This week saw the launch of Symbolia Magazine a new digital magazine bringing new and original graphic journalism to the world. The new app-based magazine of non-fiction comics journalism, edited by Erin Polgreen. The first issue is now available at iTunes or via PDF for non-tablet users. A 6-issue subscription is $11.99, but a preview issue is available. Contributors include:
- Susie Cagle’s thoughtful exploration of California’s Salton Sea.
- A look at life in Iraqi Kurdistan by Sarah Glidden.
- Kat Fajardo and Audrey Quinn on evolution and a fish called “The White Man’s Office” in the Lower Congo River.
- The bold history of Zambian Psychedelic Rock, by Chris A. Smith and Damien Scogin.
- Andy Warner and Lauren Sommer tour the millions of microflora in our guts.
Publisher’s Weekly has a bit more details on how it all works.
Each issue of Symbolia will feature 3-5 stories and all contributors will be paid. Initial rates are $75 to $100 per page, “not the best rates,” Polgreen said, “but we’ll work to boost them once we get more exposure. Symbolia will be a vehicle that provides paid work to working cartoonists.” The journal will generate revenue initially from issue sales and annual subscriptions, but Polgreen said they are also looking to advertising and sponsored content from graphic publishers; memberships with added perks—Google Hangout interviews with contributors and workshops—as well as syndication, “we also collaborate with other organizations to share costs and further distribute the content.” Polgreen said she also intends to look at revenue share plan for contributors, “after we build a subscriber base.”
Graphic journalism as a whole is seeing a Renaissance now with amazing works being released weekly, fueled by the power of the internet. Some of my favorite graphic novels this year have been of this type.
Symbolia is also open for pitches, so head to their site and submit your best ideas.
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