this is what is out now." articles and pics on the toy making process, toy fest coverage, the history of a specific toy (which the mook i guess does have a little bit of), etc.
this is a good topic! lots of pros and cons to each, from the production side of things. one of the reasons we switched from magazine to mook was that publishing cant keep up with the internet in terms of breaking news, so anything new or upcoming we wanted to write about would be known by the time the magazine was printed. of course this would be true as well with the mook, which is why we focused more on history than breaking news for the mook. im not sure if im allowed to say anything about the next mook yet..... the magazine was great, its what got me hooked on all of this long before i started sweeping the floor at s7. we have talked about several possibilites moving forward, maybe alex and joe will make another zine soon as well? im sure brian can go more in depth on this.
Another aspect of the mook vs mag is in the business side. As someone who would want to place an ad, it would be sorta though to wait almost a year before you see it. Heck nowadays a business can and have folded in less than a year. Imagine placing a magazine ad (not cheap) and by the time the issue comes out your shop closes down? You would have to prepare an ad that would be effective that far down the calendar.
I've been getting the back issues.So many great articles on vintage toys(love the gatchaman ones). Thats the great thing about vintage.The info doesn't become dated.
Magazines are way to expensive to print. + the time involved, proof reading, editorial and design. Need a 20 page quarterly Zine. Raw ,colour copied or partly B&W. Output at a copy shop. News, upcoming releases, interviews and feature, sticker pack, exclusive toy release made available for zine subscribers only. But keep it grimey. Mixture of cut & paste style, like the old punk rock zines.
I would say to skip the printed page and just go digital. It's 2009. e-magazine, PDF, blog, wiki or whatever. You save on printing costs, mailing and distribution and it can be updated or revised almost immediately. A printed magazine is out of date almost immediately after it hits your mailbox. A digital publication could be searchable, bookmarkable, smaller footprint etc etc Typos and errors could be fixed without a reprint or errata page. Lists could be continuously updated and current. Those who want to hold a printed page could print out pages. Have it include ads with direct hyperlinks or email addresses.
I'm sure the staff has discussed this, but what if each Mook was smaller? Like only ONE toy company per Mook? That way more can be made faster, but not as fast as a magazine and still be larger than the magazine. Also, if more "filler" would be needed, have lots of pics of "in process" making of the figures of the featured line, sculpts, protos, painting. Longer and more in depth interviews with the creators. Things like that. Clearly some lines wouldn't be big enough for their own Mook, but in that case take 2 smaller ones and slam them into one. I'd like that more. More pumped out faster, but bigger than the magazines and more in depth per toy line. I wish there was a nice big Mori interview or Hiddy interview in the first Mook. On the printed page issue: NO, I want a physical thing, and I don't wanna deal with printing it myself. Maybe I'm old fashioned, I hate all this digital crap. I sit on a train, I sit on the toilet, I want a REAL book or magazine not some crap I printed out ASSUMING I have ink that day in my printer.
I like the digital idea. An in-hand copy is nice to thumb through, but magazines and books take up physical space- hard drive space is virtually unlimited. The downside of an electronic publication is that it is hard to control secondary distribution.
The digital idea really is a good one. A pdf format would allow for basically anything to be included - even video etc. And the power of it being searchable would be amazing. I have a hard enough time sorting through my old mags trying to remember where certain articles are.
I would almost never read it if it was digital, I don't have a computer on my train or in my bathroom at my toilet. NO, I don't own any sort of iBook or weird digital reading thingy (or an iPod.) That's 50% of the reason I want a magazine, to read where I have no computer. I mean, as long as THIS SITE is active, what's the point of a digital one anyway? Just sign on, boom got all the news here anyway, the digital one would be out of date too. And, again, I'm not printing crap out, too lazy and cheap. But if I'm the only one what's my opinion matter?
I'm with BD. I love official printed stuff. I don't want to be too technology dependent. When society crumbles I want to be able to still enjoy a small indie zine to read, start a fire, or to use as TP if needed.
Print is more archival. I've got my old S7 mags nicely stored in plastic sleeves - it's fun to take them out every so often and leaf through them.
I like the idea of a toy zine haha. Have one in the works right now with a few other board members. Keep an eye out. I will do my best to have it out asap Hello sir, My name is alex and I work for super7. I have a few copies of S7 zine left we did that I believe may just be right up your alley. PM me if you would like your above statement in the flesh. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=22513&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&hilit=zine&start=25 Also a nice gentleman on the board that goes by "Having my say" runs a cheery publication called "WHAT GIVES". Last issue came with a zine only gargamel thrashman. viewtopic.php?f=23&t=22963
I definitely miss the old magazine. The mook is absolutely gorgeous eye candy, and a great reference, especially for the many fight figures released up to that point, but I still feel the magazines had much more substance. I also liked the variety of toy coverage the mags offered. Also, as others have mentioned, the wait between issues was more bearable. So yeah, if the mag was brought back, I'd be another even happier camper.
The biggest advantage I see to a printed version versus a digital is that a physical copy can end up in new hands, through toy stores, comic shops, book stores, etc. A digital version is preaching to the choir. I would also imagine there is more ad revenue to be had from an actual magazine instead of banner ads and pop ups.
A total no go in my opinion. Magazines simply can't be replaced by online/digital information. As much as contents might be the same, the whole ritual of flipping through page after page, going back for that one missing link or re-reading the same article over and over again, all of these examples can't be recreated with the use of the internet. Besides what happened to pro toilet reading ? You're not gonna drag your laptop into the bathroom are you ?
Hell yeah give me something tangible. You hand someone a mag and it's real. Give someone a web address, you can take it or leave it. Paper beats screen hands down. It would suck to slip a card with your blogs addy in a box of toys, but man a zine, that would ROCK!!
Hmm; Go with a blog/ezine but with a hardcopy subscription and/or print on demand option. Print on demand isn't just copy shop anymore. Electronic production schedules are a lot more timely than in the pre-digital days. You can work a central database for images, vary the ads for net, print or region and with a few type/formatting changes have press ready re-purposed from the net stuff almost overnight. Choosing a printer who will work to your time/price guidelines and make it happen shouldn't be to difficult. We could have both!
A "hybrid" (sorry Flynn) magazine would be cool too. Digital whatever and print. I think this also goes back to the idea of a database of toys and information that S7 was discussing or proposing last year. Digital whatever as a tool to search or catalog. Print for eye candy and articles. I was looking through the old S7 magazines last night and there's some nice eye candy photography. I find some of the articles difficulty to read as the type is kinda small or it's something like white type or a light background. Just not something I could read for extended periods versus online media. Totally agree that print on demand is the future or that its now. InDesign (or whatever file format) files could be repurposed to generate PDFs which could be locked with certain protection. Or dump the content to a blog that is password protected and has IP records. If its a blog though, it should really be updated daily to keep it fresh and relevant.
