Meet Stupid Magazine 001
A peek inside our prototype issue
Today’s a big day at Stupid HQ (AKA my apartment). We’re sending the first ever issue of Stupid Magazine off to the printers.
(Probably we should have given it a snack like some raisins or something for the journey. Those files are travelling all the way from Toronto to Shenzhen, where our wicked print partner Print Ninja will be turning them into a real-life actual magazine.)
We also launched a scrappy V1 version of our online store, so that’s a thing. We’re printing a super tiny batch of our first issue — just 250 copies. That’s 100 for our indescribably amazing Kickstarter crew, 100 up for grabs online and a few for me to send out strategically slash keep forever to accumulate value over time. Let’s hope.
For our second issue we’ll be scaling up to 2500 copies to try and set us up to qualify for the OMDC Magazine Fund next year. But that’s then. This is now.
Stupid, for those of you just joining us, is a brand new niche publication about pop music. We cover pop from every conceivable angle and work with a seriously kickass group writers and illustrators to make Stupid happen. Especially creators who are typically underrepresented in music media. Everyone who contributes to Stupid gets paid, ’cause that’s important.
(Apart from me. I eat No Frills tuna for dinner whilst telling everyone I know about our patron program. I’m not even slightly sad about that.)
We’ve got BIG PLANS for the future of Stupid as a magazine and as an independent media company. Here’s what you’ve got to look forward to….
- Issue One: What Is Pop? (The limited edition, art-objectesque hand-numbered prototype edition)
- Issue Two: Platform Wars. We’ll be exploring Spotify vs Tidal vs Soundcloud et al. What’s going on under the hood of these companies? What’s the landscape like for fans and artists? Let’s find out.
- Issue Three: The Yeezy Issue. Enough said.
For 004 and 005 we’ll be changing things up a lil’ bit. But more on that to come another time…
OK yeah Holly we get it but also maybe get back to the point of this post and show us what’s inside Stupid 001.
I hear you.
SO. When you flip through the pages of the very first issue of Stupid, you’re gonna meet some serious talent. Here’s our Issue One roster:
- Atiba Rogers (Writer, TEEN/Village Voice/TV Insider. Hardcore Ri-Ri nerd)
- Alistair Croll (Author, Lean Analytics & Curator of StartupFest. Early champion of Stupid for which I’m v. grateful.)
- Sophie Auclair (Novelist, cultural critic & editor of 90’s MTL zine Pop & Politics. Writer of some of the most gorgeous sentences I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading)
- Quinn Thurston (A ridiculously good writer who will actually be keeping you hungry by showing off his illustration skills this time around)
- Sam Ailey (Illustrator, Shellsuit Zombie member, pretty obsessive about dogs but totally in a good way).
- James Cotton (Just another graphic designer based in East London. He’s the actual best.)
- Brendan Emmett Quigley (AKA THE GUY THAT MAKES THE CROSSWORD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES HOW GOOD IS THAT)
- Kyle Stewart (Visual artist and OCAD Illustration Medal winner)
- And last but totally not least, our amazing design team TINY GIANTS who not only defined the editorial design for Stupid but also contributed a bunch of kickass illustration to the issue.
So now, all we gotta do is wait. I would say I’ll be biting my nails but I was biting them already, so that’s not a good metaphor. In just a few short weeks from now Stupid will be real and in your hands.
(And to my Kickstarter homies… I know we were targeting late May as the drop date and so now I’m officially late in getting this to you. I’m sorry… but I also think it’ll be worth the wait.)
WTF even is a prototype issue, anyway?
Jeremy Leslie, Founder of MagCulture had this to say about the tendency of editorial teams to over-invest in their first issue:
“Issue one… is almost like a band making their first album. They’ve been together for ten years and they’ve put everything into that first issue and then… a couple of weeks later you’ve got to pull yourself together and put together issue two.”
By Issue Three, he explains, lots of indie publishers have run out of steam, run out of money, or both.
Related Reading: 156 Startup Failure Post-Mortems
The plan at Stupid is to do things differently. We’re approaching this startup-style, and getting a product into the hands of our readers as quickly as we can. After all, we’re making this for you.
Yup, it’s kinda scrappy. And yup, I’m already painfully aware of the mistakes I made whilst figuring out the production process. But I also can’t wait to hear what you think, and put all of the shit we learned this time around into our second issue.
I still have no idea if there’s enough print-loving pop fans out there to make Stupid a viable, sustainable long-term thing. But if you’re out there, I’m coming to find you. Come stand #withStupid, and let’s make some cool shit happen ;)
Peace, love & pop print publications,
Holly x
