Comix Are Coming January 2012
Comix Are Coming January 2012!
When we began the process of redesigning The Pulse last summer, we also began a review of our content. As the redesign progressed, we dropped some features and content and modified some section, but the one element we kept returning to was one The Pulse had been missing for some time—comics, or “comix,” to say it alternatively. Like other alt-weeklies across the country, The Pulse has been proud to publish the work of local cartoonists, such as our intrepid political cartoonist Rick Baldwin (who appears each week in the paper) and the twisted scrawlings of Trebor Redle, whose “Lockout Mountain” panel ran for several years in The Pulse. But for a variety of reasons (space, budget, thoughtlessness), we’ve never offered the work of nationally syndicated cartoonists whose work has been a hallmark of alternative newsweeklies since they began. This year, we’re changing that. With this issue, The Pulse debuts its weekly Comix page featuring some of the best alternative cartoonists working today (which is no mean feat in this economy)—“This Modern World,” by Tom Tomorrow, “Red Meat” by Max Cannon and “Slow Wave” by Jesse Reklaw. The new Comix page will signal entry into the “back of the book,” as we say in the publishing world, your pathway into our other beloved weekly features—Rob Brezsny’s “Free Will Astrology” and Matt Jones’ “Jonesin’ Crossword”—before we show you the back door, where local columnist Chuck Crowder offers you food for thought on your way out. To mark the launch, we are interviewing each of the creators, beginning in this issue with Tom Tomorrow, aka Dan Perkins, creator of “This Modern World.” We’re also launching a search for the next Great Chattanooga Cartoonist, whose comic will share space with the work of these legends (see Page 19). See you in our (wicked) new funny pages.
—The Editors