Kung Fu Magazines

[Zhang Yong Chun]

What's the forum's opinion on:

* Kung Fu Magazine
* Journal of Asian Martial Arts
* Inside Kung Fu
* Black Belt Magazine

[RD'S Alias - 1A]

The first two Rock, the others suxorz.

[doug maverick]

i agree with RD(can't believe i'm saying that)

[golden arhat]

kungfu magazine is awesome

dunno about JOAA

black belt and inside kung fu suckkk

[SPJ]

I think he meant journal of asian martial arts

or JAMA.

:confused:

[B-Rad]

I'm not a big fan of JAMA. It has the occasional interesting long in depth article, but a lot of filler crap to (like the other magazines... just longer and more pompous ;))

[Zhang Yong Chun]

I think he meant journal of asian martial arts

or JAMA.

:confused:

Absolutely right. Missed the letter. I'll edit the original post.

As for me, I think many magazines, either by design or necessity, are catalogues. Not a big fan of "Kung Fu Panda" being a cover story, but I see why publishers need to move paper, especially in the age of the internet when all sorts of stuff is available online.

The challenge is, how to make something interesting and worthwhile, on deadline, that trumps the stuff you can find online. A magazine has editors and professional journalists while websites can have all sorts of quality control problems, but in each case, the information you get...caveat emptor.

Kung Fu Magazine is one of the better of the print mags. That's all I'll say about that...

[GeneChing]

Gosh, thanks, Zhang Yong Chun.

We appreciate the props from the rest of you as well.

For the record, we're Kung Fu Tai Chi in print and KungFuMagazine.com (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/) online. ;)

[lkfmdc]

Journal of Asian Martial Arts PRETENDS to be an academically rigorous journal but the reality is that they are no better than all the other martial arts related magazines, maybe even worse. Their pursuit of pseudo intellectualism only results in dry, completely uninteresting pieces, most of which simply rehash what has already been published 1000 times before

True academic journals wouldn't accept as footnotes an unsourced vanity book

true academic journals wouldn't shy away from subjects just because they are controversial

and most importantly, true academic journals don't pick their subject matter based upon who places ads in their magazine :rolleyes:

[SimonM]

KFM / Kung Fu Tai Chi rocks.
Never read journal of Asian Martial Arts.
IKF is undiluted sewage interspersed by the lady with the book on using cleevage to distract your opponent during a knife fight.
I wouldn't even bother opening Black Belt.

[cjurakpt]

Journal of Asian Martial Arts PRETENDS to be an academically rigorous journal but the reality is that they are no better than all the other martial arts related magazines, maybe even worse. Their pursuit of pseudo intellectualism only results in dry, completely uninteresting pieces, most of which simply rehash what has already been published 1000 times before

True academic journals wouldn't accept as footnotes an unsourced vanity book

true academic journals wouldn't shy away from subjects just because they are controversial

and most importantly, true academic journals don't pick their subject matter based upon who places ads in their magazine :rolleyes:

I agree 100%; first off, academic journals are refereed by acknowledged experts in the field; I don't believe that JAMA does that, they just edit for content in-house (I could be wrong on that); second, if it's called Journal of ASIAN Martial Arts, why do they frequently have articles on non-asian MA? I mean, call it the Journal of Indigenous MA, or the Journal of World MA, whatever; third, the quality of writing varies greatly, from well-organized research (a recent article by Doug Wile on taijiquan origins was worth the price of the mag alone) to first-person "here's-what-happened-to-me" anecdotes that have no business being in an academic journal;

Black Belt is...odd;

IKF...well, suxorz, aside from being my new favorite word, is about as pithy as one could be descriptively speaking; with one caveat, noted below...

KFTC: in general, I think that the content is great, and the articles are well written and thankfully are not always PC BS; however, I would offer one suggestion, and this is just my opinion: the layout; it often is very...cluttered, making it at times difficult to follow; the use of white type on a black background especially can be distracting; and the way the pics are often at an angle with the text running around them also makes it look at times disorganized; now, I am not complaining - I am simply giving an opinion, others may or may not share it, no offense intended; personally, while I think that the content of IKF is abhorrent, I have to say that the actual layout makes it somewhat more appealing to read; anyway, it's not a major issue, just a perspective

[SimonM]

See I disagree. IKF certainly has more flash than KFTC, greater numbers of coloured pictures and such, but I find it to be actually more distracting than KFTC's layout.

[kal]

I preferred IKF when it has black-and-white photos.

It looks a mess now with the whole thing full of glossy colour pictures.

And the covers really suck nowadays as well. I liked the covers in the 1980s and early 1990s when they looked more subtle and even arty.

But now the covers are too in your face and you can't tell them apart from Black Belt mag's covers anymore.

[SimonM]

I lost hope in IKF when I saw the same guy with shock blond eighties rocker hair wearing a red "silk" uniform with leopard spot trim and a leopard spot sash grimacing in photos in two issues in a row.

One was a "ain't my 5ty13z0r teh d34d1y" article and the other was photographs of him supposedly getting pummeled with sais wielded by the stunt double who stood in for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill.

[cjurakpt]

See I disagree. IKF certainly has more flash than KFTC, greater numbers of coloured pictures and such, but I find it to be actually more distracting than KFTC's layout.

as i said, just an opinion, no better or worse than another

[cerebus]

I don't really read many of the modern mags anymore. My favorite mags are 1970s/ 1980s era Inside Kung Fu (back when it rawked), and some of the more obscure mags from the 70s like "Secrets of Kung Fu" and "Real Kung Fu" both English-language mags published in Hong Kong, I believe. Other mags with cool articles from back in the day were the old Black Belt (even though it concentrated mainly on Japanese arts) and Official Karate (the most cheaply-made, but with some very interesting content).

Ah, the good ol' days... :)

[ngokfei]

All the magazines tend to be alot of flash without content. More than 40% of the magazine is advetising and then the articles in the magazine pertain to the advertisements.:rolleyes:

For this reason I don't subscribe to any magazine anymore, just pick up a few a year that I find have an interesting article.

Rather save my $5 and put it toward buying books and vids (vcd's, etc)

Onething though is I do like picking up the MMA magazines, at least they give direct information mixed in with their advertisements plus alot of hands on demonstrations of skills and techniques.

Remember the old "MA Training" magazine?

[GeneChing]

Ironically, JAMA is one of the only magazines that I never published in. I did send them something back in the mid 90's and got a polite rejection. I took that submission and cut it up into about a dozen other articles for different publications, so no hard feelings whatsoever. As for it's standing as an academic journal, it's a newsstand magazine obviously. You buy it on the newsstand. That doesn't happen with academic journals. In fact, I find it absolutely fascinating that no other magazine genre can support an academic-style journal on the newsstand. I'm not sure what that means in the big picture, but surely it's a unique barometer of our community.

cerebus & ngokfei, unless a magazine is privately subsidized, the bulk of the income comes through advertising. While this is even more prevalent today (especially with the shifting landscape of print publishing, particularly periodicals) it has always been so. Advertising drives the industry. Same goes for radio and TV. What is unique about periodicals is that they are tailored to a community - in our case, the martial arts. If you don't support the community, specifically its publications, its advertisers and its events, the community dies. Of course, my perspective on this is quite unique since it's how I make my living, but I've always found the advertising as interesting, if not more so, than the content. It's just like looking at who backs a political contender.

cjurakpt, thanks for your comments (I especially like the 'not always PC BS' nod ;)). I hear you about our layout. We do tend to be more graphically edgy than the others. We like to push the boundaries there. Admittedly, sometimes our experiments fail. But we'll keep taking those risks, just to keep ourselves challenged. I appreciate your tolerance.

[The Willow Sword]

Its a good publication,regardless of the elitist snobby comments by lkfmdc about it.
I have always liked the Aikido Articles in Jama. But being as i am a LONG time poster here in KFM i am in KFM's camp all the way. Online articles are great and from what i have seen of the Mag its pretty good as well. Never bought a subscription to it(hehe have always read my buddy's copies) Hmm Maybe i should get a subscription finally after all these years.
contemplating finances,,Peace,TWS

[GeneChing]

...I can't believe I've let this thread go this long and not plugged subscriptions (http://www.martialartsmart.net/19341.html). I must be slipping. Thanks for the assist on that, TWS. ;)

[mkriii]

I like Kung Fu Magazine the best. I just started getting my subscription to it last month. Black belt is my second choice. Iside Kung Fu is third choice. My one complaint about all of them (mostly in BB and IKF) is that the people in the pictures look weak. When they are demonstrating a technique the people that are supposedely attacking look like thier arms are flimsy and no power in the attack which has me thinking.....is this technique really going to work for real?

[NJM]

I also enjoy KFM because of the hilarious Tiger Claw ads.

They try so hard, and I'm sure they'll get it eventually. :P

[The Willow Sword]

:eek:i FINALLY bought a subscription to KFM.:cool:

Looking forward to my first Issue, Gene.

Peace, TWS

[Zhang Yong Chun]

...I can't believe I've let this thread go this long and not plugged subscriptions (http://www.martialartsmart.net/19341.html). I must be slipping. Thanks for the assist on that, TWS. ;)

LOL, I was waiting for that! :)

[GeneChing]

Your timing is good because we have an issue at press. It should be ready in a week or two. Sometimes people subscribe just after we send out an issue, which means they have to wait two months before they receive one (we're bimonthly, but people always seem to think we're monthly, probably IKF transference...:rolleyes:)

As for our ads, we have a lot of fun with them. Sometimes it ****es people off (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=42966). Sometimes, it creates legends (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16442). Most of the time, it's good for a laugh (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41273). Of course, we aim to sell stuff (http://www.martialartsmart.net/index.html) - it's ads after all and that funds all the re (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/TOC/index.php)search (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/magazine/TOCindex.php) we do - but we hope that it entertains (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/ezine/article.php?article=527) as well. :cool:

[lkfmdc]

Its a good publication,regardless of the elitist snobby comments by lkfmdc about it.



Unfortunately, "elitist" and "snobby" describe the journal, which is funny because it is not an academic quality journal

If they just dropped their pretension we'd be fine with it

[Dale Dugas]

I just ponied up and bought a 2 year subsciption.

Woo hoo!!

[GeneChing]

...we'll have to order extra mega-XL got qi? shirts (http://www.martialartsmart.net/95-036w.html) for you.

As for pretensions, I'm pretending that Kung Fu Tai Chi is the new Maxim. I can dream, can't I?

[Dale Dugas]

Yeah,

I like 3XL rather than 2XL.

Let me know when they are in and I will order some.

[cjurakpt]

Ironically, JAMA is one of the only magazines that I never published in. I did send them something back in the mid 90's and got a polite rejection. I took that submission and cut it up into about a dozen other articles for different publications, so no hard feelings whatsoever.
better than cutting up the submissions editor into a dozen pieces!


cjurakpt, thanks for your comments (I especially like the 'not always PC BS' nod ;)). I hear you about our layout. We do tend to be more graphically edgy than the others. We like to push the boundaries there. Admittedly, sometimes our experiments fail.
I would hardly construe one critical comment from an obviously elitist aesthete as evidence of failure - but thanks for the acknowledgment


But we'll keep taking those risks, just to keep ourselves challenged.
hey, keep living on the edge - obviously if peeps are buying it, they are liking it...


I appreciate your tolerance.
I appreciate your graciousness


If they just dropped their pretension we'd be fine with it
no you wouldn't - you'd have nothing to complain about...

[lkfmdc]

no you wouldn't - you'd have nothing to complain about...

That's why I come here, always something here to complain about :D

[sanjuro_ronin]

That's why I come here, always something here to complain about :D

Typical of a glorified kickboxer with a measly 30 years of TCMA under a recognized TCMA GM.

Bah !

[GeneChing]

cjurakpt, we do fail on plenty of our graphic layouts. You're not the first to comment. That's the problem with 'living on the edge'. We do cut ourselves occasionally. But therein lies the thrill...