Although each issue is paper-thin (30 pgs. average), they somehow manage to get a whole lot of stuff in there. How? Only four pages of ads. (its a non-profit company) They also manage, every month, to get articles about high-profile Christian athletes, high-profile Christian bands, a few other things, and a slew of intelligent and well-thought-out departments (fixtures) into thirty pages. At your house. For less than two bucks. Every month. How neat.
These departments are:-letters-"Hey Mike!" its basically Dear Abby gone good.-"Rebel Tonic Toads" A usually fictitional, kind of offbeat page.-"Cross Training" Excercises-"Truth Encounter" Micheal Ross (aka Hey, Mike) tackles things like the evolution theory and how the media controls your mind. Usually the article that you have think about. A lot.-"High Voltage" Basically, people writing in, asking, "Is this CD OK?""Is this movie OK?""What do you think about...." To my suprise, it wasn't a relentless bashing of questionable bands (Evanescense), or bands that have explicit lyrics (Stand). Bob Smithouser basically lays down the pros and cons of the band, movie, whatever, and then says yes or no.-Reader stuff: "Toon corner" Write, draw, create a cartoon with some Biblical meaning, and if they print it, you get fifty bucks. "Tune In" Write a CD review of a Christian CD, and if they print it, you get twenty-five bucks.
But, yes, there is a reason that I gave this only four stars. If you tried, you could rifle through this in about an hour. Perhaps they add on ten pages a month.....and then maybe more....but it probably won't happen and it doesn't really need to, but it would be cool. Also, its kinda hard to have a story about an athlete (which is a long story in itself) who has faith (which is usually a long story in itself) on two pages.
My last words: this is a great magazne for Christian teenage guys. However, the magazine could be thicker, and their scope of bands could be wider (hardly ever straying past the line of relient K, Rebecca St. James, delirious, etc., there's a lot more Chritian bands out there: check out punkreviews.com, they're all Christian bands), along with the length of their stories; but this is a great investment, and still above average (which I consider three stars). I suggest that you subscribe in the very near future.-crf
