Metal!

Late last week I had the opportunity to interview Tim Henderson, most famous for being the publisher behind Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles. From the time I discovered it in 1997, BWBK was my favourite magazine. It was a metal magazine that stayed true to its roots and just didn't cover the flavour of the week. It started out as a black and white magazine on gray stock paper and eventually developed into a full colour glossy magazine that was internationally respected and distributed. It came wrapped in plastic and included Knuckletracks, a sampler CD, in every issue. In the early days it often included other promotional items like other sampler CDs, stickers, cassette tapes, folded posters, etc.

Henderson was able to gain nationwide distribution through HMV, as he was the buyer for the hard rock/metal section at the Megastore on Yonge Street. That section of the store became THE place (I'm editorializing) to buy metal CDs. When I visited Toronto from the Peterborough area, the first place I was interested in going was the third floor of 333 Yonge St.

The magazine no longer exists in print, with its last issue coming out at the end of 2008. But BWBK still exists as an online magazine. Unfortunately, this is a trend with metal magazines, as American magazines Metal Maniacs and Metal Edge went out of print this year as well.

I'm writing the story for a Book and Magazine Publishing class. The program is going well. We are in career week. Today we met with magazine professionals and watched The September Issue. Tomorrow is a day for meeting with book professionals. Yes, talking about magazines going out of print when I'm studying in this type of program is depressing.