I’m a huge fun of the game-themed book bundles that Simon Carless curates for StoryBundle — I’ve happily bought every single one of them, even though I still have plenty to read. A new one came out this past week, and I’d say it’s even extra special as it’s themed around my friend Joseph White‘s Pico-8 fantasy console. On top of including the full Pico-8 development software and the 4 issues released so far of the excellent Pico-8 Zine, it’s also a fine selection of great game-related reads — I’m currently reading the Super Mario Bros. 3 book from Boss Fight Books (one of my favorite imprints), while I’m actually playing the game again on my NES Classic Edition. Make sure to grab the bundle before it expires.
Category: Magazines
Kawa
Kawa is a beautiful zine produced as part of the Neko Box subscription service, and comes included in packages you receive from them. It acts as a curated guide of spots to check out in Tokyo. This Canvas post shows it off nicely.
“Don’t Stare at Naked People” is a new illustrated piece created for Singapore-based magazine Kult by Mr. Papriko, a Swiss illustrator and graphic designer who runs a studio in Tokyo and Switzerland. Found via Canvas.
Idea 375
Idea is a fantastic magazine about typography and graphic design, and it’s one of the rare Japanese publications that is entirely bilingual (English/Japanese). The latest issue covers the work of graphic designer Koichi Sato. Lucky for you, my buddy Ian‘s Wordshape webstore sells copies. It may sound pricey ($50, including shipping), but each issue of Idea is massive, and features beautiful paper stock. Think of it like getting a beautiful new book.
Issue 8 of Singles Club — a fantastic subscription service I’m just discovering that releases vinyl singles that have a track on one side, and an interview with the creators talking about the project on the other — features a collaboration between Dustin Wong and Takako Minekawa, and you can listen to a track (“Payapaya”) and read quite a bit about their collaborations in this feature. Quite interesting to hear what Minekawa’s been up to of late. Found via Patrick Benny.
If you dig into the archives of this site, you’ll find tons of posts about my relationship with Audrey and Yoshi, previously of OK Fred magazine (from where we spun off Radio OK Fred) and now Too Much magazine. The latest issue is all about climber Naoki Ishikawa, and while at the Tokyo Art Book Fair (September 16-19) this weekend (at booth E-22), they’ll offer up a poster with a purchase of the issue. Ishikawa will be on hand to sign copies on Saturday at 15:00.
The Tokyoiter is a fictional tribute to the great covers of The New Yorker, done as a project to celebrate the love illustrators have for the city of Tokyo. It was started by a couple of friends of mine, Andrew Joyce and David Robert, along with Tatsushi Eto. A new cover is shared on the site every Sunday, and you can watch this PechaKucha presentation to hear Andrew and David talk about the project. The cover in this post is by Tilly (aka Running for Crayons).
This post serves as a reminder that W. David Marx has continued to support his fantastic book, Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style, since release through the Ametora Dispatches monthly newsletter — with each missive including an essay and links of interest — as well as footnotes to the book, that he posts on Medium (here are the footnotes for Chapter 4, and you’ll find the rest in the “Ametora Extended” collection). The Japanese edition of the book (out in July of next year) now has a page on Amazon Japan, and a monthly serialization in Popeye magazine is starting in this month’s issue (September 2016).
As I go through my site’s archives, I’m reminded of how much I loved annual digital short film festivals — like Resfest and Onedotzero. Most of these don’t exist anymore, but one that still continues with its annual showing is Shift magazine‘s Dotmov, with the 2016 edition about to hit the road. Although the best experience remains attending one in a hall/theater with an audience, a great development that’s happened over the years is that you can now watch all of these online as well (you’ll find links to all of this year’s Dotmov films here).