CLiNT #1 cover image

CLiNT is a new magazine published by Titan Magazines and edited by hugely popular comic book writer, Mark Millar, prince of Kick-Ass and Marvel Comics’ Civil War and Ultimate X-Men.  In his editorial/introduction to CLiNT #1, Millar describes the magazine as a “boys comic” in the tradition of 2000AD (among others).  Well, CLiNT offers comics, but the emphasis on celebrity in this magazine will not appeal to boys.  CLiNT is about Mark Millar and is aimed at people interested in Mark Millar.  So CLiNT may be a “Mark Millar’s boyz comic.”  Anyway…

The first issue of CLiNT reminds me of Film Threat, the short-lived, rebellious, indie film magazine (which has been web-based only for over a decade), in that CLiNT is a professional publication, but wants to be semi-pro.  CLiNT mixes comics with short feature articles, tongue-in-cheek interviews, and some Mark Millar-related advertisements.  The layout is awkward and amateurish, but that gives the mag a zing, which a magazine like Entertainment Weekly and its cookie cutter layout, lacks.

Of course, CLiNT is really about the comics.  First up is an 8-page segment from Kick-Ass 2, and I suspect that many (like me) will be angry that there isn’t more, because what is here is good.  Next up is Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards’ ridiculous Prohibition era-NYC-set, vampire, alien, gangster comic, Turf.  Well, it sounds ridiculous, but every time the phone rang and interrupted my reading of Turf, I wanted to go gangster of the caller.  Next, Rex Royd by Frankie Boyle, Jim Muir, and Michael Dowling is like Brian Bendis and Mike Oeming’s Powers, a post-Watchmen superhero comic book that wants to be like Watchmen.  It’s not bad, but I’m not interested.

CLiNT offers the entirety of Nemesis #1 (the comics part anyway), Mark Millar and Steve McNiven’s super villain comic book.  Didn’t DC Comics start referring to Batman as “the Most Dangerous Man in the World?”  Nemesis is Batman as the most dangerous man in the world, and he kills cops.  I love it.  “Hew Edwards Presents Space Oddities” rounds out the comics.  It’s a nutty little horror comic that seems like it came out of a comic book printed by comiXpress.  It’s actually a nice little… oddity.

The rest of the magazine is a collection of odd articles, like “Charles Manson’s Secret Hollywood Death List” (Steve McQueen boiled in oil?!) and “The Chinese Tom Cruise” (about voice dub actors).  The Christopher Mintz-Plasse question and answer section is designed to make readers cringe, but is funny in a sad-we-laughed-at-that way.  I suppose we can expect stuff like this from future issues of CLiNT, but as long as the comics are good, the magazine will be worth it.

B+

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