August 13, 2014
Greetings,
I invite members of Fountain Pen Board to consider subscribing to a brand new print magazine for pen collectors, Fountain Pen Journal, founded and edited (among other functions) by my friend Paul Erano. I've created this niche forum at Fountain Pen Board to facilitate chat about articles from the magazine, with the first issue likely ready for printing within the next couple weeks.
Amazingly, we've managed to score the domain name consistent with the mag's name, fountainpenjournal.com The website is active, though still in quite rough form. The Journal website will host the famous secret group, the Black Pen Society. A gentle paywall will be implemented in time, allowing subscribers access to supplementary information for some of the pen articles, to older articles that had been offered elsewhere by some of our authors, and perhaps archived PDFs of old EQPR and FPJ, once hard copy back issues are sold out.
Paul's written credits in our hobby include at least:
- Author of best selling collecting guide Fountain Pens Past and Present
- Owner/Editor of EQPR: Erano's Quarterly Pen Review
- Contributing writer to Pen World International, Stylus Magazine and PENnant Magazine
- Editor Emeritus of PENnant Magazine, during a particularly successful run
Fountain Pen Journal embraces the trappings of a fancy glossy magazine, while maintaining the grounded narrative of the old EQPR. The use of "Journal" leaves open many paths.
With Paul's exit from PENnant and founding of Fountain Pen Journal, many regular contributors pf articles to pen magazines and online message boards have stepped up to the plate, expressing interest in writing for FPJ, including at least the following (please contact me if you would like to be added to the list or have been listed in error).
- Paul Erano
- David Isaacson
- Nicholas Ayo
- John Danza
- Pete Sacopolous
- Rick Krantz
- Roger Wooten
- Michael McNeil
The first issue, due out soon, offers the following content:
- Introduction to Wahl-Eversharp's Equi-Poised.
- Peter Miller remembered
- The Black Pen Society
- The Pens of Paul Duclos
- ... and more...
Fountain Pen Journal is very pleased to have lured to the project graphic designer Francine Conn, who produced the PCA's Pennant Magazine for 12 years.
The website and the magazine, along perhaps with this forum at FPB, will offer synergy for pen collectors interested in the material found in the magazine. Podcasts, links to and from Facebook groups and a close relationship to the Black Pen Society should spice the soup.
Subscriptions will run $25 per year (3 issues) with special website access included. The mag is being started on a shoestring budget, but still will offer a full color glossy magazine, with potential to grow as the subscription base increases. By word of mouth alone at the Washington DC Supershow last weekend, many people signed up.
In a gesture of faith in a mag that has yet to see its first issue in print, several advertisers have ponied up year contracts for the available three covers (front inner, back outer and inner), something that other pen hobby mags have not managed to do the last few years. Thanks to Bert Oser of Bertram's Inkwell, Syd Saperstein of the rebooted Wahl-Eversharp and Richard Greenwald (plastics, pen parts, repairs) of http://www.richardlgreenwald.com . Other interior advertising has been claimed as well.
Time will tell if Fountain Pen Journal thrives. Offering Paul's proven approach to pen commentary and offering an alternative to cranky committee-managed niche hobby mags, I suspect readers truly will enjoy.
link-Fountain Pen Journal-link
regards
David