The magazine industry is huge, and people of all ages are faced with the task of wading through literally hundreds of magazines in order to find the one that is most appealing to them. There are all sorts of magazines available on shelves, the ones that are possibly the most prominent on the shelves, that stand out over the others are the celebrity gossip magazines. These keep us updated on everything in the celebrity world, weather posh spice has lost weight and still with David, Ferns guilt over her weight loss surgery, and recently, the more tragic events surrounding Jade Goody. Other magazines include, real life, food, fishing, golf, lads mags. and hair and make up magazines, to name but a few. The media, although criticised at times can be used to positive effect, in the recent cancer of Jade Goody for instance, all the awareness that was raised about cervical cancer, as resulted in an increasing amount of women visiting the doctor/clinic for cervical screening.
In every magazine distributors there is a section for children, and this section usually incorporates books which are appealing to both girls and boys, most of the books for children have gifts attached to the front, for it is not usually the comic content they are interested in. Comics are very popular with children, and have been around for over 70 years. The likes of Beryl the Peryl, Rodger the Dodger, Minnie the Minx, Dennis the Menace and Desperate Dan keeping children laughing all over the world. The Beano is one such comic which has been on the go for years with its first publication being in 1938. Today the Beano has been made to look much more appealing to children, and has brighter colours on the front, and free gifts include prank packs with things like fake pencils and fake chewing gum.
In the early days the artists who designed comics did so by sketching out a drawing in pencil, when the image was perfected they would trace over it once more, but this time using ink. The comic strip would be coloured in as a final step, once finished the strip would go to print. Nowadays, most comic artists are using the advances in technology to aid them with their comic designs.
Most daily newspapers worldwide have a comic strip in them, Andy Capp is one such character which features in both the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror and has done since 1957. The progression of comics on to the big screen was inevitable, Superman was one such comic strip which was made into a feature film. Superman originally featured as a comic strip in 1939, it was made into a TV show in the 1950’s and had a good deal of success. In 1978 Christopher Reeve starred alongside the likes of Marlon Brando, Margot Kidder and Gene Hackman, and Superman became a worldwide success. Many comic strips have been made into movies since, much of these being based on characters from children’s comics.
Distributing comics and magazines has become competitive, and keeping businesses afloat in the current economic down turn has proved difficult for some, with many of the high street retailers closing, the small shop is finding times hard too. Many companies are now making good use of the internet by advertising on web directory. A good web directory entry entry can be worth its weight in gold, and the internet is proving that, with many people choosing to shop from the luxury of their own home, for better deals on the worldwide web.
