Giant Robot magazine has been a fixture in my bathroom since 2001.  That’s a compliment since only the finest reading material makes it there regularly (its pretty much the only place I read).  Giant Robot is basically a magazine that covers “cool aspects of Asian and Asian-American pop culture”.  I was first introduced to the magazine by my good friend “Perry” in the late 90’s.  What caught my attention wasn’t the magazine itself, but rather a Giant Robot tee he was wearing.  The shirt had an image of a sun-glass laced Bruce Lee, hovering over a Technics 1200.  Being a DJ back then, the 1200 immediately caught my eye, but throw in Bruce Lee and the words “Giant Robot” and I had to find out more.  I bought a few issues and eventually signed up for a regular subscription.

I just renewed my subscription last week and it arrived today.  With each subscription renewal, I pick up a tee.  This is what I got this time:

If you can, check out the magazine at your local book shop and pick it up.  Although you can get a lot of the material on the web, nothing beats the tangible, printed copy.  With the great artwork, the cool ads, the ability to bring it to the can, although its a dying medium, support print if you can, especially for the publications with great content.  Click here to find out more about them!

In terms of content, the guys at Giant Robot are top notch.  I’m not sure if they’re always the first, but they introduced me to a lot of cool shit before it exploded.  I first learned of vinyl figure pioneer Michael Lau and artist Takashi Murakami from them in 2001.  This was a time when vinyl toys (outside of Asia) were nothing more than rubber duckies and before Louis Vuitton x Murakami candy coloured bags were the key accessory.  They also introduced me to the works of Kaws, James Jarvis and Masakatsu Sashie back when their works were affordable.  When I went through my Japanese gore film phase, I first learned of Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer, etc.) and Yoshihiro Nishimura (Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl, Tokyo Gore Police, etc) from them as well.  In short, these guys know their shit and are routinely way ahead of the curve.

 

I also wanted to note that although I don’t know the Giant Robot crew personally, I think they’re also pretty good guys.  When I first started Boutiqueoeuff, I contacted them to see if they’d be interested in stocking some of my figures in their shops.  They were very responsive, personal, helpful and encouraging.  They probably don’t remember, but the day they wrote me back with their support, it was like I won the lottery.  They didn’t have to do that for a small, unknown upstart like me (others would simply ignore me or give me the finger).  Unfortunately Boutiqueoeuff is still trying to lift off, but I’ll never forget their support.

This is their logo.

Here is my Giant Robot Inspired Oueff.