Tuesday 30 June 2009

And now, in colour...

BCN is an amazing publication. Yes, I'm biased, but really, it's still here nearly fifteen years on and almost 100 issues notched up.

But it does have one major drawback in the modern media age. It's in black and white.

Now, I do not personally give a fig. My personal measure of how likely to be worth reading a comic is at first sight is whether it is in mono or colour - colour stuff tending to be bland mainstream pish whereas stuff in mono that is worth working hard to get out there despite that often being awesome - Hothead Paisan, Liliane, Sleaze Castle. And it's a nice bit of inverse snobbery to indulge in while ignoring that rule completely when reading, say, the Death comics.

But the masses they expect colour, and when you show them the most persistent high profile bit of your movement and it's a mono printed publication, some folks will turn their nose up. More fool them, wise readers will say, but to grow a bigger wider bi movement we need to look at how we can change some of those first impression perceptions.

This is one hell of a long preamble for the news that, fingers crossed, from issue 97 for one or two or three issues we will have a colour cover on the magazine.

Colour!

Woohoo!

It brings a new challenge though. Who or what the hell do we put on the front? Since I really got my feet under the table as editor rather than just continuing it as it had been done before we've had a long run of mono photo covers; we've had quite a range of faces from the community though too few boys amongst other matters. But colour... so much possibility, and so scary getting it right!

Suggested cover images and volunteer coverbis welcome...

3 comments:

  1. I suggest your criteria for picking a model for the first color front cover should be to go for somebody wearing a hawaiian shirt.

    In fact, I suggest you make it a requirement that models for all the future color front covers be wearing hawaiian shirts. With a bit of luck, this will establish a new stereotype of bisexuals. It's about time we had a new bi stereotype; the old ones are just too passé.

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  2. That's a truly scary idea... and might get people paying more to get a special mono edition instead!

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  3. How about a guy in pink and a boy in blue, with something purple in between them to resemble then the bisexual flag? (c:

    Whatever you go for - really looking forward to it!

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