Martin Wong and Eric Nakamura of Giant Robot magazine
I have been a freak for magazines for a long, long time. My love for mags is varied: I’ve been a subscriber to high-brow magazines like Walrus and when I was in my twenties I couldn’t get enough of Big Brother (the skateboard magazine that also birthed crazy ‘reality TV’ like Jackass). These days I’ve sought out some unusual or lesser-known items on the newstand: Toronto’s Spacing magazine, a seemingly defunct mag called ‘Russia!’ and this amazing ‘zine’ called “Giant Robot,” which has really captured my imagination. It’s done that rare thing – which is engage me and stoke my imagination about things I really don’t care about. Yes, you heard me right. It’s like what I used to tell people about reading GQ or Esquire. The writing was so great that you can read about people or topics which are novel or normally not of interest, and be totally into it.
So it’s a compliment to the founders, Martin Wong and Eric Nakamura, two Asian-American guys with business savvy and a love for quirky pop-culture, that they have created something that appeals to me so much. The recent issue had, for example, articles about homelessness in Japan, grind-core metal bands, and the varied uses of bamboo in art and fashion. The ads are for plastic toys like the ‘Ugly Dolls’ and video games that I’ve never heard of and I’m likely never to play – but it’s all so cool and FRESH.
Funky fanzine fun. Check out the magazine and this interview with Eric and Martin in the NY Times:
http://www.giantrobot.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/05/arts/design/05GIAN.html?8hpib
