Magazines In The Mail

It occurred to me the other day that I no longer have subscriptions to any magazines of any kind. I still read--honest, I do!--but the few magazines I read regularly I pick up at a local newsstand, and then I pick up other issues sporadically. My regular comic books are held for me via my subscription service at Comix Zone in North Syracuse, but I still go to the store to buy the books and bring 'em home. I do buy each issue of The Charlton Arrow mail order when it's published. But other than that? My mailperson brings me no more zines.

This situation would have been unthinkable for me even just a few years ago, but times change. My first subscription was to Boys' Life when I was a cub scout in the '60s; my last was a gift subscription to a humor magazine called Mental Floss. These are all the subscriptions that I can remember from throughout that nearly five-decade span:

Alter Ego
Amazing Heroes
Amazing World Of DC Comics
Amplifier
Audities
Back Issue
The Big Takeover
Boys' Life
The Buyer's Guide To Comics Fandom
The Comic Reader
Comic Book Artist
Comics Buyer's Guide
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Entertainment Weekly
Goldmine
ICE
The Magazine Of Fantasy & Science Fiction
Mental Floss
Mojo
Monkee Business Fanzine
Newsweek
Playboy
POPsided
Record
Rolling Stone
The Spirit
Trouser Press
Writers' Digest
Yellow Pills

Granted, it's not a very long list, though I've likely forgotten a few, too. There were a ton of other magazines I tried to buy regularly and consistently at various times--Creem, Bomp!, Comics Collector, Yeah Yeah Yeah, TV Guide, Punk, The Comics Journal, Comics Feature, Bucketfull Of Brains, Wizard, Penthouse, Phonograph Record Magazine, Sporting News, Blitz, New York Rocker, DISCoveries, Comics Revue, The Monster Times, The Pig Paper, Comics Interview, Mad, Kicks, Comics Scene, Strange Things Are Happening, Flamin' Groovies Quarterly, Mediascene, Vampirella, and I'm sure a truckload of others--to the extent that I probably should have taken out subscriptions for those, too. I miss that feeling of looking forward to receiving a magazine in the mail. And sure, I could fix that right now just by taking out a damned subscription again, a subscription to...something!

But the will isn't there. I shouldn't spend the extra money, I don't have extra time to read even more magazines, and I certainly don't need the extra clutter of more stuff, on top of all the magazines, books, comics, records, CDs, and accumulated bound pulp I already have and continue to add to the tall, tall stack. Guess I'll have to be content to just order the next issue of The Charlton Arrow when it's available.