Hard News by Russell Brown

The model on Planet 5 is a young Teremoana Rapley, shot by Kerry Brown.

Planet 6 is also by Kerry Brown, and the model is Lynice Barrowman.

smell the ink, I think, yes … this is my vinyl

Ah yess. Seeing the presses rumble into action as a large print-run started to fly was always awe-inspiring and epic.
How many journalists get to see that in New Zealand now?

I still have some extra copies if anyone has room, or need… (the joys of a grassroots distribution system, full copy returns, and a faulty hoarding gene…)

Kerry Brown

a linchpin photon gatherer for both Rip It Up, ChaCha and even Shake! as well…

Speaking of Shake!, I still have mint(ish) copies of many of these, too (with posters and stickers intact!!) if anyone is interested in reliving a youth…
…and I hear Rip It Up is free again, shame I don’t go anywhere I might pick one up.

While Planet was ‘big’, The Manipulator was truly Big!

At 70cm tall and more than a metre across a double page it was almost too big to be true. Larger than most tables, it could only be read spread out on the floor of a cool loft apartment!

Sadly, some sharply stylish Lepisma saccharina and creeping mold ate through most of my, devilishly hard to store, copies…

…the entropy tango strikes a pose!

They can do things we never could…

This take on web comics is a nice fusion of old school / new school…
…though I miss the old pulpy paper and clunky inks.

(speaking of which – this fine book on NZ comics will make a grand Christmas present for many this year… – I couldn’t wait!)

We too came through a print background and, while it is still a wonder what content can be found on the web, there is nothing quite like holding and reading a magazine or book. We subscribe to a surf magazine called The Surfer's Journal that survives on subscription and six full-page advertisements - four at the front, two at the back. All of the rest of the mag is editorial and beautifully presented. It can work but you have to have a USA-size market in which to find your subscribers. The amazing array of material available through e-publishing is a wonderful thing but what will we read when the power fails.

Meanwhile, on the drek side of the Web, Investigrunt and Ian Wishart are bleating that they may have to go completely online*. They style themselves as a 'successful' magazine. I'd love to know how, as they never seem to release details about little things like (i) their ownership (ii) chief shareholders (iii) or even independently verifiable circulation figures...

*Excellent. Now I won't lose my lunch whenever I involuntarily encounter "it" in my local library.

The model on Planet 5 is a young Teremoana Rapley, shot by Kerry Brown.

one of my fave pics ever

Ian Dalziel; the Father Christmas of old magazine distribution! When I was doing a talk at The UoC earlier this year, Ian turned up and bestowed a folder of old movie mags on me, including the NZ-published Screen Parade.

The Alan Kinnaird book is great. Have already bought two copies; one for my son in London and another for a local cartoonist (who ought to be in the book),

While Planet was ‘big’, The Manipulator was truly Big!

Oh crap, I knew I should have held onto my copies. They mostly ended up pinned to my walls, as a counter to the Joy Division and Smiths posters.

So pleased to have the Planet 6, and maybe next time I'm there, or vice versa, I might scrounge another. :-)

I was brought up on printer's ink as my father operated the giant Kosser machine which printed the daily _Hawera Star__. I think that lugging around heavy forms of Linotype probably wasn't good for his health. My after-school job was sweeping around the Linotype machines (no concerns about health risks then), graduating to maintaining the news clippings library, and re-writing stories for the paper. All grievously underpaid, as journalists still are!

What has happened to the Red Bulletin and your column?

When I encounter it in mag stores, I shift copies to the comics section.

What has happened to the Red Bulletin and your column?

They redesigned the back of the magazine and the column didn’t fit any more. No hard feelings – it was a great run.

But it doesn’t seem to go out with the Herald any more, so I guess that arrangement has ended too.

Most comics are of a far higher literary standard than the 'average' (sic) issue of Investigrunt, though, Geoff. And far more readable!

Hi Ian, I have both room and need!

Let me know the logistics... you can get me on @_steveadams

you can get me on @_steveadams

Ian's not a tweeter, but he can get you on that email opposite your name.

Trocadero magazine circa-1987/1988 was like ChaCha's little sister.

I had forgotten Trocadero.

I had forgotten Trocadero.

Totally missed it. But Cha Cha was actually very good -- under the editorship of future Oscar-winner Ngila Dickson.

I wrote for Cha Cha as Wayne Washington and Shake! as Steven Spencer. The only time in my life I've done anything significant under pseudonyms, and I really did enjoy it.

I wrote for Cha Cha as Wayne Washington

page-ruffling ensues..

Totally missed it

was pretty cool

I wrote for Cha Cha as Wayne Washington
and Shake! as Steven Spencer.

What with Brian White and RIU's Elvis Slag,
did any real people, write for these mags?
;- )

I have a good friend who's a cartoonist and he would be very insulted by that.

I still miss Brunswick from the nineties and early noughties...(sigh)...

and I'll also be open to guest posts

Srsly?