Have you read it? I saw it referred to because lapsed Doper **Bad Astronomer ** is featured in the July issue with Hellboy on the cover.
I read that issue - seemed okay; more geekly purist vs. Entertainment Weekly, but they seem to cover similar territory. The layouts are off - some of the text is hard to read, but I don’t know how small the mag is in terms of investment in each issue. Also, it seems kinda retro to read a hardcopy version for this type of content - shouldn’t it be online by definition? Perhaps it is and this is just at tie-in and I am showing just how clueless I am…
But I digress - do you read it? Do you like it? How would you rate it’s usefulness as a guide to current pop culture vs. EW or other sources??
Really? Does this mean you’ve never read it or even heard of it? I hadn’t until this fella at work brought it into my office. I guess I thought I was behind the times by not having heard of it myself…
My guess would be that it exists more so that software companies have something more accurate to the readership to put in the lobby for people waiting to be taken inside than Popular Science.
(Are you sure it’s not Geek Monthly? That’s the closest I saw on Wikipedia and Google.)
It is Geek Monthly. They did a Hellboy issue a month or so ago.
I’ve heard of it, I’ve even flipped through a few issues. It’s a decent magazine, but comparing it to EW is weird. It’s a magazine for geeks, not mainstream pop culture.
Oh, and one of the writers for the magazine (at least she did when it first started, don’t know if she still does) is Sarah Kuhn, formerly of IGN Sci-Fi. She’s fantastic and got to know most of the regulars in the community pretty well.
I first saw one Sunday, in fact, at the comic book store. It was showcasing the Speed Racer movie. I didn’t pick it up, but I thought “Really? A new magazine showcasing the Speed Racer movie? Not exactly got their fingers on the pulse of geek culture; that, or I’m out of touch.”
That was kind of my working assumption, too - would a self-respecting Geek consult a magazine?
You guys really see a big difference between geek culture and popular culture - even these days? I mean, clearly geeks go way deeper and esoteric, but the things geeks care about - films, comics, gaming, online communities, computers in general, etc. - are woven deeply into popular culture at this point…aren’t they?
No, not really. You wouldn’t have comic book shops if they were so popular - Wal-Mart would own the market. Yes, people play video games, but I don’t think you’re talking about The Sims when you say “gaming”. Similarly, most young people’s experience with online communities doesn’t go any farther than MySpace and Facebook and YouTube.
There is a large geek culture, but it is not at all equivalent to mainstream pop culture.
Agreed. If anything, pop culture has mined a virtual shaving of geek culture. There are geek culture elements in current pop culture, but the vein is neither deep nor wide.