Mr. Magazine

TAG you are it, and a new interactive ink on paper magazine is born.  The brainchild of an illustrator, artist, and storyteller, Anthony Deptula, with the help of his nine-year-old son, Hugo, came up with the idea of creating an interactive print publication after seeing the lack of kids’ interactivity on You Tube due to COPPA (The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) regulations.

His love for drawing started as a kid in kindergarten. He started drawing at a very young age and continued to this day with creative stints at Disney Interactive, Maker Studios, You Tube, and now Netflix.  With TAG, he wanted to curate and create something big—literally big (approximately 11 X 15)—that kids can interact with, draw on, tear apart, erase, make paper airplanes from, and do whatever their minds and imagination call for.  In short, he succeeded in creating a magazine whose tagline (pun intended) says, “No parents allowed,” but is very much welcomed by parents who love for kids to have some screen free time.

Anthony has two issues under his belt and is now working on issues 3 and 4. Recently, TAG became available on Etsy.  A post on LinkedIn said, “If Etsy is your jam, you can now grab Issue # 1 of TAG over there. TAG is a screen-free kids magazine for drawing, comics, creative writing, and generally making stuff.”

On a personal note, I may add that, in addition to Highlights and High Five, my grandkids are now receiving TAG, the magazine. I hope that those who have kids or grandkids in elementary or middle school, will consider getting them some screen-free time with interactive TAG. Click here to get a subscription to the magazine.

And now, without any further ado, here is the lightly edited interview with Anthony Deptula, founder and editor-in-chief of TAG, the magazine:

Samir Husni: Congratulations on the new magazine.

Anthony Deptula: Thank you.

Samir Husni: You must be out of your mind to start an ink on paper magazine in this digital age.

Anthony Deptula: Yeah, I don’t know if I’m out of my mind or just nostalgic or understanding that parents want less screen time for kids.

Samir Husni: Your tagline, pun intended, is a creative magazine made of paper. Is it describing the obvious or?

Anthony Deptula: One thing that I’ve figured out as we’re just getting started here, kids didn’t really know what magazines were. And a lot of parents had to explain to them what it was, which is kind of wild to me.

It’s tongue in cheek, trying to be funny, made of paper. I like that it’s made of paper, for me, it’s tangible. Everything is so fleeting today. I like that it’s a piece of paper and kids can draw on it. Kids can have it delivered to their house or where they live, their apartment. That’s exciting to receive something and get something is still exciting for kids.

Amazon proves that; every day, getting something from Amazon, being able to order it, kids still like getting packages and getting something in the mail.

Samir Husni: You say no parents allowed. How are you marketing the magazine?

Anthony Deptula: One parent submitted some art. And I was, okay, that’s interesting. It was pretty good.

Kids love that. Kids really love that. We have a little different style than competitors. We’re a little baby magazine, but we’re a little more punk, as you can tell. We’re a little more comic book based, graphic novel based. And the style is black and white. It’s all over the place. To answer your question in marketing, grassroots, we’re working with partners. One of the interesting things that we’re doing are pop-ups.

For issue number two, we did a partnership with an ice-skating rink, and we worked with a young nine-year-old, hopeful Olympian, in Charlie Roost. She was the model in the ice-skating spread. We’re giving away free ads as well to like-minded partners.

If you look at issue one, those are all free ads in the back. Those partners are like-minded community partners, and they’re pushing it out for me on social, on their newsletters, in person. That way, we’re just growing.

We have no funding. It’s sort of growing grassroots. The more people that know about it, the better it is, because then we get to exist.

Samir Husni: Go back with me to that aha moment. When did you get the idea, and how was TAG born?

Anthony Deptula: I grew up in Steubenville, Ohio. My dad worked at Weirton Steel in West Virginia. In Weirton, at our home we had old calendars, the desktop calendars. I would draw on them.

I would make comics with my best friend who was in kindergarten. I was in first grade. I always loved drawing.

In 1998 the United States introduced COPPA (The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act). YouTube took away comments from kids, because of COPPA. Very safe, very smart. Totally agree with it.

But I think kids lost this interactivity.  I helped make a few YouTube shows, one with GoldieBlox. I was an executive producer, which had 60 million views. And another, I was working at Maker Studios as an exec and helped shepherd the idea that had 300 million views.

That was all core curriculum on YouTube, first and second grade. The kids were so engaged and so interested and excited. I just thought, if every page is almost a partnership, if every page is interactive because magazines have had that sort submissions for years. That why TAG is big. I like how big it is.

Kids love the size. It’s not precious. You can tear it up, you can make it papier mache, you can turn it into a paper airplane, and you can erase it. Kids today lost their youth voice. I thought this would be an interesting way to reimagine a magazine where every page is interactive.

On every page, they get a chance to put their comic, their graphic novel, a story that they want to tell and really help them create content that they like, because a lot of content that is created for kids, they don’t like. So, TAG is a little bit of an old Nickelodeon style; to let the kids decide.

Samir Husni: Tell me a bit about your background. You must have a unique background to do this.

Anthony Deptula: I’m from a working-class family, moved to LA and I’ve worked in television. I did comedy in LA.

I had a feature film that I wrote, produced, and acted in at Sundance. I became an executive and started making a lot of kids’ content working for Makers’ Studio, Disney, GoldieBlox, Female Empowerment Toy Company, and Slumberkins. I have a lot of toy clients right now.

I’ve never made a magazine. But I wanted to draw again. I literally just wanted to draw again. People seem to be responding. We’re starting to do wholesale sales.

We’re starting to get into brick and mortars. We have subscriptions, which is great. My background is creative. I have a creative background. I love artists. A lot of the artists that I’ve worked with over the years are in the magazine. Those artists have worked at Disney, Cartoon Network. You know, I also like fine art, which is one of my favorite pages in the spread. We don’t talk down to kids.

Samir Husni: Who is the audience you are trying to reach? I know it is children, but can you be more specific?

Anthony Deptula: The age range is wild, Samir.

I would say first to eighth grade. It’s a very wide range of kids that are loving this thing. I think because of the rise of Captain Underpants and Wings of Fire, all these graphic novel books, kids that are just older are still into comics and drawing and storytelling.

I have a unique perspective. I had a lot of people tell me not to do this, and I didn’t listen. It’s very hard.

Samir Husni: You chose illustrations over photography. Why? Do you think as a creative person, people connect more to illustrations than photography?

Anthony Deptula: There’s some photos, like 1% photos, but. I wanted to draw again. And issue number two, a young woman from Maine, submitted a photo of a bay with a little building. She was thankful publishing it.

There’s also a photo of a sculpture that a young man did, which I thought was cool. I like all the different styles, and I like that we’re a lot different than our competitors. I get to work with the different artists on different spreads, and I think that illustration is what kids like.

Samir Husni: The question I like to ask folks who launch new magazines is, during this six-month period since you launched TAG, was it a walk in a rose garden, or you had quite a bit of challenges? And if you did, how did you overcome them?

Anthony Deptula: Sure. I’m still in them. The challenges are mainly of getting more subscriptions. We’re not like a legacy brand that’s been around for a long time, and everyone’s kids love it. The wild thing is the feedback everyone says, “this is going to be huge.”

I go, okay. I’m kind of one person with a bunch of freelancers in my basement, and I hope it will be huge. But I’m just trying to overcome the problems, because there are issues starting any sort of business. Trying to find the format of it all is interesting.

I had a lot of people that helped me. Two schools where I brought in the prototype of the magazine, I called, Tag-Ins, just separated sheets of paper.  I took these to the schools to get started and schools started filling these out. That was generating content for me.

I was trying to sell these as separate. You got to buy these, and then you got to buy the magazine. Everyone’s like, what are you talking about? And that’s when I decided, oh, I just have it in my head. I have to tell people how this works. Here’s the fairy tale, you fill it out, it becomes this. Here’s time machine one.

Then here’s the people, the kids that talked about history and the folks that they wanted to meet. When you have an idea as a creative, it’s hard to translate sometimes until you prototype it and you put it into the world, and then you start learning. A couple of school principles, a lot of kids, friends and family really helped me understand how to assemble the magazine, to explain it, because it’s a little different.

Samir Husni: Give me your elevator pitch. If somebody met you on the street said, Anthony, what’s TAG?

Anthony Deptula: I say it’s an interactive paper magazine where kids fill out to become the published artists and writers.

Samir Husni: Before I ask you my typical last two questions, is there any question I should ask you I did not ask you?

Anthony Deptula: I would say I’m from Ohio, so I was influenced by Highlights.

There’re a lot of people that tell me it reminds them of Highlights, and some of them don’t even know Highlights still exists, which is interesting to me. I grew up with Highlights. My uncle worked for a sister company of Highlights on the education side, and I feel there’s a real need out there, and all the work that they’ve done over the years inspired me to try to give it my own shot, which is kind of wild to say: I’m going to become a publisher, but people seem to be responding.

I would say the magazines from the past have helped me in the curation, and of making it creative. Even Eastbay or MAD Magazine, or Sports Illustrated for Kids, and The Onion, great magazines that are still printing. Tangible is important to me, and I appreciate, the past publishers that have been around a long time. The great part about not knowing how to run a magazine is I get to invent different spreads that have never been invented or bring those spreads back to life.

For example, the blank black page in issue number two or the kid in issue one erasing the comic.  It really made me upset at first, but then I was like, oh, that’s actually a good idea. I’m going to make a blank page so kids can do their own art on it.

I love the big palette. I wanted to be different from Highlights. I wanted to be different from the Ranger Ricks of the world that are serving and been helping kids for a long time, and that’s, hopefully, why Tag feels a little different.

The Tag team is great, too. I have a lot of great young artists, and they bring a lot of energy to this project where they just jumped on board with me. I am also working with a local printer in Tecumseh, Michigan. They’ve been supportive as well. They’ve been around a hundred years, and excited to have a new mag.

Samir Husni: My typical last two questions, if I come to visit Anthony in the evening, unannounced, what do I catch you doing? Reading a book, illustrating, having a glass of wine?

Anthony Deptula: I usually watch Dune, the movie. So, there’s Dune one, part one and two.

Or I’ll play soccer with my son. He’s nine. He helped me with the magazine.

His name’s Hugo. So, if you can mention him, he won’t give me grief.

Hugo helped me with Tag, he helped me create it. Or, I’ll be on the porch with my wife: She’s reading. We got a new puppy.

I work 24-7 because of my job. Netflix is my day job. They’re a client. So, I’m always working.

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

Anthony Deptula: I sleep well. I don’t know. My sprinkler, something’s going on with my sprinklers. They keep shutting off. So, I think I got to fix that.

Samir Husni:  Thank you so much and best of luck.  You are it.