Mr. Magazine

It takes a geezer to start Geezer magazine—and that’s exactly what Laura LeBleu did: a 100% handcrafted magazine content and AI-free.

The founder and editor-in-chief of Geezer comes from a theater background, not the publishing world. Frustrated by the lack of anything to read that truly spoke to her needs, interests, and stage of life, Laura found inspiration in an unlikely place: the shower. That’s where the idea for Geezer, a magazine created for herself and the Gen X community, was born.

The result is a beautiful, oversized publication that combines a trip down memory lane with a thoughtful look at the issues and concerns facing Gen X today. Laura is the first to proudly admit that she’s a geezer, and she hopes Geezer will eventually grow into a media organization that gives geezers across the country a place to connect, come together, and enjoy this stage of life.

Knowing just how large and diverse the Gen X community is, Laura is determined to keep Geezer independent and focused on its very specific audience, with no desire to turn it into a mass-market publication. It’s a smart move for a woman who is quick to tell you she has no traditional business background and instead comes from a life deeply rooted in the theater world.

I had the opportunity to chat with Laura about the birth of Geezer, its content and audience, and even the distinctive experience of holding such a substantial magazine in your hands. It was a delightful conversation, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed conducting it.

So, without any further ado, here is my lightly edited interview with Laura LeBleu, founder and editor-in-chief, Geezer magazine:

Samir Husni: Thank you for sending me the first issue. It was like a time machine.

Laura LeBleu: Oh, indeed. I’m glad you got it. Hopefully you enjoyed it.

Samir Husni: Yes, I did.  Please tell me about the idea of Geezer.
Laura LeBlue: Geezer magazine was created from my realization that there was no one talking to Gen X in the way that I wanted to be talked to. The actual story is that I was in the shower and I had the idea, and I knew I wanted it to be a print magazine. I knew I wanted it to be called Geezer.

So, the name Geezer is from a focus group of one. That’s my brain. I was just thinking about it.

The only equivalent that we have right now is AARP.  When I got my first AARP flyer, I set it on fire. I thought this isn’t the conversation, how dare you come to me? There are probably other people who are feeling this way.

To me, it seemed there was a desire to have a print magazine that addressed the issues of midlife in the way that AARP couldn’t, honestly, because of who they are. They’re mostly a marketing and lobbying organization. So, I thought, well, I’ll do it. Why not? Someone’s going to, it might as well be me.

Samir Husni: And you did a beautiful job in an oversize, 11 by 15 print publication…

Laura LeBleu: I was inspired by Mountain Gazette magazine, which is slightly larger, as you probably know.

I thought if I’m going to do anything, I wanted it to have impact. I wanted to have a visceral feel when you held it. And I also wanted to make it easy on the eyes.

Samir Husni: Why did you decide on print in this digital age?

Laura LeBleu: I tend to zig where everyone else is zagging. And I’ve been thinking a lot about where we are as a society in relationship to technology.

I personally could feel myself overwhelmed with digital information. I call it the empty calories of digital content, that it feels like you’re force fed. It leaves you feeling bloated but never satisfied.

Print, to me, is the antidote to all of that. Print is amazing, and I’m sure you’ve experienced this.  I will give Geezer to someone, and they’ll hold it in their hands, and I see their shoulders drop. They will take a breath.

There’s something about print that grounds you and calms your nervous system in the exact opposite. It’s the opposite of what all the barrage of digital content does to us. I was very adamant that this be a print magazine, and that we don’t share all our content online.

I will share some stories, obviously I want people to know what’s in the magazine, they should know that if they’re to plunk down 120 bucks a year for it. I feel print deserves its own special space in the world. These stories deserve to be experienced in print.

Samir Husni: One of the folks commented on my interview with the CEO of Highlights for Children, he said, “digital is brain drain, print is brain gain.”

Laura LeBleu: It’s innervating. It really is, isn’t it? That’s why when people pick up the magazine, it feels the opposite. It feels nourishing. It feels like it makes you stop and focus on what’s in your hands, what’s right in front of you.

From the response I’m getting, I’m not the only one who feels this way. People are really beginning to understand what I’m doing with this magazine.

Samir Husni: Your editorials read as if you are reliving your memories. You’re sharing your journal or your diary?

Laura LeBleu: Well, I would say so. I’ve thought a lot about this as far as the editorial mix goes and what our focus is. I never want to over-rotate into nostalgia.

I don’t want it to feel like we’re all just looking back and talking about when we were drinking out of the water hose, and our parents were off smoking their cool menthol cigarettes while we were playing with fireworks. I don’t want it to rotate too far into that. But I feel we must.

We also must acknowledge that we’re in midlife, we’re looking back and we’re examining what our experiences were growing up. That is a nostalgic portion of the Geezer editorial mix.

The other portion, 60 to 65 percent of the magazine, is about the issues that we’re facing today as we go through middle age, as we’re entering our 50s and our early 60s. That’s where the larger stories are going to come from; the nonfiction narrative and the more reported pieces are going to dig into.

Samir Husni: You have two issues under your belt, and the third issue is on its way. Tell me about this journey.

Laura LeBleu: We almost have a full year of Geezers out because we publish tri-annually.

The third issue is at the printers right now waiting for the paper to be delivered. I refuse to print on anything other than Sustana, which is 30 percent recycled. I love this paper. It’s got a great texture to it. It’s 80 pounds, heavy and not slick. It feels a little bit tactile, a little bit rougher. That is very much the Geezer ethos. That is how I approach everything in this magazine. We are not slick and we are a little rough around the edges. But I feel that’s a very Gen X sensibility.

Samir Husni: Has it been a walk in the rose garden?

Laura LeBleu: It’s been the hardest thing I have ever undertaken in my entire life, Samir. And it’s also been the most fulfilling journey I’ve ever been on, creatively speaking.

I wrote an article on Substack called This Might Not Work. I don’t know if you saw that, but I break down some of the economics of creating a print magazine, all the dumb mistakes I made, super rookie mistakes, because I’m not a business mastermind. I just had this idea.

I come from a theater background. I have this, hey, kids, we got a barn, let’s put on a show, outlook on life. That’s how I approached Geezer to get the ball rolling and just to crank it out and create something.

The biggest challenges have been financial. We’re up to almost 500 annual subscribers. The first one came out last November. So, from what I can tell, as far as industry goes, that’s quite good.

Making the magazine is the fun part. The hard part is all the business that goes into it. I honestly feel like I’m running this thing and putting it together by bubble gum, hopes, and dreams.

I’m trying to get my business foundations more solid so that I don’t have to worry about how is our subscription? How is our circulation being managed? Right now, I’m working on moving to SimpleCirc so that I have a more bespoke way of managing all of that. But that’s even hard. I hate all the buttons that you must push in software platforms.

I know I can do it. But I would so much rather focus on creating the stories and working with the writers. I’ve come to accept my position as an entrepreneur and a businessperson. So, today after I talked to you, all I’m doing is working on the update of our website to get it refreshed so that it reflects the magazine a little bit more. Those are the challenges. I’m committed to seeing another year of Geezer through and hopefully we’ll get the subscribership that will allow us to be sustainable. I’m a cockeyed optimist. I do believe that the way people are responding now, if we were going to get that critical mass, and I truly believe that that this magazine is going to start to take off.

Samir Husni: When that first issue landed in your hands, what was your feeling?

Laura LeBleu: Oh, my gosh, I’m a mom, I do have a wonderful 16-year-old son. Second to him being born, having this magazine in my hands was the greatest thrill.

I’m sure you’ve heard this from many magazine founders; there’s nothing like holding something in your hands that is a true expression of you and your editorial vision. Some background, I I’ve been writing for other people for 25 years, I’ve been creating for other people and spending my creative energy on other people’s needs. To finally have something that was an expression of my own creative vision, and to have it in your hands, and to be able to know that no one can take that away from you. There’s nothing more exciting. It really is an elation beyond belief.

Samir Husni: If you and I are having this discussion in July or August of 2027, what would you tell me Laura have accomplished in that year?

Laura LeBleu: Well, first and foremost, I would hope that we have hit a subscriber base that allows me to sustain the magazine, and to pay myself someday. But I also am, as Arjun Basu says, and I am a huge fan of his, I was listening to a podcast he was on recently. And he said, “Listen, you’re not a magazine, you’re a media, you’re a media organization.”

I’ve been working on how to expand that, how to expand myself as a media entity, and how to create the community that I want to create. So, this time in two years, if I’ve created a community of people who can connect with each other, can come together over, with this magazine as the nucleus of the, of the community, but also, you know, to have it expand into people getting together having Geezer gathers, hopefully doing a podcast with the people who are featured in the magazine, that would be amazing. I would also love to have a business partner to work with, who can help me expand on these visions I have, that’s something I’m missing right now, because it’s just me at this point.

Samir Husni: If people want to order back issues, are they available? Laura LeBleu: I have back issues of number one. So that’s available for purchase on our website. It’s Geezermagazine.com. And I’ll be releasing back issues of number two, next week. Issue number three will be out, hopefully in the mail at the end of next week.

Samir Husni: I must ask about the name Geezer…

Laura LeBleu:  It’s funny, the name Geezer, I thought it was hilarious. I’m like, that’s a funny, it’s just a funny word. It evokes different things. For Gen X, it was very tongue in cheek, because I feel like we’re not geezers at all.

It had that Gen X ironic twist. People have written me and said, “I’m in my 60s or 70s. Can I still write for you?” And my answer is unequivocally yes.

We are what we are.  If the issue is something that focuses on and resonates with Gen X. It’s a wide tent that I’m trying to create here.  The editorial vision for Geezer is that it doesn’t look, smell, taste, sound, or read like anything else you’ve ever picked up. I really wanted to make something that felt completely like the metaphor. Like that creature in the woods that you think you know, but you’re not quite sure. You must pick it up to see what’s in there to get it.

Samir Husni: Is there any question I’m supposed to ask you I didn’t ask you?

Laura LeBleu: Oh, goodness gracious. We’ve covered the basics for sure. Let’s see, what else would I want to answer, who is your audience?  I would say that Geezer is not for everyone. It’s for the people who recognize it immediately. Although it’s Gen X, we’re not trying to focus on a mass market.

It does resonate strongly with the people who had the eye for what, what I’m creating. I hope people love it.

The one thing that I would want to tell you is how one of the greatest and most wonderful surprises of entering the world of independent magazines is the support, the kindness, and the reaching out of people within the community that I’ve received. So, it’s been unfailingly positive.

I do feel I’ve stumbled into this wonderful world where we really do want to see each other succeed. I’ve been so lucky to make connections with different publishers, new writers. That for me has been the greatest surprise I’m most grateful for. I’m part of something bigger now and that keeps me going.

Samir Husni: If I come to visit you one day, unannounced, what do I catch Laura doing in the evening watching TV, reading a book, having a glass of wine?

Laura LeBleu: Often, you’ll catch me in the theater. I’m either directing or volunteering. I live in a little town in California, but we have an amazing art scene up here. In fact, a lot of artists and actors from New York or San Francisco, when they’re done with the big city, they come here.

We have this really thriving art scene and I’m involved in a theater company here. You’ll probably not see me. I don’t sit and watch a lot of TV. Otherwise, I’ll be reading or out on the trails running. I need to, that’s the only way I can balance my brain is by is by physical activity. I don’t really drink wine anymore. A good book is always a good thing. I have 79 unread books on my nightstand. I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t have a few unread books on their nightstand is waiting to go.

Samir Husni: My typical last question, what keeps you up at night these days?

Laura LeBleu: Besides the general state of our world, it’s how to make Geezer successful. Right now, that’s about creating those business foundations I was talking about.

A lot of things that keep me up are like I needed to respond to that email where someone pitched a story to me, that slipped through the cracks. I don’t want people to feel like I’m not there and paying attention.

But when you are a one person publishing band, it’s difficult to keep up with all the communication. My brain will wake me up around three in the morning. This is not theoretical. This is literal. I’m kept up by wanting to make sure that I’m giving everyone who loves Geezer, who wants to write for Geezer, the attention that they deserve when they reach out to me.

Samir Husni: Thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with me. Best of luck.

Ron Notarangelo is recreating the love of storytelling and experience making that his mom instilled in him at a very young age.  She used to buy and read him books from the 1950s.  That love of the books of the 1950s led him, and his wife Marie, to create Trad Hunters magazine that reflects that era but is done in a very suitable and readable 2026 style and form.

The magazine was born from a conversation in their kitchen that took two years to come to fruition. What came out from that idea is marvelous content and an experience for anyone interested in traditional hunting or is curious about it.

I had the chance to correspond with Ron and Marie and was very impressed by their handwritten personal notes they took the time to write in response to my questions. Later I discovered I was not alone in that treatment.  They take the time to write personal notes to each and every customer.  I guess that is the tradition of Trad Hunters. 

While both are identified as creators of the magazine, Ron is the publisher and Marie is the editor.  I had the pleasure of talking with Ron for this interview and what follows is the lightly edited transcript of the interview.

But first the soundbites:

On why print: “Being a retro looking magazine, it needed to be print, for one. Also, a lot of the customers who are bow hunters and stuff, they’re older. The demographic is typically like 44 to 65 plus.”

On why they reprinted the first issue: “When we launched, we just did a lot of the writing ourselves and had a couple good friends who would contribute their articles, which helped a lot. So, we added some new content, and we added new art and we just really wanted to make it match what we’re doing now.”

On the personal handwritten notes: “We do a handwritten note for everyone, every single one. So, it takes a bit of time, but before doing the magazine, we had an archery accessory business. And we would do that with our customers too.”

On the magazine’s elevator pitch: “It’s a gritty, no-holds-bar type of traditional hunting magazine that covers traditional bow hunting.”

More on the elevator pitch: “It’s gritty stories that are not censored about hunts from real people, not just celebrities, that take you on adventures across the world. Each volume is dedicated to a specific theme. So, Volume 1 is Alaska. Everything is all about Alaska. Volume 2 is about High Country.”

On the mission of the magazine: “I’m just looking at it like we got something incredible to deliver that’s going to entertain you, teach you with legitimate things that you can use in the real world if you’re choosing to hunt or even survive in the wilderness.”

On the look of the magazine: “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was a magazine that looked like it was from that era, (the 1950s), now, but with focus on cool stories like Boy Scout tips, how to do wilderness things, survival stuff, like that, but look like it’s old, I think that would be really cool.”

On the magazine revenues: “But right off the bat, we did a patron thing where people can help support us even more. So, we changed everything right off the bat, the norms, and even advertising, we didn’t even have advertising. We’re not even doing any advertising going forward.”

On their goal: “We’re both thinking about making a better life for us and offer the best possible product and experience for anyone that wants to read Trad Hunters or is curious about it.”  

And now for the lightly edited interview with Ron Notarangelo, co-creator and publisher Trad Hunters magazine:

Samir Husni: You’ve launched Trad Hunters one year ago. Did you feel that you needed a traditional platform for a traditional hobby or profession?

Ron Notarangelo: Traditional meaning like in print, right?

I think because of the nature of what we wanted to do with it, being a retro looking magazine, it needed to be print, for one. Also, a lot of the customers who are bow hunters and stuff, they’re older. The demographic is typically like 44 to 65 plus.

So, they prefer reading a physical book rather than something digital. That was only after the fact that we found that out. Our intention was to make it look like a retro style magazine from the beginning.

Samir Husni: In the one year since you started the magazine, what was the reaction so far?

Ron Notarangelo: So far, it’s been incredible. I think one of the challenges that we had was coming up with a price because we didn’t really know how many we needed to print initially.

We guessed and we did a perfect bound magazine, and not saddle stitched, which is a lot more expensive. We chose to do things that really were quality rather than just a traditional magazine. The paper quality we chose is significantly different than regular magazines.

So, that’s even more expensive. But we knew we wanted to make it like that. One of the challenges was figuring out how do we charge, a price that is high enough to cover our costs because we did not know how many to print.

We printed 750 and it costs quite a bit. We also needed to position it where the psychology of people is used to buying magazines, not books. They do buy books, but they will subscribe to magazines over books. So, we needed to use the magazine even though it’s more like a book.

Samir Husni: And you reprinted the first issue. Can you tell me more a little bit about that?

Ron Notarangelo: The very first one that we launched, we had a printer who printed the magazine digitally.

From the second one on we had everything printed on an offset press. So, it was a completely different type of way of printing.

The look is completely different. So, we sold out of the first issue, we printed 750 and then we had another thousand printed of the first one. And then when we sold out, we just started to market number two.

We had a lot of people come back and say, hey, I want to get the first issue, I want to start from the beginning. We didn’t expect to reprint volume one. We were just like let’s just sell it and then we’ll just move on.

We had such an overwhelming amount of people ask that they want to start from the beginning. So, we decided if we’re going to remake it, we might as well because the first one was even a little bit smaller than the ones we print now. It was five and a half by eight and a half inches.

Now, we’ve made it a touch bigger. It’s six inches by nine inches. So, we decided to reprint it so that it’s all consistent six by nine. And we figured let’s just add more stories in it. And when we launched, we just did a lot of the writing ourselves and had a couple good friends who would contribute their articles, which helped a lot. So, we added some new content, and we added new art and we just really wanted to make it match what we’re doing now.

Samir Husni: You take the time to respond to any request to buy the magazine or to order the magazine with a personal handwritten note? 

Ron Notarangelo: We do a handwritten note for everyone, every single one. So, it takes a bit of time, but before doing the magazine, we had an archery accessory business. And we would do that with our customers too.

That was something that we brought over to the magazine because we want to show our gratitude and our appreciation for someone taking the time to invest in what we made. And so, we feel it’s a good thing to do to show our respect to the people who buy it.

Samir Husni: Can you give me like the elevator pitch for Trad Hunters?

Ron Notarangelo: The elevator pitch? It’s a gritty, no-holds-bar type of traditional hunting magazine that covers traditional bow hunting.

It can cover different types of traditional hunting. It’s gritty stories that are not censored about hunts from real people, not just celebrities, that take you on adventures across the world. Each volume is dedicated to a specific theme.

So, Volume 1 is Alaska. Everything is all about Alaska. Volume 2 is about High Country. Everything is about high country. And everything is made to look like it’s a vintage 1950s style to complement that.  Back in those days, it was all about adventure. It’s not about being censored.

It was really embodied more wholesome times. So, that’s exactly what we deliver with Trad Hunters.

Samir Husni: And during this year, has it been a walk in the rose garden or you had some challenges?

Ron Notarangelo: Oh, we’ve had some challenges.

Because we’re based in Canada. Just a couple weeks before we launched the first magazine, the tariffs kicked in. But thankfully, publications are not a part of that.

It’s a part of the treaty so that publications like schoolbooks or books in general are not affected or are taxed. Thankfully. There are challenges now that the oil and gas situation has caused things to go up. Obviously, people are considering saving money somehow. But I’m not even going to look at that anymore.

I’m looking at it like we got something incredible to deliver that’s going to entertain you, teach you with like legitimate things that you can use in the real world if you’re choosing to hunt or even survive in the wilderness. It’s only $20 and it’s worth every single penny or more for what we’re trying to deliver. I’m not even concerned about it. There’s always challenges, I’m looking past that now.

I’m thinking about the value we’re going to deliver to people every single time that they choose to buy a Trad Hunters magazine. That’s all I’m focused on now.

Samir Husni: What gave you the idea? I know you had an archery accessory business, but what gave you the idea to create a magazine?

Ron Notarangelo:  The idea was born in the kitchen with my wife.

When I was growing up, my mother would always go to the garage sales, and she would buy old Boy Scout and story books from the 1950s and read it to the read it to us when we were kids.

So, like, that type of look, and those adventure stories are always a part of something that I personally grew up with. I just had this idea flashing in my head when I was just talking to my wife, because I do a lot of the illustrations myself. I was experimenting with illustrating, a kind of a vintage style.

I just had this idea, wouldn’t it be cool if there was a magazine that looked like it was from that era, now, but with focus on cool stories like Boy Scout tips, how to do wilderness things, survival stuff, like that, but look like it’s old, I think that would be really cool. My wife was, yeah, that would be awesome. So, it was just an idea for almost two years.

I started talking to a friend who was a contributing writer in the first one. And he was like, yeah, this would be awesome, because he’s really involved in the bow hunting community. He said that this would be incredible.

I started kind of loosely developing it. And then when, when the Tard Hunters magazine happened, we had to shut down our other business, that day. We had to do the magazine; it had to work. We had to survive. And I knew it was either now or never, whether it’s possible, we’ll find out right now. So, the decision was made and we’re going to do it. That’s how it happened.

Samir Husni: If you and I are having this conversation in a year from now, what would you tell me that Trad Hunters accomplished in 26, 27?

Ron Notarangelo: We expanded globally; we grew our readers by 10,000.

We didn’t give up, we persisted, we advanced, we broke a lot of molds, it was very common for it to be seasonal, especially with hunting, we did not do seasonal, we did themes. It was very common for a magazine to be the traditional 81/2 by 11, the standard size, we went smaller. We did publish quarterly rather than monthly because the printing cost is very high.

But right off the bat, we did a patron thing where people can help support us even more. So, we changed everything right off the bat, the norms, and even advertising, we didn’t even have advertising. We’re not even doing any advertising going forward. So, in 2027, you’ll see Trad Hunters magazine not have any advertising, we’re going to be everywhere globally. And we’re going to go to the top.

So that’s where we’re going. 2027. And we’ll have we’ll have more volumes by then, too, obviously.

Samir Husni: Tell me before I ask you my typical personal questions, is there any question I failed to ask you about the magazine that you would like me to ask?

Ron Notarangelo: I don’t know. I think we covered a lot of the basic stuff.

Samir Husni: Are you a hunter?

Ron Notarangelo: I don’t get to hunt as much now because this magazine takes a lot of time.

One of the things that if you were to ask me in a year from now, what’s different is that we have more artists doing the work for us. I have hired people to do some of the graphic design because I had to do it up until now. Right now, the volume that I’m working on, I’m the one doing all the creative design. I must do all the InDesign work.

And I didn’t even know how to do InDesign before volume one, I had to remake volume one four times in two weeks to get it to the printer. I started to design it in Canvas. I had no idea even how to make a magazine.

I had to learn InDesign in a week. I’m going to pass this stuff off to someone who’s far better than me. And I’m going to stay focused on the direction where we want to go.

Keeping the look like the 50s in 2026. That’s the standard. It’s going to evolve. Everything does evolve over time. The winning combination is that vintage look, that colored paper, that makes it look vintage. We try our best, we’re not going to add in fake wrinkles and stuff, but we want it to look different. So that’s always going to be the same. It seems to be very desirable.

Samir Husni: If I come one evening unannounced to visit you at home, what would I catch Ron doing? Having a glass of wine, watching TV, reading a book, etc.?

Ron Notarangelo: It depends on the time of day.

I’ve been reading a lot more now. I’ve been taking the time to get back into reading physical books.

I got my copy of The Science of Getting Richright here. It’s just mindset stuff I’m working on right now. If you were to come in the evening, I would be hanging with my kids watching some TV with them or playing with them.

Anytime during the day, prior to what I just said, I would be in my office illustrating or working in InDesign. Plus, I got to do all the marketing stuff now. I’d be on a computer.

Samir Husni: What keeps Ron up at night these days?

Ron Notarangelo: Samir, it’s a tough question. I mean, there’s been a lot happening in the last couple weeks with my family, just a lot of personal family stuff keep me up.

Getting this magazine out, fulfilling orders to customers, making sure that we’re timely making the magazine, there’s so many things that I must do, and my wife has to do because she’s equally doing everything that I’m doing. We’re both thinking about making a better life for us and offer the best possible product and experience for anyone that wants to read Trad Hunters or is curious about it.  

Samir Husni: Thank you and best of luck.

Those who know me, they know that my entire career and profession started at age 10 when the first issue of the Arabic Superman was published in my original home country Lebanon in February of 1964.  It was the beginning of a love affair with storytelling, heroes and villains, ink on paper, comics and magazines. 63 years later that love affair continues with no let down or a break.

This love affair left a soft spot in my heart for comics until this day. So, when I heard about the launch of Comics! The Magazine I felt that all my dreams have come true, comics, magazines, and ink on paper.  Mr. Magazine™ could not ask for any better.  I acquired every issue since its launch earlier this year and three of the secret variant covers of issues 1, 2, and 4 at a price that will go unmentioned for fear in getting in trouble with the family.

My affair did not end there, I needed to know the folks behind the magazine and why someone will publish such a great magazine in this digital age?  I reached out to Joe Keatinge, the editor-in-chief of the magazine and Atom! Freeman, the publisher and had one of most delightful interviews in my career.  It brought back memories of a pleasant childhood and a firm belief in the future of magazines, as in ink on paper.

So, without any further ado, please enjoy those two lightly edited interviews with the editor-in-chief and the publisher of Comics! The Magazine:

But first the soundbites of the interview with Joe Keatinge, editor-in-chief, Comics! The Magazine:

On the need for Comics! The Magazine: “It’s time that there’s a platform for comics that speaks to that level of enthusiasm is the operative word, but also confidence too.”

On the intended audience: “The younger generation is tired of the Internet. I don’t know how close you follow print sales in the comics industry, stores are reporting up to 30 to 40 percent year over year. And that last year was 20 to 30 percent. The people coming in are like 20 years old.”

On the secret variant covers: “There’s a secret cover program and we don’t do it every issue. We like to keep people on their toes.”

On his mission for the magazine: “My mission, personally, with the magazine, again, is what I said earlier: Is to get people enthusiastic about comics. And so with the variant covers, it’s great. They’re selling high.”

On the connectivity between human and paper: “So when you’re a kid and you’re reading Superman, and it’s on paper, and it’s yours, and it’s in your hand, and you’re reading the story, I would assume that there’s a higher level of connection there.”

On the magazine’s goal: “To be of greater service to this industry and become an essential part about how people learn about comics.”

On his future vision for the magazine: “Is that we help inspire people to make great comics. And read great comics, of course. I want people to read it and think, I could do that. Then, they think they can do that and they work really hard and talk about the fight we mentioned earlier. It doesn’t work out. And then it does work out. They keep going and they keep getting better and better and better. And one day, they’re so good, they’re so undeniable, we profile them on the cover.”

On how people decide to buy a comic book: “Atom! (the publisher) did some research a while ago and found that 82% of customers, at comic bookstores, made decisions of what to buy in the store.”

And now the soundbites of the interview with Atom! Freeman, publisher, Comics! The Magazine:

On the magazines mission: “From a business standpoint, it is a platform. From a consumer standpoint, it is just a celebration and a guide for the world of comics.”

On a major challenge: “But print advertising budgets are not something they’ve been doing for a while. Convincing them to make that room or to take away from something else in order to get involved early, that was a challenge early on.”

On another major challenge: “But as a result of that, really our biggest challenge right now is what do we do next? How do we keep the magazine itself exciting? How do we build off of the success of the magazine? Those are the bigger questions that Joe and I spend a lot of time talking about.”

On the high selling price of variant covers: “It takes a lot to really surprise me. I was pleasantly taken aback by the values.”

On the magazine’s digital future: “While we’ve discussed what it would look like to make Comics! The Magazine digital, I think that so far, everything we’ve heard would just be diminishing of the print version.”

On the value of print: “We’re able to have more complex conversations because you’re going to sit and digest it in a way that you don’t, anything that’s on a screen.”

On the future of magazines: “I do think that magazines are going to have a comeback. What we’re seeing in print in comics and magazine right now, I expect to see all over the place.”

More on the value of print: “One of the things that happens in our world is any comic that is on a digital platform ends up on a piracy site. And Comics! The Magazine is on no piracy sites right now.”

And now for the lightly edited interviews with Joe Keatinge, editor-in-chief and Atom! Freeman, publisher, Comics! The Magazine:

Samir Husni: My first question to you is, you said in your last editorial, I love fighters. I love people with vision. Tell me about your fight and your vision with Comics! the Magazine.

Joe Keatinge: Sure. I really appreciate that. I would say the fight or the mission with the magazine is really simple. It’s just to get people genuinely enthusiastic about comics, and that can be genuinely enthusiastic about reading comics.

There’s enough in the world about how everything’s horrible, and that’s just not what we do here.

We are celebrating this art form to the highest degree. Bringing in people that have same sort of mentality, different voices, of course. It’s to spread that genuine enthusiasm for the art form.

Art form that’s fueling not just comics, but television and film and video games. It’s time that there’s a platform for comics that speaks to that level of enthusiasm is the operative word, but also confidence too.

Samir Husni: Why did you decide to do it in print in this digital age?

Joe Keatinge: That’s a great question. It’s something we talked about a lot. It’s because there’s so much digital’s gotten through so much noise. If I live a busy life and I have 10 minutes to determine what comics are out there, you go online and you search comics, there’s a lot of different sources.

A lot of them are skewing negative. So there’s that. The other aspect of it is there’s a new generation coming in and they want physical media.

The younger generation is tired of the Internet. I don’t know how close you follow print sales in the comics industry, stores are reporting up to 30 to 40 percent year over year. And that last year was 20 to 30 percent.

The people coming in are like 20 years old. And it’s two things. One is they’re raised on comics.

They were raised on comics by people like Raina Telgemeier or Jeff Smith or Dave Pelkey. They went in their teen years and they got manga from libraries. Now thanks to there’s a book called Absolute Batman, which is The Book.

It’s the top book in the industry by a huge margin. That’s the new readership. These people who were kids 10 years ago, but now they’re 20 and they have disposable income are interested in this. So they have that education with comics, but also they saw the fruit of the generation that is so digitally focused and living lives online and consuming digital media.

I’m not against the Internet. I mean, that’s how you and I are talking.

There’s a huge great net benefit to it. But you got to be careful in terms of how much you like moderation, essentially.

So I think people really want things like this is 32 pages. It’s now going to be 40 pages. We’re increasing the page count by signature.

You can read it in 10, 15 minutes, maybe 20 minutes, maybe a little longer, depending on the issue. You can know everything you need to know to go to the comic bookstore.

Samir Husni: I noticed that with some issues, you have two different covers. You have a regular cover and you have a variant cover, which is selling for up to like 150 dollars on eBay.

Joe Keatinge:  We’re experimenting a lot because it’s been a while since there’s been a comics magazine. We’re not the only one. There are other ones.

There’s one called Dummy and there’s one called American Nature. There’s one kind of a comic staple. So, we’re not the only one, but we’re the only one doing it our way.

Part of that is what can we do in print? That’s fun and unexpected. You can’t do in digital.

We were at a comic book trade show, Comics Pro, and coincidentally, it was when we got our first issue comps. We did an early edition of the first issue. An Absolute Batman cover.

I was sitting there and I knew that we did bundles of about 25. And I was thinking you could put anything in these bundles. Because, when the stores receive the bundles, they just have to scan in the initial receiving the UPC of the bundle itself. And then the individual UPCs of the covers so that we can sneak in something really cool. And so I contacted Skybound, the company that created Invincible and The Walking Dead. They do surprise better than anybody else in the industry right now. I knew they would get it. I contacted them and said you got this great book called Terminal coming out. Robert Kirkman, Joe Casey, Art Adams, Dave Finch, Andy Kubert, like all- star team. I was like, what if because we were already planning to do a Battle Beast cover with them, what if we did a secret Terminal cover? We don’t announce it. And it gets in there. And then that sold really well. Then we just did a cover. So, we did a feature in the new issue with Mark Spears, the artist behind a series called Monster Monsters. He is doing a new Spawn book.  Spawn, one of the most popular comics in the last 30 years. He actually suggested it.  I’ll give Mark full credit.

He suggested what if we do a secret Spawn cover? I thought that would light the world on fire. If Todd McFarlane would approve it, that’d be great. And he did.

There’s a secret cover program and we don’t do it every issue. We like to keep people on their toes.

We also do variant covers with different partners. Sometimes it’s a store. We’ll want to do a variant cover with an artist whom we have relationship with.

With number five, we’re doing covers with Alex Ross. So we have an Alex Ross interview in there. The opportunity came because of that interview. To do a variant cover with him that he will be given out at his booth at San Diego Comic Con. Mad Cave Studios, another publisher. They’re doing a similar thing.

They have a book coming out with John Cusack, the actor. And again, they thought, hey, can we do a variant cover of this? We don’t do pay to play. As the editor, I don’t care what advertisers we have.

It doesn’t affect in terms of content. Obviously, we love our advertisers, and they make the magazine possible. But in terms of content, it’s what’s interesting, period.

If it’s not interesting, they can’t pay enough money to be in there. But it just worked out. Alex Ross is one of the greatest artists of all time.

I’d want to talk to him. And then this opportunity came to do the cover. Great. Same with John Cusack. That’s interesting. He wants to make comics.

Why? If there was a compelling story there, and there was, great. So any opportunity to do something interesting in print.

I think you’ll appreciate this. It feels like there is a re-education going on. Which is funny, because we work in a print industry.

But in terms of having a promotional venture in print, there’s a lot of re-education. And a lot of like, you can do things differently than you were doing them digitally. Actually, I will even go further and say, a level of freedom.

This is going off on a tangent here. We serialized a comic book called Chew. Chew was by Rob Guillory and John Layman.

One of the major hits of the 2010s. And we were talking with them about doing a new comic. And they agreed to do a new Chew, which is a big deal.

And at first, it starts off as, from the get-go, now that I think about it. They have been doing things you really can only do, storytelling-wise. Because it’s a single page every issue, is Chew.

Just one page. The things that they were storytelling are so interesting. Like the first ever edition looked like it was just an ad.

Then in the second issue, well it turns out that ad is part of the story. Why is it? What’s going on there? And then John Layman, the writer, just sent me scripts for issues 9 and 10. And he is doing, again, it only makes sense in print.

The advertisers really get it. We work with a company, one of their advertisers is a company called Oni Press. And they run ads for, it looks like it’s an ad for another product.

Like a liquor ad that takes place in the world of the comic. It only makes sense. It only makes sense in print. If you ran it online, it wouldn’t work as well. They really understood how we can utilize print to tell a different story than we would be able to if it was just like an Instagram ad even.

Samir Husni: What do you think about those variant covers demanding high prices on eBay and are selling much, much more than the regular $2.99 cover price of the magazine?

Joe Keatinge: Well, you have to understand the perspective of the person you’re asking.

Because I’m the editor-in-chief, right? And so, you might get a different answer from our publisher. You might get a different answer from the ad sales guy. My mission, personally, with the magazine, again, is what I said earlier.

Is to get people enthusiastic about comics. And so with the variant covers, it’s great. They’re selling high. It seems like higher every time we do it. But to me, what that metric really… Because that’s data, right? And the data, to me, says people are excited about this. People want… We put the variant covers out in the marketplace and the marketplace dictated the value of it.

And the value of especially that Spawn cover is, again, upwards of $130.  We did a giveaway. We gave it away for free at a convention. A number zero issue. That was something we handed out. And now it goes for $80 to $100. You know what I mean?

What I love about your story is you were a kid when you first saw that Superman. It was this relationship between reader and the magazine. There was nothing else in that world. There was nothing else distracting you. But I assume that there’s ads in there, you know. But otherwise, it’s the experience between reader and story. There’s no other noise.

There’s a lot of great digital ventures. I’m not discounting them. Like, obviously, Webtoon. Webcomics in general have been going strong.

A lot of the comics I cited earlier, like Raina Telgemeier’s work and a lot of her contemporaries had webcomics. But there’s just something about the relationship between the reader and print.

It may be biological as well. I read a report a long time ago about the data retention you have reading print versus digital. This is purely hypothetical. I don’t know this for sure. But I wonder, too, when you’re reading a fictional story, if there’s a level of empathy you have when you read print versus digital. So, when you’re a kid and you’re reading Superman, and it’s on paper, and it’s yours, and it’s in your hand, and you’re reading the story, I would assume that there’s a higher level of connection there.

Samir Husni: I noticed in some of the issues you have DC on the cover, and some issues you don’t have DC on the cover. So how do you that?

Joe Keatinge: That’s part of the arrangement we have when we utilize their covers and characters. You know, DC is not the publisher of the magazine.

But it’s just how they protect their copyright of their characters. As simple as that. It’s just like other licenses they do; it’s the same arrangement.

Samir Husni: If you and I are having this discussion a year from now, what would you tell me Joe accomplished in this year, in 26 – 27?

Joe Keatinge: That’s an excellent question. I just want to be of service to this industry, you know, and I think I can speak for myself and my business partners, Atom! Freeman, Rico Renzi, and Gabe Yocum.

We’ve got a good team. And I do feel that we’re all unified. Atom! did some research a while ago and found that 82% of customers, at comic bookstores, made decisions of what to buy in the store. Not influenced by the internet, not influenced by anything else. And that’s why Comics! The Magazine, at this current state, is exclusively through comic bookstores. Because it’s there. and that’s where you’re making your decisions, we want to be there. To me, if you ask the publisher the question, his answer may be different. But for me, it is just to be of greater service to this industry and become an essential part about how people learn about comics. It’s not just reading comics. It’s not just sales to me. That’s an aspect that’s important.

But my real dream with this magazine, beyond 2027, is that somebody reads it and they read about whoever we’re profiling. Che Grayson, Scott Snyder, Mark Spears, or Alex Ross and they read it and he and she are like, you know what? I can make comics.  This is just a person. That’s one thing that’s really important to me with the magazine, is the how and the why.  Who, what, where, when, why.

All those questions. How and why interests me the most. In part, because I want people to read it and think, I could do that.

Then, they think they can do that and they work really hard and talk about the fight we mentioned earlier. It doesn’t work out. And then it does work out.

They keep going and they keep getting better and better and better. And one day, they’re so good, they’re so undeniable, we profile them on the cover. That’s the dream for me. Is that we help inspire people to make great comics. And read great comics, of course.

Samir Husni: Before I ask you my typical questions at the end, is there any question that I failed to ask you I should ask you about Comics! The Magazine?

Joe Keatinge: I mean, honestly, you’re doing great. Your insight is wonderful. So, I’m really grateful for the opportunity.

Samir Husni: Joe, tell me how did you get involved with comics in general?

Joe Keatinge: Oh, boy. Nobody really knows. Comics have just always been around. I am a child of the 80s. And comics were at 7-Eleven. Comics were at Toys R Us. Comics were everywhere. Comics were at newsstands. I think it was probably pack-ins with action figures. There was the Masters of the Universe had comics.

I believe Transformers had comics as well. G.I. Joe, maybe. But Masters of the Universe definitely did.

I had those toys around. So, I would guess that that’s how I was first exposed. However, I will say what made me really love comics were comic bookstores.

I was blessed enough to be surrounded by some of the greatest stores of all time. Like, Santa Monica, California, where I was frequently at. There was a store, unfortunately, no longer there. There was a store called Hi De Ho Comics. If you research the history of Hi De Ho, and I really hope someone writes an extensive history of Hi De Ho, I’d run it in the magazine. You know, it was a comic store where so many people came through.

And they had everything. And it was kind of a mess from what I remember. It wasn’t very, in terms of the organization, Rob Liefeld comics were next to Mobius, which was next to Hugo Pratt, which was next to Manga, which was next to Underground Comics. It was all just there. I remember the first time I ever saw Wizard was there.

I was just like, what is this? Why is Spider-Man wearing a, like a wizard hat? What is this? Everything was so wonderful and strange. Because it was just like Matt Groening, I discovered around the same time, pre-Simpsons, when it was Life and Hell ran in the newspapers. And then they had the Pantheon reprints there.

And it was just this wonderful assortment of work. And that’s really influenced my brain.

It also really influences the magazine. Because I don’t distinguish, people are like are you going to cover Manga at all? Are you going to cover Webtoons? You’re going to cover, it’s all comics. It’s all lines on paper.

A lot of the early issues obviously are influenced by what I’m, what I’m aware of and everything. But, again, talk about what I want in 26 – 27. I want there to be a larger scope to what we cover. I know I have blinders on. And I know there’s so much, I was talking to one of our frequent contributors. Well, he did the thing in number one.

He’s doing another thing in number 10. He’s interviewed in number six. It’s Jim Rugg.

And, you know, great guy. He wrote, he was one of the guys behind Cartoonist Kayfabe, which is really instrumental in building an audience. And he was saying after that Comics Pro conference I mentioned earlier, he realized there are more channels than ever to sell comics in.

Atom! Freeman, the publisher, joins our conversation…

Joe Keatimge: We’re just talking comics here. I was going to say what Jim Rugg was mentioning that there’s more channels than ever. And he also estimates that there are more creators working in comics right now than there ever has been, including the golden age, so to speak. I’m assuming there’s stuff I’m not aware of.

Samir Husni: My typical last questions are, one, if I come to visit you one evening at your house unannounced, what do I catch you doing? Reading a comic? Watching TV? On your computer having a glass of wine?

Joe Keatinge: I live a very private life. I’ll say that. I don’t talk about my personal life openly. But I may be fly fishing. I may not be home.

Samir Husni: And what keeps you up at night?

Joe Keatinge: That’s an excellent question. That might be my favorite question you’ve asked. Providing for my family.

And now for the lightly edited interview with Atom! Freeman, publisher of Comic! The Magazine:

Samir Husni: Tell me, from a business point of view, what’s the mission of Comics! The Magazine?

Atom! Freeman: Comics! The Magazine is designed to celebrate the world of comics. It’s designed to give somebody who is new to comics, maybe they just picked up their first Superman comic and they are trying to figure out what this world is.

It’s an entree into a world that Joe and I speak natively. I would say that from a marketing business side, it is a platform upon which marketers and advertisers and promoters can use to launch new properties into the world of comics. The world of comics is very open to new ideas.

It’s a wonderful place to build IP. We’re seeing companies that do multiple TV series, multiple video games. They have tons and tons of properties and projects that are going in other multimedia and making tens of millions of dollars there still launch all of their properties inside a world of comics.

The problem that we saw as marketers was how do we get in front of that audience? Because nothing that was happening on the internet was doing it in this way that magazines used to. There were many of us behind the scenes who were thinking, boy, we really just need a magazine. Eventually, Joe and I ran out of excuses for why not to make one.

We had to do it. I think from a business standpoint, it is a platform. From a consumer standpoint, it is just a celebration and a guide for the world of comics.

Samir Husni: Since issue Zero, has it been a walk in a rose garden or did you have some challenges? How did you overcome them?

Atom! Freeman: Wide open field, Samir. Wide open. We’re just one step in front of the next.

I will say the biggest challenge from a business side was convincing companies that really do need a platform like Comics! The Magazine, that a print advertising budget is something they needed to make room for. They all have advertising budgets. They all have marketing budgets.

But print advertising budgets are not something they’ve been doing for a while. Convincing them to make that room or to take away from something else in order to get involved early, that was a challenge early on. Now I will say that our challenge really is just where do we grow to? We are the best-selling magazine about comics in our space.

There are a few others. They are with different focuses and different mission statements.

But as a result of that, really our biggest challenge right now is what do we do next? How do we keep the magazine itself exciting? How do we build off of the success of the magazine? Those are the bigger questions that Joe and I spend a lot of time talking about.

Samir Husni: Were you surprised when you saw the value of the variant covers selling on eBay for $150 and $80?

Atom! Freeman: Listen, it takes a lot. I’ve been at this now for, I don’t know, 30 years, Samir.

I’ve been in this industry. It takes a lot to really surprise me. I was pleasantly taken aback by the values.

But we know the value of a secret, the value of a surprise. That’s the real challenge. That’s why we come to fiction.

That’s why we come to story, is we want to be surprised. And so we know now occasionally do, like I will say, the Spawn one I really thought was going to, I didn’t know if it was going to do as well as it did. And we have a couple more that are coming up, a couple other surprises that are coming up that I think are going to have a similar effect.

But you never know. Where the market decides those values land, that’s always a surprise, no matter what you do.

Samir Husni: Do you think this can only be done in print?

Atom! Freeman:  So far, yeah, so far.

Magazines, books and movies, TV, all of them really did lend themselves to the shift to digital. I don’t know about you, but I don’t even have cable TV or broadcast TV in my home anymore. I only stream.

I do still buy physical books, but I’m just as likely to read them as a Kindle app on my phone, right? Audiobooks are more likely what I consume the most. I will say that of those other platforms, comics really has not made the shift to digital in the way that the others have. And so while we’ve discussed what it would look like to make Comics! The Magazine digital, I think that so far, everything we’ve heard would just be diminishing of the print version.

And I will say that there’s a focus that comes with reading in print that we’re not getting from anything digital. If you’re reading the pages of a magazine, you’re never going to be caught off guard by an alert popping up on the screen, on the page. You’re never going to have anything reminding you of a calendar invite that you agreed to six months ago, which is not exactly what’s going on here, maybe a little.

But it’s never going to happen that way. It’s going to be you are able to sit and focus. And so as a result, there’s this really interesting thing where websites, even social media posts, they could go 10,000 words.

They could go 1,000 words, but they don’t. They go 10, 20, maybe 50 words. We, in a magazine, we have your attention.

So in that having of your attention, we are able to tell more complex stories. We’re able to have more complex conversations because you’re going to sit and digest it in a way that you don’t, anything that’s on a screen.

Everything about the experience. I love the fact that you have Mr. Magazine because I do think that magazines are going to have a comeback. What we’re seeing in print in comics and magazine right now, I expect to see all over the place. People want that community that comes from sitting and consuming something on a monthly schedule, and they want the ability to reclaim their attention.

They want those things, and all of that comes with print, and all of that comes with magazines. I also want to focus. I’m already seeing it in my other interests that I have.

I just picked up two new jujitsu magazines. Field and Stream is back, and it’s a huge, beautiful format.

I think people are ready to unplug and to focus. Unplug and refocus.

It’s a good time to be Mr. Magazine.

I can tell you it’s going to be a good time for that.

Samir Husni: Allow me to ask some personal questions. First, I have to ask, why the exclamation mark after your first name?

Atom! Freeman: That was a social media, or early, it wasn’t even social media. It was an early Internet joke that kind of got out of hand, and it just made it easier to get myself. I’m a marketer by trade, so it just made it easier to get people to talk about me and to quote me and, you know, ask for interviews.

And also, it’s fun listening to British people pronounce it. That’s always fun, too.

Samir Husni: If I come to visit you one evening unannounced, what do I catch you doing? Reading a book, watching TV, fly fishing?

Atom! Freeman: I’m trying to get everyone in comics to fly fish, but we’ll see.

I’m not nearly as private as Joe, but I will tell you that I, in the evenings especially, sometimes I’m gardening. I spend a lot of time, I’m very lucky in that we moved into a property with a big garden. I do spend a lot of time in that, you know, might be a dip in the pool, might be whatever.

But a lot of times it is just sitting and reading. I’ve learned that if I don’t sit and read, my 11-year-old doesn’t sit and read, and I want that for him more than anything else. And, you know, otherwise it’s just cooking, spending time with family.

I will say, the more often than I like, I’m working. Because, you know, trying to build a career inside of comics, it means you do a lot of different, you wear a lot of different hats.

Samir Husni: And what keeps you up at night these days?

Atom! Freeman: Keeps me up at night these days. That’s an excellent question. Very little.

I sleep really good. I work real hard, Samir. I wake up early.

I’m already on, I was up at like 4 or 5 a.m. and outbuilding bamboo garden beds and then working for several hours. And then I’ll spend some time with family. So, by the time my head hits the pillow, it takes a lot to keep me awake.

But when it does, it’s usually these businesses that we run, that Joe and I are involved in, they’re here because people have forgotten how. They’re viable because there’s not as much competition for what we do because people have forgotten these skills. And so a lot of times we will come up with an idea or a solution, and it doesn’t feel like it fits right. Or if we just had more experience, we might be able to find somebody who knew how to solve this problem.

Those are the things that will wake me up is, that’s not how we should have done that? It’s that stuff. So, running businesses in this environment that are not AI data centers, it’ll keep you up at night, that’s for sure.

Samir Husni: Well, see the nice thing about AI, I didn’t ask you about AI, but the nice thing about if it’s print, AI cannot steal it.

Atom! Freeman: That’s very true. You know, Samir, one of the things that happens in our world is any comic that is on a digital platform ends up on a piracy site. And Comics! The Magazine is on no piracy sites right now.

Samir Husni:  Thank you and best of luck.