Joker Magazine

Contact

Joker

Dunajska 5, SI-1000 Ljubljana

http://joker.si/

joker@joker.si

Phone386 (0) 59 089 935

Published byAlpress d.o.o.

Frequency12 numbers per year

After 25 years and 291 editions, the magazine was shut down in November 2017.

Archival article

Joker Magazine is a monthly magazine on gaming culture, first published back in 1992 and continuously in print since 1993. Initially set to review video games, its creative editing turned it into a magazine of a much broader horizon and even a cultural phenomena by itself. Though the magazine is centred on video games and current developments in computer technology, contents such as film reviews, book critiques, short stories, comics and so on are Joker's integral part.

Boasting a sizeable community of readership, Joker hosts a lively web forum for all kinds of debates called Mn3njalnik and publishes monthly DVD's with demo games and software.

Distinctive features

Almost since its inception, Joker has been developing an idiosyncratic and quirky humour as well as a recognisable visual style. The humour, often subtle as well as crass and profane, is usually executed in an over-the-top manner. Its very distinctive trait are various neologisms, archaic words and (too-)literal translations, some of which began to have a life outside of the magazine's pages. The Joker's creamteam writers are Sneti, LordFebo, Aggressor and Kavbojc.

Since 1995 Joker has been collaborating with the comic book artist Primož Bertoncelj, who creates monthly comics as well as provides illustrations for the magazine. The comics are of a rather surreal nature, with a strong penchant for the absurd.

Aside from the aforementioned film and book reviews the magazine publishes occasional short stories and, for example, collaborates with the well known writer, translator and comedian Boštjan Gorenc. One can also find articles on different cultural matters as well as historical overviews of various gaming culture phenomena.

Cultural impact

Especially in the other half of the 1990s Joker was the only Slovene media that dealt with fantasy literature. It published reviews as well as profiles of authors from the genre. As such it played a strong role in facilitating the community of readers.

Of a somewhat similar nature was Joker's crucial role in introducing board games such as Magic: The Gathering and (to a lesser degree) Warhammer 40,000. Board games coverage still remain its forte.

The magazine was involved in publishing the first Slovene film on DVD, namely Vinci Vogue Anžlovar's Poker.

External links

• Joker website (in Slovenian)
• Joker Magazine on Wikipedia