Lets talk about how much inside kung fu magazine sucks!

[bodhitree]

I think it is the worst publication in the world, and I want to fight all of its contributers at once!

[PHILBERT]

Alright, let's talk about it.

1.) The majority of there profit comes FROM advertising. Initially, for the $4 each issue costs of IKF, regardless of how good it is (and yes, let's all admit, they do have some crappy articles, which outweigh the good ones), they would not turn a profit for it's employees, publishing, and distribution at $4 an issue.

2.) The advertisers determine who they are going to pay to put there ads in do to there own sales. If Joe Company advertises in IKF, and sees a large profit, then it will continue to pay to go into IKF. Then it might try and go into Black Belt Mag, or Grappling mag.

Yes, IKF does suck, it says Kung Fu on the cover but has alot of grappling articles not related to Kung Fu, alot of NHB coverage, etc. But for the ads, that is how they make there money.

Go pick up an issue of Time magazine and you will see more articles than advertisement. That is because Time magazine SELLS. It does not appeal to a select group of people, it appeals to the mass majority of competent adults in America. Heck I've been reading Time magazine off and on since I was 15.

Go pick up a porno mag, you'll see alot of advertisements for phone sex hotlines. Why? Because the porno magazine does not turn much profit (save for Playboy) so they use outside advertisers paying them X amount of dollars to help turn the profit to pay it's models.

That is why I like KF/TC magazine alot, sure it has advertisements, but the advertisements are from it's own company and not outside distributors.

Though I think IKF is owned by Unique Publications, which holds many of there own ads as well.

[bodhitree]

KF/TC is mostly not BS, Not glorifying David Carodine, not trying to pass off some weird karate as gong fu. What is it with them, and whats up with selling a book called kung fu masters with Jackie Chan on the cover. The guy has some talent, but, come on, kung fu master?

[norther practitioner]

It seems to be really hit or miss with IKF...

hopefully it will be a good issue when they run some fan apps. that my teacher and I shot with them in Albuquerque.

Good shots of me getting ktfo with a girly weapon....

I almost cried when we were going over which ones to shoot and I got hit full throttle in the boys.

[Gold Horse Dragon]

IKF and KFT have both had their share of bad articles to good and excellent articles. Advertising is advertising...does not matter if it is from outside the publisher or by the publisher or both and both IKF and KFT have significant advertising.
IKF has it over KFT with the color pages.
DC has done and is doing a lot to promote CMA...good for him.
I do not like that IKF promotes grappling and NHB so much, but I also so not like how much KFT promotes comtemporary wushu. As well...KFT's majority of models and master pics are of Asians...they do not give the same coverage to Non-Chinese masters as models (including cover) in the mag on the whole.
All that said...both mags are good and are good for the promotion of Kung Fu in general.

GHD

[mortal]

I think Jackie chan is definately a kung fu master.

[Lao Shan]

ikf does suck in comparison to kfm.
Karrotdine only makes kungfu look ridiculous to people outside and inside it. Stuttering his way though fortune cookie sayings. Idiot.Nothing wrong with being chinese masters focused too. there are too many of them who get drowned out by ego filled non chinese who walk around talking about fighting arts they really don't understand. non chinese can learn kungfu non chinese can teach kungfu but many non chinese make kungfu look stupid and so comes bad reputation for all. fewer chinese masters make this mockery of the arts.
most non chinese masters cannot read or speak chinese but cover their websites and schools with chinese. for all they know it could say something totally different than what they think it does. they don't have the background to know and often they will lie about lineage or skill or what they know so they can stroke their own egos.keep up good work kfm , ikf should become wrestling magazine.

[Stranger]

I think it is the worst publication in the world, and I want to fight all of its contributers at once!

I think you would have your hands more than full tangling with Monkeyslap Too. His articles are first rate as well.

[Gold Horse Dragon]

Originally posted by Lao Shan
ikf does suck in comparison to kfm.
Karrotdine only makes kungfu look ridiculous to people outside and inside it. Stuttering his way though fortune cookie sayings. Idiot.Nothing wrong with being chinese masters focused too. there are too many of them who get drowned out by ego filled non chinese who walk around talking about fighting arts they really don't understand. non chinese can learn kungfu non chinese can teach kungfu but many non chinese make kungfu look stupid and so comes bad reputation for all. fewer chinese masters make this mockery of the arts.
most non chinese masters cannot read or speak chinese but cover their websites and schools with chinese. for all they know it could say something totally different than what they think it does. they don't have the background to know and often they will lie about lineage or skill or what they know so they can stroke their own egos.keep up good work kfm , ikf should become wrestling magazine.

Well...I guess your just a racist.
Chinese Sifu who were not racist taught Non-Chinese starting back in the 60's. In the 80's and better part of the 90's most Chinese youth were not even interested in kung fu (except in communist China with contemporary wushu)...so Sifu taught more and more Non-Chinese and guess what...many Chinese Sifu even passed down the entire art to Non-Chinese (this was the situation even in Hong Kong) who inheriting the art are still passing in on today to both Non-Chinese and Chinese.
As far as DC...like it or not he and the show did a tremendous amout to promote CMA. He still does so today. No where have I seen that he claims to be a master...just a guy who does traditional Kung Fu he learned from his Sifu and who talks about kung fu, the movies, his experiences and opinions...or would you like him and publications to be suppressed as they are in China?! Forune cookie sayings...hm...guess you do not like the Tao Teh Ching, Buddhist classics, shinto, Christianity and others...because that my friend is where the show drew its philosophical sayings from. And what is Kung Fu without the philosophy, morals and Mo Duk...just another fighting art...thats what.
So..you do not think Non-Chinese understand their art and make it look stupid...well perhaps you should cross hands with a few...but I seriously doubt that you would get a chance for a few after the first one
There are good Non-Chinese and good Chinese Sifu and todi.
Too bad you are a racist

GHD

[brassmonkey]

can you name the magazine that's had articles by both Sin The and Rich Mooney within the last year?

[Jook Lum]

David Carradine quote" I am a dancer man, not a martial artist"
Boy what a shocking revelation!

Anyone else get sick of most magazines covers(articles sometimes too) having the person on the cover make faces
like they are constipated or sitting on a sharp stick while
performing a technique.

Some say it is the expression of Chi on their face or their
KIA spirit yell B.S.. I know they are trying to make the cover
picture jump out at people to peak their interest in the mag-
azine but come on. If some martial artists do this naturally
fine but come on with the faces of death.

Most martial artists look relaxed and focused not tense and
rabid. (Above I said most, but not all). As far as alot of the
crap articles in some magazines, sometimes you have to walk through a lot of **** to get to the grass.

[SifuAbel]

GHD said most of what I wanted to say and I 'll add that there are some chinese "masters" out there that can read chinese but have only so-so skill. And, are benefiting from their ethnicity alone. Egos get stroked on both sides of the Pacific.

Now granted there are some non-chinese that are doing what LS is suggesting. But it isn't the state of the art. Only a fool would put up a chinese saying without getting it translated fully.

On the issue of IKF , I agree that it has become a sensationalist mag geared toward the beginner kid and the MA fan geek. It has some good and some bad and some rediculous. Then again that is the reality of life.

KFM, as far as I'm concerned, isn't too far behind. Looking back at the back issue covers you'll note that there are few if no non-chinese people on the covers. It makes it seem like there are no non-chinese people in teaching levels or even master levels of kung fu. Of which there are many. Its as if the effort is to keep it in a tight knit little club. Which only serves to alienate in the end.

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by Stranger


I think you would have your hands more than full tangling with Monkeyslap Too.

heh. agreed.

[SanSoo Student]

I dunno why they bothered giving david carradine his own column, I mean all he talks about was his movies Kill Bill, and "kung fu" experiences.

[GeneChing]

Magazines are really difficult to run nowadays. As I've mentioned before, the industry of print magazines has been in a steady decline for years now. Sign of the times. I'm happy to report that we have been on a slow, but steady increase. So things are good, for us at least.

The racism issue comes up every once in a while for our cover and it's a delicate one. Right now, there are very few magazines at all that have asian faces on the cover. Let's see, Yao Ming made it on Sport Illustrated. Then there are the Hapa like Keenu Reeves, Tiger Woods, Kristin Kreuk, etc. Then there are the Amer-Asian mags like Yolk, A, Giant Robot and Hyphen, which of course, pretty much just do Asians on the cover. Call it compensation, if you like, but we do think of ourselves as an Amer-Asian magazine sometimes, in the same vein as those others. The majority of our cover masters are immigrants or not American citizens. Many of them would have little voice here without our magazine. Most of the non-Chinese masters can speak for themselves perfectly well. It's not that we don't believe there are qualified masters of Kung Fu that are non-Chinese. Of course there are. But, with a few exceptions, we try to keep our focus on China.

To be perfectly honest, it's really about sales. Those few times that we have put a non-Chinese on the cover, our sales dropped dramatically. The same is true for women. You'll find less women on our cover too, and I wouldn't say that we're male chauvenist. Quite the opposite, we've had a line up of female editors and our publisher has been female for nearly a decade. Maybe our readers are racist and chauvenist. I certainly don't like to think that, but frankly, I gotta sell the magazine, or there'd be no magazine. FWIW we put a non-asian and a female on the cover last year, but I'll be the first to admit that's an anomaly and it won't happen again for a while.