‘Symbolia’ Comics Magazine Calls It Quits After Current Issue

Symbolia magazine, the digital comics journalism brainchild of Erin Polgreen (editor and publisher) and Joyce Rice (creative director), just announced that their current issue will be their last. The issue just released is titled "The Future" and sadly marks the end of the magazine's two year run.

When Symbolia began two years ago, the landscape for comics was very different. Particularly when it came to comics journalism (in this case meaning journalism in the form of comics, not journalism about comics), Symbolia's mission was an ambitious one.

Throughout the magazine's run, the creators have kept up a long list of diverse creators and offered perspectives on many different issues ranging from science to politics and everything in between. In a time where women were often struggling to claim their place in the industry, Symbolia was run by two women and employed many cartoonists of any gender, including many women.

As the Symbolia leaders point out in their recently released statement to subscribers about the magazine closure, when the magazine launched it would've been hard to predict that places like Harper's and The New Yorker would be running comics-format journalism alongside traditional journalism and fiction, yet today that's a reality. Their statement also said:

A lot has changed since we launched Symbolia. It’s been an amazing two years, and we couldn’t be prouder. We’ve helped to both legitimize an industry and change the way people think about what journalism can be. We never dreamed that we would work with organizations like American Public Media, Tumblr, and the Showtime documentary series Years of Living Dangerously to create amazing visual narratives.

 

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With a little bit of sadness and a lot of excitement for new beginnings, we’re writing today to tell you that THE FUTURE, Symbolia’s latest issue, will be our last. Symbolia has published hundreds of pages of illustrated journalism in the past two years and launched the careers of some incredible artists. Our community has been amazingly supportive from day one and we’re incredibly grateful.

 

The statement also includes instructions for current subscribers who may need assistance with refunds or the like. The magazine had a really solid run and will undoubtedly be remembered for its quality journalism and the various comics creators who contributed excellent work there. Best wishes to Polgreen and Rice on their future endeavors.