Thursday, March 31, 2011

Dawning of a new age for Indie Comics

I remember at the beginning of the ‘80s how there was a literal explosion of Indie publications that made me excited to read comics again. Well, not sure what happened to all those Indie publishers (many went under), but it seems to me that there is a resurgence in Indie comics these days. To anyone who has any doubts about this, you should check out  MoCCA Fest and see what I mean.

Well I just picked up this new comic anthology called (of all things), Indie Comics Magazine, and the magazine delivers 64 pages (eight separate stories) of top-flight reading. The tales rang the gamut from horror to samurais, to humor, to superhero, to sci-fi, and none of the stories disappoint.

Helmed by Editor Gary Scott Beatty who’s first produced comic was on his high school’s ditto machine, after hours, and without permission. His story in this issue is entitled Jazz: Cool Birth, is a murder mystery set in a 1957 jazz club with art and typography based on ‘50s album cover design. The story helped earn him a Xeric Foundation Grant. Multi-talented, Beatty writes, colors, letters, and produces comic books and magazines for a diverse range of companies and has written for the Comic Buyer's Guide.

I highly recommend this comic, and suggest that you head to your local independent comic book shop and have them order it for you from Diamond.

2 comments:

Gary Scott Beatty's Indie Comics said...

Thank you for the kind words about Indie Comics Magazine, Robert! During the '80s explosion there was a huge variety of storytelling and art styles. Today there is a bland same-ness to most comic books. In Indie Comics Magazine I'm trying to celebrate how comics can be different and interesting. I'm glad all eight stories clicked for you! Indie Comics Magazine #2 will be hitting comic shops soon (maybe next Wednesday) with mostly different creators from #1.

Gary Scott Beatty
Indie Comics Magazine
http://indiecomicsmagazine.com

rjsodaro said...

Well it is a great mag, Gary. Good luck with it. We‘ll be looking forward to seeing future issues.

My days under the Malibu Sun!

Way back in the early '90s I was writing for, well, virtually every comicbook magazine under the sun. As if that wasn't enough, I wa...