Here are his responses. This thing sounds like it could be beneficial as well as interesting! I am on the list, and I would suggest anyone interested get on his list as well. He says more info coming in January.
Message from "Richard"
Hi Mike, thanks for your interest in the magazine. The magazine will be called The Tommy Gun Collector, it will be a 32 page full colour magazine with many in depth articles with many photos. The articles will be designed for the collector to give some back ground information with interesting details then many photos of collectible items related to the topic. As an example, in the first issue one of the articles is on drum pouches and I have been gathering photos of all the variations produced that I can find,be it either by materials or by manufacturer or if it is US made or foreign etc this will allow the collector to know how many variations exist if they want to try to collect them all, plus it will show all the markings clearly so it will give a reference for the new collector to not get stuck with repros. The magazine will be broken down into 6 article sections of which 1 article per issue will be written, the areas are, first: Gun use - Police / FBI / Gangsters / special army units etc, in this area there will be history stories of these units plus some visits to some of these people who still maintain there Thompson's. The second section is: Technical - this area will focus on the history of military field modifications plus a detailed look at the model differences as well as other current tech info from dealers / gunsmiths such as Richardson in CA. The third section is: Dealer / Sales - this area will focus on dealers who sold Thompson's over the years such as Peter Von Frantzius etc the fourth area is: Accessories - this is, simply all accessories ever made. The fifth area is: Ammunition - the history of all the ammo ever made and used with Thompson's and the final area is: Paper - this will cover all the literature, manuals/posters/books/photos etc. I am also going to add perhaps a additional area which will be on Thompson's in movies and all the movie collectibles. The rest of the magazine will be dealer ads plus classifieds ads which will give a new place for collectors to be able to buy and sell since Ebay keeps pulling Thompson items! also there will be a "New item" area which will allow people who produce new items such as good reproduction rare items etc to place info on their products. There will also be an event area to list where any Thompson displays may be showing up plus Thompson shoots etc. and the last area will be what I call the "photo album" this is an area for people to submit original vintage photos of soldiers/police etc holding Thompson's. I hope you can relay some of this info to people because I am looking for some people who may be interested in submitting articles plus any dealers who want some ad space and some private people looking to buy or sell items and also very important, I need people to send clear photos of items they have which my circle of collectors do not have which may be a variation of an accessory not known. I will send you more info in the early New Year plus I am working on the website to promote the magazine.
Thanks,
Richard Garcia
HI again Mike, I forgot to mention the magazine will be bi-monthly (an issue every two months) and I am hoping it will be available at some of the larger shows plus on the shelves at some gun dealers and anywhere else someone may be interested in distributing some copies and of course on the net.
Thanks, have a great Holidays!!!
Richard
