Nickelodeon Magazine folds
The Beat has confirmed an LA Times report that Nickelodeon Magazine, the last studio kids magazine, has been canceled:
Viacom is shutting down Nickelodeon Magazine this week and will lay off about 30 staffers. Launched in 1993, the magazine, with a circulation of more than 1 million and a total audience of more than 6 million, was for many years an important promotional platform for the children’s cable network and provided a steady stream of cash. The magazine even once was a National Magazine Award finalist and also led to a few spin-off products.
The fate of comics editors Chris Duffy and Dave Roman isn’t specifically known yet. The loss of the magazine comes as a blow to the comics community — in addition to developing such popular comics properties as SpongeBob and Avatar: The Last Airbender, Duffy and Roman hired the cream of the crop of indie cartoonists, from Sam Henderson and Johnny Ryan to Laura Park and Jason Lutes. It was one of the few places where cartoonists of this ilk could get paid decent rates for their work, which makes it all the sadder. In addition, they published stand-alone comics collections and sponsored the first Kids Comics Awards.
While this leaves an obvious gap for kids comics, it leave a gap for comics in magazines in general — once a key way for cartoonists to make money and gain exposure, the implosion of the magazine market has taken this avenue with it. Or as Ryan Sands tweeted:
Nick Mag was a great venue 4 indie cartoonists: Laura Park, Jason Shiga, Johnny Ryan, Elio, Kupperman. Now there’s just vice, GR & arthur
GR means Giant Robot.
Above: A Richard Thompson drawn cover for Nick Mag’s comics section. Much more art and history of the magazine can be seen at the Nick Mag Comics LJ, which we urge all to visit as a token of remembrance of a great magazine. There is a post up just from yesterday with a LAURA PARK 3D COMIC.
06/4/09 at 2:09 pm
[…] “Nickelodeon Magazine folds […]
06/4/09 at 2:31 pm
Regrets and sympathies to Dave and Chris! And to Drew Weing and all the others who’ve graced their amazing pages. So sorry to lose another kids mag, kids comics avenue, and overall fun read.
I know you guys will be on your feet in no time.
06/4/09 at 2:47 pm
Dammit. Just did some work for them, too. I better make sure the cheque is still coming…
06/4/09 at 3:58 pm
I really can’t believe it. I feel like a friend has just passed away. It really is a very sad day for all ages comics. I sincerely hope Chris Duffy and Dave Roman and everyone else at Nick will find other outlets for their talents as soon as humanly possible. I am personally indebted to them for many fantastic jobs over the years.
Ugh!
06/4/09 at 4:07 pm
I’m very sorry to hear this news, too, and especially for Dave and Chris, and hope they weather these events as well as can be expected at such an awful time…
06/4/09 at 4:14 pm
Damn, Ironically, if it wasn’t for the internet, kids would probably be reading more paper media.
06/4/09 at 4:30 pm
“While this leaves an obvious gap for kids comics, it leave a gap for comics in magazines in general — once a key way for cartoonists to make money and gain exposure, the implosion of the magazine market has taken this avenue with it.”
I’m going to keep fighting a while longer, non the less. WHO’S WITH ME!!!
06/4/09 at 4:35 pm
Although I wasn’t mentioned in the article (there have been too many contributors to list them all) I’ve been working for Nick for 11 years, starting at the same time Dave Roman joined the staff, and worked closely with Dave, Chris, Tim Jones and others on many, many projects. It was a great time. It’s hard to close a long chapter of people’s lives. Big business doesn’t know and doesn’t care. Change is not always a good thing. But big business has hurt themselves badly in these last years and it serves them right for all the dirt they dish on the rest of us. I will miss Nick. I know all the reasons and Viacom can justify it any way they please, I still say they’re fools to close it down.
06/4/09 at 4:39 pm
Chris and Dave are among the most talented people out there. Here’s hoping someone with jobs is smart enough to do know this.
06/4/09 at 4:41 pm
Yeah, I hate to blame the internet, but I do agree that the last few generations never developed the fondness for periodicals like the older ones did. I loved getting MAD and CRACKED and monster mags, and just poring over every little detail. You can pretty much just log on and find anything you want to see now. It’s great and terrible.
Chris and Dave: love you kids to death. Working for Nick paid for stuff when the going got tough, and your input, love of the medium and respect for writers and artists is something to be admired greatly. Best of luck in whatever comes next.
I’ll miss Zelda.
06/4/09 at 4:41 pm
Aw, man! All three of my kids read Nick Magazine. When they were done then I’d read it. Then we’d all go through it again some time later.
What a bummer.
06/4/09 at 5:01 pm
Just wanted to chime in re: Chris and Dave. Good people, and good comics people. I think Sarah and I have worked with them for about 12 years, now, and it was always a pleasure. Cripes. I hope they both win the lottery.
An all-around bummer.
06/4/09 at 5:10 pm
Just talked to someone at Nick, and apparently they’re planning a big final issue for August, including a lot of the work that’s in the pipeline (including the illustrations I just completed for them).
Still crappy, but here’s hoping they go out with a bang.
06/4/09 at 7:40 pm
Sorry to hear this. Chris and Dave are some of the best editors around!
06/4/09 at 7:41 pm
This is really sad. Comics and kids’ magazines seem like an ideal combination; I remember the first time I saw Bone in Disney Adventures and thought it was a perfect fit.
I think the problem is having to answer to a bottom-line-obsessed corporate overlord. Someone needs to come along and revitalize this form in an more indie vein. Maybe Toon Books can find a way to fill the gap.
06/4/09 at 8:40 pm
Boo hoo! Much love from an irregular contributor since day one. Chris and Dave, we heart you.
06/4/09 at 8:56 pm
I think I started out in issue # 1 (1990) & hung around for a couple of pieces this year. Nick magazine was one of the last print venues left that paid appropriately for comics and always treated the contributors right. Chris & Dave are both pros and I’m confident will both land solidly on their feet.
06/4/09 at 11:56 pm
I am so sad to hear this news. This is a terrible blow to the future of comics.
06/5/09 at 12:19 am
It’s true, Chris and Dave were a couple of the best. Easy to work with, and they knew their stuff. Gave a lot of us a chance to do some cool and fun stuff. They deserve so much better than to have some dumb organization say “Thanks, but we’re not doing that anymore.” This is why I’ve always detested that old saying “It’s not personal, it’s just business.” Maybe sometimes it needs to be personal and not be business. With Chris and Dave you felt that way. The suits can go…well, I’ll keep this classy and not say.
06/5/09 at 10:51 am
This is terrible. Nickelodeon Magazine was like a friend to me when I was growing up. How will future generations get their Ooze News now!?!?!?
Hopefully we’ll be getting some of these comics in print form, in a nice fat Fantagraphics collected edition and… well, let’s hope somebody fills the hole left by this. A good moderately priced
Also, lest we forget, Nick Magazine was a good bastion of weirdness for kids, what with Zelda the Roving Reporter and the fill in the speech balloons to the ancient monkey in a sailor suit photo, something that’s unfortunately gone from the market (again, hopefully not for long).
06/5/09 at 11:55 am
I mean, really the secret to get it to make a profit again is just to run this commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5VFxeikXPg
06/8/09 at 2:39 pm
Nickelodeon supplied steady work for me as a cartoonist since 1994 or 95. This REALLY sucks. I love the magazine, and it’s a source of pride for me. My 8 year old will not take this well. It’s a strange time for a cartoonist. The printed page is getting to be a rare place. It’s just not the same to read comics online. It hurts the eyes after a while, and the sharp details are not as apparent. I want to say thank you for all the great issues and opportunities. Maybe this will create an opportunity for a new kid’s mag? There NEEDS to be one.
06/9/09 at 12:38 pm
I had the joy of doing a few projects with Chris and Dave, and can only add my appreciation of their work. Definitely some great editors, I hope they and the rest of the Nick mag crew will get back on their feet very soon. Also wishing best of success for all the more regular contributing artists.
Sad to see another kids publication disappearing. Looks like Nick Magazine had better sales numbers than many regular comics.
Viacom has just shot itself in the foot by losing one great way to reach an audience.
06/9/09 at 1:11 pm
For those of us in the small press, the kind of numbers Nick Mag was selling was like an impossible dream. We celebrated if we got one one hundredth of their circulation. For a bloated conglomeration like Viacom, success isn’t good enough.
If the meek shall indeed inherit the earth, perhaps in that great by and by, we’ll finally be free from wealthy, bottom line thinking CEO’s once and for all.
But Dave and Chris will be there with us.
06/19/09 at 4:43 pm
[…] It might be old news to those in the industry, but I wanted to acknowledge the great loss of NICKELODEON magazine, especially the COMIC BOOK insert. It was one of this generation’s best forums for cartoonists - publishing everyone from Laura Park to Art Spiegelman! - and providing them with a living wage (though Art was probably doing fine on his own). I’m greatly edited to editors Chris Duffy and Dave Roman for being great bosses and pals, for financially fueling the production of both CHUNKY RICE and BLANKETS, and for indoctrinating the youth into the medium of comics. Plus they let me get away with bizarre and tasteless strips like this CARTOONIGAMI strip above. (published eight years ago!) CARTOONIGAMI is sort of like a MAD FOLD-IN, only I stole the idea from Lewis Trondheim and his OuBaPo experimentations – a comic strip which, when folded, transforms into two entirely different gags. […]
06/22/09 at 4:05 pm
[…] Nickelodeon Magazine folds [Publishers Weekly] Nickelodeon Magazine shutting down [Media Life] […]
06/22/09 at 6:07 pm
How sad. It’s a shame the parent company stands on greed, instead of making a reasonable profit and producing a positive magazine like this.
Couldn’t they lower the publication frequency instead?
It’s sad to see good magazines go down the drain just because of lower numbers or kids addictive internet usage.
06/22/09 at 7:25 pm
What’s even sadder is that, most probably, nothing people say will change their mind. And we’ll all think a little less of them for it, and they won’t care one iota.
Money money money is the be all and end all and that’s all that ever mattered to them.
08/1/09 at 12:12 pm
how is it canceled because i just icked up an august issue
10/9/09 at 6:30 pm
damn i had a subscription till 2011