Illustration Issue No. Sixty-Six published by The Illustrated Press, Daniel Zimmer, editor & publisher
I subscribe to this excellent magazine, which is published four times a year.
Each issue is full of biographical information on the (usually) three artists featured, so it’s read, not browsed or leafed through. It’s always a delight when an issue arrives in the mail.
This issue features George Gross (on the cover), Warren Baumgartner and Paul Shipper.
Do you read any magazines?
What are you reading?
Tip the Wink 
The only magazines I read regularly are Mojo and Uncut (both British music mags), Locus, Asimov’s, and F&SF.
Just finished some short stories in various mags and books,The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchnon which dated poorly since I last read it 50 years ago, and am in the Middle of rereading The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski which is holding up well. Just saw the trailer online for the movie which looks interesting. The later is extremely grim and I am sure would not appeal to you.
From the sound of it, probably not, Steve. I think I read something by Pynchnon once, but have no memory of what or when.
I get Atlantic Monthly, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Consumer Reports, The New York Review of Books, New York Magazine, and Mystery Scene. Most of these date from Phil’s days because he loved magazines. And with Student Mags, you can get many of them for almost nothing now.
We cut out basically all magazines. For years I got New York but finally gave it up when the critics I liked all left. I do get Deadly Pleasures and Mystery Scene, but that’s about it. For years I got EQMM and AHMM for a friend in England, so got to read stories that interested me before sending them on (a few months’ issues at a time). But sadly, he died and now I only see an occasional issue at Bouchercons.
I agree on THE PAINTED BIRD. One, it’s unforgettable, and two, I doubt it would appeal to you.
This week I read FROM SEA TO STORMY SEA. I know you’re not a Lawrence Block fan, but he just edited this and has one story in this very good collection of stories “inspired by great American paintings.” I have two more collections on the Kindle, both nearly done – O’ Henry’s WHIRLIGIGS and THE CHRISTMAS CARD CRIME and Other Stories, edited by Martin Edwards, which I believe you’ve already read.
Also reading: BLIND SEARCH by Paula Munier, second in her series about former Army MP Mercy Carr and her K-9 rescue dog, Elvis, set in a Vermont winter. I liked the first a lot and this is good too. Also reading WHERE I’M READING FROM, essays by Tim Parks.
Jeff, don’t you also get CADS? Yes I read THE CHRISTMAS CARD CRIME and Other Stories, edited by Martin Edwards. I also read the first Munier, and was going to write it up for today, but ran out of time.
Yes, CADS too.
In days of yore, I subscribed to most of the mystery and science fiction magazines, but the vagaries of the postal service put a kibosh on that. Covers and contents torn, irregular delivery, and fully one-third of the issues never got to me. Now I subscribe only to Locus and have only had one issue go missing in the past few years. (The postal system recently decided my change of address form was evidently invalid; they took back mail addressed to my old address and resent it to my old address [!], evidently continuing this pattern several times with the same piece of mail. Then somebody will smarten up and bundle a whole pile of mail with a handwritten note giving my new address, That is how I received a bill this past Saturday that was due in the beginning of October. I tried to contact everyone with my new address, but somehow there are always a few that fall through the cracks or that I forget completely about. Now I have a lot of calls and apologies to make. Ptah!)
As for magazines now, I tend to read old ones on the internet. This week I read two early issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Summer 1950 and Fall 1950). Those early issues edited by Boucher and McComas, and then by Boucher alone, are true gems.
I continued reading assorted short stories through most of the week and finished Bill Pronzini & Martin H. Greenberg’s anthology PRIME SUSPCTS, Thomas Godfrey’s MURDER FOR CHRISTMAS, VOLUME II, F. Paul Wilson’s SOFT AND OTHERS — all fairly worthwhile. My FFB was ARTIFACT by Kevin J. Anderson, Janet Berliner, Matthew J. Costello, and F. Paul Wilson; a disappointing read with a few decent parts.
Then on Saturday, my resolve to read short stories went out the window when Lee Child’s latest, BLUE MOON, came in from the library. This one was over the top (even for a Reacher) but the prose just pulled me along to the finish. Reacher finds himself against two rival gangs — one Ukrainian and one Albanian — for the control of a city. The body count is laughably high but, as I said, Child pulls it off.
Have a great week, Rick!
My mother and father used to subscribe to over a dozen magazines when I was a kid. LIFE, TIME, NEWSWEEK, SATURDAY EVENING POST, READER’S DIGEST, LOOK, etc. I subscribed to SF magazines for years: AMAZING, FANTASTIC, GALAXY, IF, WORLDS OF TOMORROW, and LOCUS. Today, I only subscribe to LOCUS, MYSTERY SCENE, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS, and THE ATLANTIC. ILLUSTRATION looks tempting…
Keep in mind I have a Master’s in Fine Art, George, so a magazine like this about illustration art is right up my alley. We also subscribe to MYSTERY SCENE, QUILTING, FINE GARDENING.
My folks subscribed to SATURDAY EVENING POST, LOOK and LIFE as well as LADIES HOME JOURNAL and the other typical magazine of the time. My first magazine subscription was for ASTOUNDING.
I get Mystery Scene and Deadly Pleasures, we get Consumer Reports and National Geographic. I am bad about keeping all of them and never getting rid of them though.
I just finished reading This Gun for Hire by Graham Greene (also known as A Gun for Sale), which is set at Christmas. And I am now reading Cold Light by John Harvey, part of the Charlie Resnick series, and also set at Christmas. Neither of them are very upbeat, of course.
We share out our Mystery Scene copies after we’ve read them, so it’s only Barbara’s quilting magazines that are kept. I’ve read all of the Resnick books, liked them, but not upbeat, as you say.
I get 4 or 5 modeling magazines.
I have picked up a few issues of ILLUSTRATION, from the years I had more discretionary income…they do what they do very well. SIGHT AND SOUND and the French original (I believe) of PHOTO, as well.
These days, I tend to pick up F&SF, ASIMOV’S, EQMM, AHMM, IOWA REVIEW, THE STRAND, FICTION, usually PLOUGHSHARES, occasional WORLD LITERATURE TODAYs, MYSTERY SCENEs, LOCUSes, ANALOGs and INTERZONEs, HARPER’S and THE NEW YORKER via subscription, Alice is currently taking THE NATION, and will pick up THE PROGRESSIVE, JAZZ TIMES, and DOWNBEAT from time to time.