Kickstarting Comics: Joel Meadows Brings ‘Tripwire Magazine’ Back To Print For Summer 2024

by Richard Bruton

Another great comics work to get behind and crowdfund now – the return of Joel Meadows‘ Tripwire Magazine to print for an essential Summer 2024 release.

Meadows has been making Tripwire, an excellent magazine covering the worlds of comics, film, TV, and illustration for the longest time – with a first issue coming out in 1992. Hell, some of you weren’t even born then.

And through the entire history of Tripwire, Meadows and his collaborators have continued to deliver great writing on comics and film/TV, proper quality journalism, proper critism. Tripwire has, of course, moved with the times and you should be looking at the Tripwire website, but there’s a sense that Meadows’ heart is always in the physical medium – hence, the Kickstarter running right now for the Tripwire Magazine Summer 2024 print edition.

I’m with Meadows on this. Despite writing online here and elsewhere, there’s still a deep joy that fills my heart when I crack open something physical, whether it’s comics to read or a great magazine talking comics. Sadly, as has been the way of things, printed comics journalism is increasingly rare, so I’m pleased as punch to point you to this new print Tripwire.

Meadows’ been printing an annual Tripwire since 2020, now moving towards a quarterly print magazine, of which this is the Summer 2024 edition.

It’s packed with features and names you’ll recognise, full of great writing, all under a Sean Phillips cover. Ed Brubaker and Phillips talk of their 25-year collaboration, along with previewing their Criminal comic that’s on its way to the small screen at Amazon later this year. There’s a piece on the 10th anniversary of US publisher Mad Cave Studios, a look back at 40 years of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with its co-creator Kevin Eastman, and the final part of their 101 Greatest Comic Artists Of All Time, counting down to number one. Additionally, there’s the comics section, Stripwire, featuring a preview of Sherlock Holmes And The Empire Builders Volume Two by Tripwire editor-in-chief Joel Meadows and artist Andy Bennett and The Professor and Time strip, by Paul N Neal and Ian D Peterson.

This print Tripwire for summer 2024 is 100 pages long, full of quality work and well deserving of your support. The campaign includes exclusive art prints by Sean Phillips, Tripwire T-shirts, and a chance to grab Tripwire back issues, unavailable elsewhere.