Out now: The Loop

With everything getting Christmassy, what better time for a new kid’s magazine?

The Loop comes in tabloid newspaper format on high-quality white newsprint stock. The format is great for its audience – there’s nothing precious about it. It can be pulled apart and can easily be drawn on/coloured in.

As well as some good-looking comic strips (this one by Mili Bannerjee), it has plenty of writing, and deals with issues affecting youngsters – difference is dealt with by this wonderfully headlined piece (below).

It looks great – the design is colourful and smart, and includes plenty of strong illustration. The edible masks feature (above) pulls off that slightly daft-but cute trick that kids like. And any magazine that recommends seeing ‘Edward Scissorhands’ is a winner for me. Less sure about the rave review for the Stingray theme music, but liked the guitar cats (below, by Mathilde Aubier) that illustrated the review.

The Loop is a surprise bag full of different things, it’s refreshingly open and uninhibited about doing what it wants rather than being too self-consciously ‘kiddy’. Like Anorak it avoids all branded kids characters which is always a win. The written parts could perhaps be a little less dense to appeal to kids – some of the pages are a little too Ladybird book – but it’s a good first issue and I hope it turns up in plenty of kids’ stockings this Christmas