Going to print: John Jakala touches on the sorry state of online comics interviews, and looks at new magazines, Back Issue and Comic Book Artist. He also feeds my "Games" fixation. (Thanks, John.)

I haven't read either magazine, so I can't comment on John's assessment. I can, however, attest that Andy Mangels is capable of more than just softball questions. I've read interviews by Mangels, and even interviewed him myself; he can pose some solid questions. Maybe he succumbed to the effects of fanboyism.

John makes some good points, though, about the limitations faced by print magazines that try to cover the comics industry. They struggle with timeliness and sense of place in an era of free online "news" sites such as The Pulse and Newsarama, who can, theoretically, operate on an endless news cycle. It's the same battle that's waged by the likes of Time and Newsweek in the age of CNN and MSNBC.

Humdrum, starstruck Q&A's with comics pros won't help to carve out a niche; readers can get that every day for free online. And Wizard is the only print outlet with the clout to demand important "exclusives," whether they be previews or major announcements.

So, what can other publications with less pull than Shamus & Co. do to set themselves apart from the pack? The obvious answers would be to play to the strengths of print, and to identify a niche readership (avoiding the scattershot approach of most of the other print and online sources).

Give us depth. Give us beautifully reproduced art (not an overabundance of "creative whitespace"). In short, give us something we can't find online. I'd pay $5.95 for that.