Comics Buyer's Guide
Comics Buyer's Guide, established in 1971, was the longest-running English-language periodical reporting on the American comic book industry. It awarded its annual Comics Buyer's Guide Fan Awards from 1982–2008, with the first awards announced in #500; the publication ceased with the March 2013 issue. The magazine was headquartered in Wisconsin. CBG was founded in February 1971 by Alan Light under the title The Buyer's Guide to Comics Fandom as a monthly newspaper in a tabloid format. TBG began as an advertising venue – known in comics fandom as an "adzine", i.e. a fanzine devoted to ads. Ron Frantz, in his book Fandom: Confidential, traces the lineage of Light's endeavor to Stan's Weekly Express, a pioneering adzine published from 1969 to 1973, whose bare-bones approach was inspired by an "obscure journal of flower advertising known as Joe's Bulletin." Frantz provides background on Light's interaction with the WE Seal of approval program, with which he cooperated in order to help combat mail fraud.
Frantz in addition describes the infamous long-running feud between Light and Comics Journal founder Gary Groth. TBG's frequency was changed to twice-monthly with issue #18. Besides occasional letter columns, beginning with issue #19, prominent fans Don and Maggie Thompson began a monthly column, "Beautiful Balloons." A news column, "What Now?" by Murray Bishoff, was added with #26. These provided the editorial content required by the United States Postal Service to qualify for second class mail. TBG went weekly with issue #86. Cat Yronwode succeeded Bishoff as news reporter with issue #329, renaming the column “Fit to Print". In 1983, The Buyer's Guide was purchased by Krause Publications. Columnists Don and Maggie Thompson were hired as editors. Krause changed the name with their first issue #482 to Comics Buyer's Guide. At that time Krause instituted the controversial CBG Customer Service Award, the display of which signifies an advertiser had a "clean bill of health". Writer Peter David's column, "But I Digress...", joined the publication in 1990.
The magazine added Mark Evanier's column "P. O. V." in late 1994. In 1992, the magazine spun off its distributor and retailer news into a separate periodical, Comics & Games Retailer. Co-editor Don Thompson died in May 23, 1994. In 1998, Krause brought on John Jackson Miller as managing editor and Brent Frankenhoff as projects editor, with Maggie Thompson remaining as editor. Frankenhoff was promoted to CBG Editor in 2006, with Maggie Thompson assuming the title of Senior Editor. In July 2002, Krause was acquired by F+W Publications. With issue #1595, CBG changed its format from a weekly tabloid to a monthly perfect bound magazine. In addition, in hopes of enhancing newsstand sales, CBG added a price guide for contemporary comics as well as other new features intended to make the magazine more appealing to those with an avid interest in comic books as an investment; this marketing strategy was tied to the yearly publication of the Standard Catalog of Comic Books, produced in conjunction with Human Computing, the makers of the comic collectors’ software ComicBase.
In July 2005, the magazine began archiving past features at its CBGXtra.com service. In late 2009, CBG's page count was reduced, the perfect binding ended, some of the features changed, including the removal of the price guide listings. On January 9, 2013, Krause Publications announced the cancellation of Comics Buyer’s Guide effective with issue #1699; the website CBGXtra and its Facebook page continued as archived resources for a time but are no longer online, replaced by the web site of the new owner The Antique Trader. Alter Ego #122 is a tribute issue devoted to Comics Buyer's Guide with features regarding what would have made the 1700th CBG issue if the magazine had continued. A complete collection of CBG and its predecessor is held by the Michigan State University Comic Art Collection. CBG hosted many columns over the years in addition to Don and Maggie Thompson's "Beautiful Balloons", Murray Bishoff's "What Now?", Cat Yronwode's "Fit to Print." With issue #25 Martin L. Greim, publisher of the fanzine The Comic Crusader, began to contribute an occasional column titled "M.
L. G. on Comics," that would be known as "Crusader Comments." With issue #162 in 1976 Shel Dorf began an occasional series "Shel Dorf and the Fantasy Makers" interviewing creators in comics and film. Another columnist in the 1970s was David Scroggy. Another column was Robert Ingersoll's "The Law is An Ass!". The column dealt with how comics writers erred in their depiction of the law, what Ingersoll thought they should have done, it dealt with procedural errors. In the CBG era, the magazine has been noted for its letter column "Oh, So?", as well as columns by Peter David, Tony Isabella, Catherine Yronwode, Rick Norwood, Mark Evanier, John Jackson Miller, Bob Ingersoll, Heidi MacDonald, Chuck Rozanski, Craig Shutt, Beau Smith, Andrew Smith, others. As part of the June 2004 switch to monthly publication, Maggie Thompson revived the "Beautiful Balloons" column. Cartoonists whose work appeared in CBG include Marc Hansen, Chuck Fiala, Jim Engel, Dan Vebber, Fred Hembeck, Mark Engblom, Brian Douglas Ahern, Chris Smigliano, Mark Martin, Batton Lash, Brian Hayes, others.
For some years CBG reprinted installments of The Spirit comic strip by Will Eisner. The panel cartoon "Last Kiss" by John Lustig was among the longtime fixtures. Professional comic book artists such as Jack Kirby, C. C. Beck and Alex Toth, as well as otherwise-unknown
International Standard Serial Number
An International Standard Serial Number is an eight-digit serial number used to uniquely identify a serial publication, such as a magazine. The ISSN is helpful in distinguishing between serials with the same title. ISSN are used in ordering, interlibrary loans, other practices in connection with serial literature; the ISSN system was first drafted as an International Organization for Standardization international standard in 1971 and published as ISO 3297 in 1975. ISO subcommittee TC 46/SC 9 is responsible for maintaining the standard; when a serial with the same content is published in more than one media type, a different ISSN is assigned to each media type. For example, many serials are published both in electronic media; the ISSN system refers to these types as electronic ISSN, respectively. Conversely, as defined in ISO 3297:2007, every serial in the ISSN system is assigned a linking ISSN the same as the ISSN assigned to the serial in its first published medium, which links together all ISSNs assigned to the serial in every medium.
The format of the ISSN is an eight digit code, divided by a hyphen into two four-digit numbers. As an integer number, it can be represented by the first seven digits; the last code digit, which may be 0-9 or an X, is a check digit. Formally, the general form of the ISSN code can be expressed as follows: NNNN-NNNC where N is in the set, a digit character, C is in; the ISSN of the journal Hearing Research, for example, is 0378-5955, where the final 5 is the check digit, C=5. To calculate the check digit, the following algorithm may be used: Calculate the sum of the first seven digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, counting from the right—that is, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, respectively: 0 ⋅ 8 + 3 ⋅ 7 + 7 ⋅ 6 + 8 ⋅ 5 + 5 ⋅ 4 + 9 ⋅ 3 + 5 ⋅ 2 = 0 + 21 + 42 + 40 + 20 + 27 + 10 = 160 The modulus 11 of this sum is calculated. For calculations, an upper case X in the check digit position indicates a check digit of 10. To confirm the check digit, calculate the sum of all eight digits of the ISSN multiplied by its position in the number, counting from the right.
The modulus 11 of the sum must be 0. There is an online ISSN checker. ISSN codes are assigned by a network of ISSN National Centres located at national libraries and coordinated by the ISSN International Centre based in Paris; the International Centre is an intergovernmental organization created in 1974 through an agreement between UNESCO and the French government. The International Centre maintains a database of all ISSNs assigned worldwide, the ISDS Register otherwise known as the ISSN Register. At the end of 2016, the ISSN Register contained records for 1,943,572 items. ISSN and ISBN codes are similar in concept. An ISBN might be assigned for particular issues of a serial, in addition to the ISSN code for the serial as a whole. An ISSN, unlike the ISBN code, is an anonymous identifier associated with a serial title, containing no information as to the publisher or its location. For this reason a new ISSN is assigned to a serial each time it undergoes a major title change. Since the ISSN applies to an entire serial a new identifier, the Serial Item and Contribution Identifier, was built on top of it to allow references to specific volumes, articles, or other identifiable components.
Separate ISSNs are needed for serials in different media. Thus, the print and electronic media versions of a serial need separate ISSNs. A CD-ROM version and a web version of a serial require different ISSNs since two different media are involved. However, the same ISSN can be used for different file formats of the same online serial; this "media-oriented identification" of serials made sense in the 1970s. In the 1990s and onward, with personal computers, better screens, the Web, it makes sense to consider only content, independent of media; this "content-oriented identification" of serials was a repressed demand during a decade, but no ISSN update or initiative occurred. A natural extension for ISSN, the unique-identification of the articles in the serials, was the main demand application. An alternative serials' contents model arrived with the indecs Content Model and its application, the digital object identifier, as ISSN-independent initiative, consolidated in the 2000s. Only in 2007, ISSN-L was defined in the
Tabloid (newspaper format)
A tabloid is a newspaper with a compact page size smaller than broadsheet. There is no standard size for this newspaper format; the term tabloid journalism refers to an emphasis on such topics as sensational crime stories, celebrity gossip and television, is not a reference to newspapers printed in this format. Some small-format papers with a high standard of journalism refer to themselves as compact newspapers. Larger newspapers, traditionally associated with higher-quality journalism, are called broadsheets if the newspaper is now printed on smaller pages; the word "tabloid" comes from the name given by the London-based pharmaceutical company Burroughs Wellcome & Co. to the compressed tablets they marketed as "Tabloid" pills in the late 1880s. The connotation of tabloid was soon applied to other small compressed items. A 1902 item in London's Westminster Gazette noted, "The proprietor intends to give in tabloid form all the news printed by other journals." Thus "tabloid journalism" in 1901 meant a paper that condensed stories into a simplified absorbed format.
The term preceded the 1918 reference to smaller sheet newspapers that contained the condensed stories. Tabloid newspapers in the United Kingdom, vary in their target market, political alignment, editorial style, circulation. Thus, various terms have been coined to describe the subtypes of this versatile paper format. There are, two main types of tabloid newspaper: red top and compact; the distinction is of editorial style. Red top tabloids are so named due to their tendency, in British and Commonwealth usage, to have their mastheads printed in red ink. Red top tabloids, named after their distinguishing red mastheads, employ a form of writing known as tabloid journalism. Celebrity gossip columns which appear in red top tabloids and focus on their sexual practices, misuse of narcotics, the private aspects of their lives border on, sometimes cross the line of defamation. Red tops tend to be written with a straightforward vocabulary and grammar; the writing style of red top tabloids is accused of sensationalism.
In the extreme case, red top tabloids have been accused of lying or misrepresenting the truth to increase circulation. Examples of British red top newspapers include the Daily Star and the Daily Mirror. In contrast to red-top tabloids, compacts use an editorial style more associated with broadsheet newspapers. In fact, most compact tabloids used the broadsheet paper size, but changed to accommodate reading in tight spaces, such as on a crowded commuter bus or train; the term compact was coined in the 1970s by the Daily Mail, one of the earlier newspapers to make the change, although it now once again calls itself a tabloid. The purpose behind this was to avoid the association of the word tabloid with the flamboyant, salacious editorial style of the red top newspaper; the early converts from broadsheet format made the change in the 1970s. In 2003, The Independent made the change for the same reasons followed by The Scotsman and The Times. On the other hand, The Morning Star had always used the tabloid size, but stands in contrast to both the red top papers and the former broadsheets.
Compact tabloids, just like broadsheet- and Berliner-format newspapers, span the political spectrum from progressive to conservative and from capitalist to socialist. In Morocco, Maroc Soir, launched in November 2005, is published in tabloid format. In South Africa, the Bloemfontein-based daily newspaper Volksblad became the first serious broadsheet newspaper to switch to tabloid, but only on Saturdays. Despite the format proving to be popular with its readers, the newspaper remains broadsheet on weekdays; this is true of Pietermaritzburg's daily, The Witness in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The Daily Sun, published by Naspers, has since become South Africa's biggest-selling daily newspaper and is aimed at the black working class, it sells over 500,000 copies per day, reaching 3,000,000 readers. Besides offering a sometimes satirical view of the seriousness of mainstream news, the Daily Sun covers fringe theories and paranormal claims such as tokoloshes, ancestral visions and all things supernatural.
It is published as the Sunday Sun. In Bangladesh, The Daily Manabzamin became the first and is now the largest circulated Bengali language tabloid in the world, in 1998. Published from Bangladesh, by renowned news presenter Mahbuba Chowdhury, the Daily Manab Zamin is ranked in the Top 500 newspaper websites, in the Top 10 Bengali news site categories in the world, is the only newspaper in Bangladesh which houses credentials with FIFA, UEFA, The Football Association, Warner Bros. A
Sky & Telescope
Sky & Telescope is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: current events in astronomy and space exploration. The articles are intended for the informed lay reader and include detailed discussions of current discoveries by participating scientists; the magazine is illustrated in full color, with both amateur and professional photography of celestial sights, as well as tables and charts of upcoming celestial events. Sky & Telescope was founded by Charles A Federer and his wife Helen Spence Federer and began publication at Harvard College Observatory in November 1941, as a result of the merger of the separate magazines, The Sky and The Telescope. In 2005, Sky Publishing Corporation was acquired by New Track Media, a portfolio company of the private equity firm Boston Ventures. In 2014, New Track was sold to F+W Media; the magazine played an important role in the dissemination of knowledge about telescope making, through the column "Gleanings for ATMs" that ran from 1933 to 1990.
Its main competitor is Astronomy. Amateur astronomy Amateur telescope making Official website
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
Writer's Digest
Writer's Digest is an American magazine aimed at beginning and established writers. It contains interviews, market listings, calls for manuscripts, how-to articles. Writer's Digest is owned by F+W Media, which publishes the annual edition of Writer's Market, a guide containing a list of paying markets — magazines, publishing houses, contests — as well as an index and tips for beginning writers; the magazine is published eight times per year. Writer's Digest sponsors several in-house contests annually, including the Writer's Digest International Self-Published Book Awards and their Annual Writing Competition for short stories. Writer's Digest partnered with book publisher BookBaby, the sister company of CD Baby, in August 2014, to create a self-publishing division called Blue Ash Publishing, to provide instruction and education alongside book publishing and printing services. Blue Ash Publishing takes its name from the home office of the Writer’s Digest editorial team located in Blue Ash, Ohio.
Writer's Digest was established in 1920 under first issue, December. It changed name to Writer's Digest with the March 1921 issue. By the late 1920s, it shifted emphasis more from literary-quality writing to the growing pulp magazine field, which offered the widest opportunities to freelance writers. An important feature from 1933 forward was the New York Market Letter, edited by Harriet Bradfield, which gave timely updates on editor needs in the magazine field; as the pulp field collapsed in the 1950s, Writer's Digest shifted emphasis to famous writers and quality fiction. Paid circulation 63000 per 2017 media kit, down from 69000 in the 2016 media kit. 2003 Michele Bardsley "A Mother Scorned" 2004 J. K. Mason "My Own Avatar" 2005 Nancy Tupper Ling "White Birch" 2006 Mary Feuer "House on Fire" 2007 Eros-Alegra Clarke "Salamander Prayer" 2008 Jacob Appel "The Mistress of Wholesome" 2009 John Moir "Condors in a Coal Mine" 2010 Julie L. Moran "Lunch With Debbie" 2013 Dan J. Fiore "Masks" Writer's Market Writer's Digest Short Story Contest Writer's Digest magazine Writers Online Workshop, from Writer's Digest magazine Writer's Digest Writing Conference, from Writer's Digest magazine Blue Ash Publishing
Music
Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. General definitions of music include common elements such as pitch, rhythm and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. Different styles or types of music may de-emphasize or omit some of these elements. Music is performed with a vast range of instruments and vocal techniques ranging from singing to rapping; the word derives from Greek μουσική. See glossary of musical terminology. In its most general form, the activities describing music as an art form or cultural activity include the creation of works of music, the criticism of music, the study of the history of music, the aesthetic examination of music. Ancient Greek and Indian philosophers defined music as tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies. Common sayings such as "the harmony of the spheres" and "it is music to my ears" point to the notion that music is ordered and pleasant to listen to. However, 20th-century composer John Cage thought that any sound can be music, for example, "There is no noise, only sound."The creation, performance and the definition of music vary according to culture and social context.
Indeed, throughout history, some new forms or styles of music have been criticized as "not being music", including Beethoven's Grosse Fuge string quartet in 1825, early jazz in the beginning of the 1900s and hardcore punk in the 1980s. There are many types of music, including popular music, traditional music, art music, music written for religious ceremonies and work songs such as chanteys. Music ranges from organized compositions–such as Classical music symphonies from the 1700s and 1800s, through to spontaneously played improvisational music such as jazz, avant-garde styles of chance-based contemporary music from the 20th and 21st centuries. Music can be divided into genres and genres can be further divided into subgenres, although the dividing lines and relationships between music genres are subtle, sometimes open to personal interpretation, controversial. For example, it can be hard to draw the line between heavy metal. Within the arts, music may be classified as a fine art or as an auditory art.
Music may be played or sung and heard live at a rock concert or orchestra performance, heard live as part of a dramatic work, or it may be recorded and listened to on a radio, MP3 player, CD player, smartphone or as film score or TV show. In many cultures, music is an important part of people's way of life, as it plays a key role in religious rituals, rite of passage ceremonies, social activities and cultural activities ranging from amateur karaoke singing to playing in an amateur funk band or singing in a community choir. People may make music as a hobby, like a teen playing cello in a youth orchestra, or work as a professional musician or singer; the music industry includes the individuals who create new songs and musical pieces, individuals who perform music, individuals who record music, individuals who organize concert tours, individuals who sell recordings, sheet music, scores to customers. The word derives from Greek μουσική. In Greek mythology, the nine Muses were the goddesses who inspired literature and the arts and who were the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, song-lyrics, myths in the Greek culture.
According to the Online Etymological Dictionary, the term "music" is derived from "mid-13c. Musike, from Old French musique and directly from Latin musica "the art of music," including poetry." This is derived from the "... Greek mousike " of the Muses," from fem. of mousikos "pertaining to the Muses," from Mousa "Muse". Modern spelling from 1630s. In classical Greece, any art in which the Muses presided, but music and lyric poetry." Music is composed and performed for many purposes, ranging from aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, or as an entertainment product for the marketplace. When music was only available through sheet music scores, such as during the Classical and Romantic eras, music lovers would buy the sheet music of their favourite pieces and songs so that they could perform them at home on the piano. With the advent of sound recording, records of popular songs, rather than sheet music became the dominant way that music lovers would enjoy their favourite songs. With the advent of home tape recorders in the 1980s and digital music in the 1990s, music lovers could make tapes or playlists of their favourite songs and take them with them on a portable cassette player or MP3 player.
Some music lovers create mix tapes of their favorite songs, which serve as a "self-portrait, a gesture of friendship, prescription for an ideal party... an environment consisting of what is most ardently loved."Amateur musicians can compose or perf
