What happens to journalism students after they graduate from university and can no longer take their school newspaper hostage? We hope they don’t stick around like creepy aging hipsters in the student council offices. In the case of the editors at Warrior Magazine, now moving into its 2nd year of production, the didn’t-they got on with their lives, stepped up and put together a really eclectic and admirable magazine. I’ve been watching Warrior magazine bloom and grow and elevate its profile from Montreal, and it is becoming a formidable threat to-or, dare I say-panacea for the sometimes drivel-infested world of self-made crapola. Andrew Hunter, a Warrior editor, notes that the magazine has a print run of 5000 copies, primarily distributed in Montreal with additional distro in San Francisco, New York, and Manchester. Released in September 2004, Warrior was originally conceived as a monthly, but the team changed its mind and settled on a more manageable quarterly release.
With a talented layout and design by artistic director Tony Trew, the mag gets some of its more original aesthetic ideas to Warrior from Rebecca Fortin. The magazine recently raised its profile with contributing editor Aaron Mate’s interview with Naomi Klein. The current issue’s masterpiece is by Chester R. Powercloud. “Horsefeathers and Poppycock: The Peculiar Practices of Scientology, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam” is at times offensive and hilarious. But beyond these essentials of celebrity profile and hot topical action, the magazine is eye catching, designed to be pawed at, and smells good too. This full colour, full-throttle magazine is no longer free-a great move if they want to avoid extinction. Says Hunter, “as much as we would like to keep circulating Warrior for free, we have found that it would simply be unsustainable in its current form. If we were to reduce the print run and overhaul the design, perhaps by printing on newsprint, and using less colour we could do it, but these are changes we simply aren’t willing to make.”
As for the Warrior mandate, “it’s still evolving,” Hunter says. “It makes me think of pools of genetic goop scientist believe life emerged from.” If you want to buy, subscribe, contribute to the magazine, write: (Nathaniel G. Moore)
Zine, 15 Mont- Royal W., #110, Montreal, QC, H2T 2R9, http://www.warriormagazine.org