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MYX The Dutch have a pretty rich comics history. It, indisputably, is completely intertwined with other European comics history, especially the Belgian comic history, but nonetheless, the Dutch have been busy doing very promising things. To this day, it's still not uncommon that you can buy comics nearly anywhere, in any bookstore or even a supermarket, in the Netherlands. And the artists of the industry get by quite well, and are doing very nice work, from quite mainstream to very experimental stuff.
As it is doing in many other regions of the world, the Dutch attitude towards comics is also moving towards regarding it as an art form. Resulting in very adult, artistic, absurdist comics, or interesting story-telling styles, or special effects. However, historically, there have been a lot of comics magazines in the Netherlands, and they kept the youthful audience closely involved with the concept of comics. With the art form trying to grow up, it's losing that audience. And with that, its mainstream appeal.
Some believe - and I can't honestly say I disagree fully with them - that that caused a lot of comics magazines to wither away and die. All in all, by early 2003, there were only a few quality comics magazines left in Holland, whereas just a decade earlier there must have been dozens and dozens. And the few magazines left were aimed fully at taking the art form seriously in its adult form, like Zone 5300. Nothing wrong with that, but you lose most of the attention of the general public that way.
So on May 21st of 2003, Sylvester Strips launched the Dutch comics magazine MYX. The market seemed ripe for it, and loads and loads of (mainstream or other) comic artists were immediately enthousiastic about the concept. The launch was combined with the Stripboekenweek, the second edition of this annual comics-oriented week. When buying 15 Euros worth of comics, you'd receive the free Stripboekenweek gift (a book about the artist Jan Kruis), and on top of that you'd receive issue 0 of Myx, which was supposed to give the audience an impression of what to expect.
I wrote this review shortly after that. So I still don't know more about the magazine than that I've seen and read issue 0. And that I actually know some of the people involved in bringing out this magazine. And that I liked it a lot and subscribed to it. And that the site below is the mag's official site and should carry all relevant information - in Dutch. So if you're interested and Dutch is amongst the languages you can read, I recommend checking out the site. And maybe subscribing to this magazine.
Click here to surf the MYX site for yourself |