AustLit

The first issue of Comment was published in September 1940. Edited by Cecily Crozier, the magazine declared that it would 'put into print the newest ideas in writing and design.' A year later an editorial claimed that Comment 'offer[s] . . . reading of a type not found in any other Australian publication, and we give Australia's writers and designers an opportunity of having published work that other more popular magazines find unprofitable to print.' These comments coincided with a call for subscriptions because the magazine was running at a loss. But despite a low circulation, Comment ran for another six years.

Comment promoted experimentation, publishing the work of some of Australia's most prominent modernists of the 1940s, including Max Harris, Adrian Lawlor and Alister Kershaw. The work of the visiting Americans Karl Shapiro and Harry Roskolenko also appeared regularly in Comment, raising awareness of artistic developments in the United States. The international interests of the magazine also extended to European literature, supporting translations of Kafka, Baudelaire and Maupassant.

Comment continued to run at a loss, forcing Crozier and others to pay production costs. The additional one hundred and fifty subscribers required to continue production were not found after Crozier's plea for more subscribers in early 1947. In the Winter issue, Crozier announced that it would be the last for 'some time' and offered subscribers a refund for the remaining issues of 1947. She suggested alternately that subscribers could wait until the reappearance of Comment in the future, remaining hopeful of changing fortunes. But the Winter issue of 1947 remained the last.