Torsgad December 8, 2022 Artists Anonymous

     I've been going through a big box of old RAVEN issues this past week that someone found in the attic of their garage, and it's really been a stroll down memory lane, just ask the wife. 

     I was able to compile a few whole volumes of copies which I've given away to a few close friends who were latent to its introduction; and many more partial volumes, that I'll be giving to the Roseau Historical Society & Museum in Roseau for dispersal, as agreed. (I won't just dump them at their door and run.) 

     And speaking of dumping, in all my years as a home waste recycler in Roseau County, I've never seen a single RAVEN issue in the dumpsters. Yes, of course, they may have been used as fire starters or litter box liners as I suggested they be used, before the term 'repurposed' came into vogue you're right, but I prefer to think that subscribers copies of Time, Newsweek, and even favorite Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition issues will see the innards of a recycling plant shredder long before dog-eared and coffee-stained copies of THE RAVEN: Northwest Minnesota's Original Art, History & Humor Journal will, I just know it ...

    Using RAVEN color-edition proof copies that have been just laying here acquiring odors that my wife complains 'smell like the basement,' I managed to assemble many various volume collections still suitable for reading -- although she adamantly poo-pooed the idea, reiterating the fact that people don't read magazines except on their phones, "No one does that anymore!" she tried hammering into me, unsuccessfully.

    "Well somebody does and it's that somebody or two I'm hoping picks one up at the museum -- or reads at the cafe in Wannaska as I dropped a few copies off there too," I wheezed.

    As I walked into the Fickle Pickle yesterday, copies in hand, I told them, "I ain't tryin' to sell anything! I was just cleaning out a spot in the basement and happened onto a few of these old copies of THE RAVEN, thinkin' you might need to start fires or change litter box liners in the coming days..."

     So was our sales pitch. Chairman Joe and I never had the viewpoint that anybody should ever want to read our magazine. Instead we took on a cautionary viewpoint as I, late in our tenure as rural magazine publishers, finally figured out didn't exactly sell our product. Neither of us wanted to endure refusal or disparaging remarks about our obviously insane proposal that they read, buy or sell THE RAVEN for us. 

     So we developed a drop and run approach that got a RAVEN or two into the hands or onto counter of a place of business, and then awaited later contact rather than call back or revisit the scene of our crime in person; we let THE RAVENS do the talking. But even so, when people responded over-the-top positive about it and insisted we take money for advertising or subscriptions we thought they were joking! I kid you not. 

     Meanwhile, composition and layout went on without a lot of public splore; the four of us just assumed our roles as "Artists Anonymous."