Nakamura and Giant Robot co-founder Martin Wong will be appearing at the Los Angeles Public Library at 2 p.m. Dec. 15 as part of the LA Made Presents series.
Giant Robot co-founders Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong hold up a copy of “Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian American Pop Culture” at the 2024 San Diego Comic-Con. “Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian American Pop Culture,”The short answer is, you can’t.
“It’s not in one place, that’s impossible. You just find bits and pieces on social media. That’s all it is,” says L.A.-based Nakamura on a recent video call.For more about new books, bestsellers and authors, get the free Book Pages newsletter In 1994, Nakamura founded Giant Robot as a zine, a DIY effort made with the help of friends who contributed articles and helped staple together the initial run of issues. “I was looking at other magazines out there and thinking, Wow, I don’t have the budget for that, but I can make a zine as thick as a magazine,” he recalls. “That was kind of the idea, making something as bold and thick. I think the first Giant Robot was 68 pages. It was actually pretty substantial.” As the popularity of these homemade magazines grew in the middle of the 1990s, so did Giant Robot’s profile. Early on, copies landed in the racks at Tower Records. “They could take you international because there were Towers overseas,” Nakamura recalls, surmising thatAnd the magazine itself grew in both production value — from photocopied, black and white pages to slick full-color — and scope of content. With a focus on Asian and Asian American pop culture and a punk rock attitude, Giant Robot was unique, even amongst the slew of independent publications that emerged from the same era. Today, you could easily rattle off a litany of names who were championed by Giant Robot before mainstream U.S. outlets caught on, like the artists Takashi Murakami and Yoshitomo Nara, author Giant Robot became a source for a wide range of subjects, from Hong Kong action films to anime to indie rock to art. “We were just fans,” says Nakamura. “I think it all comes from being a fan of something, and I think that having a magazine was sort of a license to be this superfan.” Plus, stories on travel, food and history often appeared in Giant Robot, always with a point-of-view that was unique amongst the publications of its time. “It was always just from a different perspective,” Nakamura says. “I guess Giant Robot was technically a job, but it was always more than a job. It was seriously curation by just our personal interests and I think that’s one thing that’s different about the magazine, the constant evolution of our interests.”that the magazine’s appeal wasn’t just the subjects they covered, but how they were covered them. The travel pieces weren’t just lists of so-called “hidden gems” and the food stories weren’t designed to make a hole-in-the-wall restaurant go viral. The writing was honest — blunt, even — and if something smelled off-putting, Giant Robot writers would tell you. That’s not how things are done in the age of influencers when what’s pushed to the top of your recommendations is designed to be aspirational, not real. “Things don’t smell,” says Nakamura, of what’s left out of today’s content. “They might not tell the exact truth. If they do, then it’s probably a less popular TikTok. The pretty ones are more popular.”“I always felt like I was on the outside of that culture looking in because I was just a fan and in the moment doing things,” says Nakamura. “It’s hard to imagine that I was part of a culture doing that. I always feel like I was on the outside of it looking in and making a magazine that was looking at it and studying it, but not really in it. But I think we were in it too.” The final issue of Giant Robot hit the streets in 2011, but the magazine’s ethos continues. Nakamura still operates the“For me, doing the shops was just as vital for me as doing the magazine. It’s just as fun and I still am the buyer, so I am picking all of the products. I curate a lot of the art shows and I keep the ball rolling there,” says Nakamura. “I think Giant Robot, in that way, continues on because it’s part of the vision I have and it evolves over time,” says Nakamura. “To this day, it keeps evolving. I find that I might be interested in something different and the things in the store will change just a little bit, but the store is still kind of in my image.”in 2022. Lately, though, people have been asking Nakamura if he would bring back the magazine. It’s something that he has considered even prior to the release of the book. “A few times a week, I think about it,” he says. “It just pops into my head all the time. It’s just a matter of doing it.”Franklin fire in Malibu Canyon swells to 2,600 acres, damaging homes, prompting evacuationsLos Angeles has the nation’s No. 1 economy by countyRobin Williams’ former Topanga Canyon home hits the market for $1.8 millionGabriel Fernandez, 8, was tortured to death. His mother didn’t like her life sentence. This is what a judge had to say. Gabriel Fernandez, 8, was tortured to death. His mother didn’t like her life sentence. This is what a judge had to say.Who is Luigi Mangione, arrested in connection with shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson?Tested positive for python? DNA tests will reveal where hard-to-find snakes are
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