Muse is a children's magazine published by Carus Publishing, the publishers of Cricket. Launched in January 1997, it is published in Chicago, Illinois, and has readers throughout the United States and around the world. From 1997 to 2006, it was published in collaboration between Cricket and Smithsonian. Recommended for ages nine and above, it features articles about science, history, and the arts. Nine cartoon characters, known as the Muses, used to appear in the margins throughout the magazine as well as in the Kokopelli & Company comic strip. Muse now has a comic named "Parallel U" that replaced Muse's muses, featuring new characters, as well as new content and a different layout, as they recently joined with a sister magazine, Odyssey.
Contents
Magazine contents
Muse is published nine times annually. Each issue contains a comic strip ("Parallel U") written by Caanan Grall, letters from readers (Muse Mail), a facts page (Muse News), a contest, a question-and-answer page written by Lizzie Wade, a page about technology, and articles on various topics. Past issues have included articles about vegetarianism, pie throwing, extraterrestrial life, naked mole-rats, the origin of the moon, pirates, urban legends, insects, mummies, tenrecs, the history of napkins, contacting ghosts, New Zealand's exploding trousers, Rube Goldberg inventions, The Lord of the Rings, and blind cavefish.
Muses
The Muses were drawn by cartoonist Larry Gonick. Among them, only Urania was one of the original Greek muses; Kokopelli, a trickster, is a god in many native American tribes.
As of September 2015, the Muses have been removed from the magazine, replaced with a new comic called Parallel U drawn by Caanan Grall.