Whenever I have a magazine or journal fill out the NSSWM questionnaire, I also ask them to send me a sample issue. I’ve been getting a lot of them recently, and I’ve really been enjoying seeing the wide variety of publications out there. For example, last week I received a magazine called Watermen that has a poem about a Halibut.
Since I’m reading these publications, I thought I’d sporadically give you my impressions of them.
First up, Withersin wins points for best presentation. They sent me the second issue of the magazine, submission guidelines and some bookmarks in a folder. Snazzy, without being a bribe. Plus I like their business card.
From a layout perspective they did a good job. The cover is interesting, the text isn’t too small or crowded together, and the white space ratio is appealing. However, I’m not sure how I feel about the lack of page numbers on the title page, and they use an italic font that is a little hard to read. In one of the stories they seemed to use ? instead of – which got confusing, but for a second issue that’s a pretty minor technical glitch.
On to the content! They have a mix of did-you-know type articles, book reviews, film reviews (old ones), interviews and stories. The magazine starts with an article about cannibalism. I can’t decide if author Ebien Piestar is joking or not. The eclectic bits of true-life weirdness are fun to read, and I have a hard deciding if some of the items are fiction or nonfiction.
Okay, I’m impressed. They wrangled an interview with Neil Gaiman. It’s a flippant interview where the interviewer talks more than Gaiman does, but it’s interesting, as long as you don’t want much in the way of concrete details.
The mix of the journal is mostly the small weird bits with 2-4 short stories thrown in, with illustrations to go along with every story. The stories are of good quality, and don’t tend to excessive blood and guts, but they still gave me the shivers.
Overall, I’d say Withersin lives up to its subtitle: Dark, different; the pleasantly sinister.