printfetish

Arkitip or Visionaire?

2010-03-03T15:55:32Z

I find that actually, if you know about one, you usually don't even know that the other exists. Both do curated, limited edition projects incorporating interesting packaging, printing and/or accompanying objects. Arkitip is usually very affordable (the current issue is $25.00) while Visionaire's price is a bit extreme ($295.00 for the current issue), which is specifically meant to express the magazine as "luxury" item. But which is more successful creatively? Maybe your choice depends on what your aesthetic is - if your a fashion person, an art world person, a street art person?

Desert Island, Brooklyn

2010-03-02T16:49:59Z

I finally went to check out Desert Island in Brooklyn - probably the most mouth watering comi(x)cs store in New York city, the church of of the print fetishist! Desert Island is Printed Matter's playful cousin, focusing on indie comics, art zines, prints and artists books. Like Printed Matter, the selection is impeccable, making it difficult to not spend money. Of course, even my broke ass had to buy stuff - but I also got a couple of awesome freebies, like Smoke Signal, a spectacular tabloid-sized collection of beautiful drawings and comics. smoke signal at the printer! PF favorite Luke Ramsey in Smoke Signal #1 I don't know when and where I've seen a better comics compendium in the last few years. Getting a FREE copy of Smoke Signal is enough reason to trek out to Desert Island - but I dare you to not find something worth buying. Desert Island is located at 540 Metropolitan Ave., Brooklyn NY 11211

Put A Egg On It

2010-02-24T19:35:20Z

Dear PF readers, Ms. Keough and I are trying to raise the printing fee for the second issue of our zine, Put A Egg On It, so please visit our fund raising page and pledge a few bucks! If you pledge $10, you get the first two issues mailed to you... or pledge more and receive some other awesome gifts! We've been working on our own print projects, which has kept us from posting - but as soon as we put this puppy to bed, we'll be back with a new design for Print Fetish and more posts! Put A Egg On It at Kickstarter

In Brief: New Releases from PF Favorites

2010-01-14T21:20:53Z

New releases from Hassla Books including Taciturn Heart, a collection of photos by by Marcelo Gomes and Woman With A Camera (35mm) by Anne Collier. A Book Signing for Anne Collier's Woman With A Camera (35mm) will be held Saturday, January 16, 2010, 5-7 PM at Printed Matter. Seems Books publishes Paul Wackers Giving in to Live the Experience, a lovely collection of the artists paintings and drawings. Also, one of our favorite art zines, White Fungus is holding an event at P.P.O.W 7PM tonight in New York launching it's 11th issue. P.P.O.W is located at: 511 West 25th Street, Room 301 (at 10th Avenue).

Microcosm: A Love Story and a Gift Idea

2009-12-16T16:16:41Z

We have been reviewing wonderful books and zines from Microcosm Publishing for some time now. Not too long ago, I dropped by our old offices to pick up some mail and to my very happy surprise there were two large packages from Microcosm. They'd been sitting around long enough that we'd reviewed some of their contents already but I'd like to take this opportunity to say that nothing thrills me more than really good mail. So, thanks Microcosm! See our reviews here: Doris, the book; Dwelling Portably; Ker-bloom!. There were two books in the package that we hadn't yet seen and they deserve some posting... In Search of the Lost Taste is a cookbook from Joshua Ploeg, traveling vegan chef extraordinaire. We've written about him before and are fans. This slim volume is full of well-crafted recipes for interesting fare such as lavender soda and soup in a pumpkin. It will remind any of us, not just vegans, to look beyond the basics and have some fun in the kitchen. It should also be noted that Aaron Renier did the cover. Make Your Place: Affordable, Sustainable Nesting Skills is another small manual for good living. In it, Raleigh Briggs offers easy to use instructions for things like household cleaners, herbal salves and tinctures, how to compost and what to plant in your garden. The book is divided into three sections: Health and First Aid, Nontoxic Cleaning and Body Care and Gardening. Each recipe is detailed by adorable drawings and is accessible to even someone as spazzy as myself. And now for the gift idea... While looking for the links for the above reviews, I discovered that Microcosm sells $20 "superpacks" on a variety of subjects, including veganism, queer stuff, bicycles and DIY crafts. For $20 you get a selection of zines on each topic. Perfect for your younger sibling who just went vegan or your neighbor who is obsessed with his bicycle, par example. Order all this stuff directly from Microcosm or find select titles at your local cool bookstore.

Linkrotchity

2009-11-05T17:11:42Z

Check out the preview for McSweeney's one-shot newspaper, The San Francisco Panorama. Exciting if it were to be a continuing paper, but it's only meant to express the possibilities that print newspapers can reach for... too bad no one will take them up on their advice and they'll all go out of business. Check out photos of the last days at Gourmet Magazine and observe the dismantling of a dull and oppressive office space. I'm ambivalent about the mags demise, although I think Ruth Reichl is fabulous. Check out Hard Print, a new blog dedicated solely to fag rags from AROUND THE WORLD, bitches.

STACK America!!!! WOOOO!

2009-10-26T18:17:37Z

I've always been jealous of Stack in England. Why can't we have that HERE!??! A random surprise indie mag in the mail every month! I think maybe I should start this myself...wait, WHAT!? Andrew already did? That jerk! Seriously, though-this is the epitome of what PF is all about: independent, creative and passionate print. Screw reviews-with stack you can actually sample a variety of magazines that you might not know about or even be able to find locally. Do it! Buy a subscription NOW! Print Fetish commands it. $71.99 gets you a years subscription to Stack, which sends you a different, gorgeous independent magazine every 2 months, with the occasional extra treat. This would be a FABULOUS x-mas gift. Just saying. Check it out here!

Linknation

2009-10-02T20:29:25Z

Ms. Keough and I went to the NY Art Book Fair opening last night at P.S 1 (an amazing space, FYI)... but I could barely deal because I wanted to buy everything, but I'm broke! AAAAAAARG! However, I literally bought the very first things I picked up. I'm an impulse buyer! More on those delights later. Plug: Check out my new image blog, Love is a Prelude to Sorrow Flickr Finds: This is the guy who beat me out of copies of the fabulous Gentry Magazine Fanzines in The Independent A good selection of street art images at Designer Daily

In Brief: The Extended Dance Remix

2009-08-11T16:46:52Z

(Abe's Penny 1.3, photograph by Peter Bernard Killeen, writing by Eric Ledgin.) Abe's Penny is a monthly micro-magazine from sisterly duo Anna and Tess Knoebel. They pair a writer with a photographer and mail out a story of words and pictures in the form of 4 weekly postcards. I love this idea. Each week a new piece of the story, a new clue. Plus we are guaranteed something interesting each time we trudge over to the PO Box. The issue we are currently receiving is 1.6 (August) and features photographs by Jim Henry and a poem by Elizabeth Hildreth, inspired by Jim's images. Also, issue 1.2 had photographs by PF pal Melanie Flood and September's will have work by Skye Parrott from Dossier Journal. Order your own from their website! Cometbus #52 is out. And it's about St. Louis. I've been enjoying these single subject issues. Buy at a cool store or from Quimby's. These Birds Walk's second installment of their Subscription Series is out this year. For background on this project, see our review of last year's series here. Each book (in a larger format this year) is by a different photographer. TBW allows that photographer full creative control of their contribution thereby ensuring these really wonderful and personal selections. This year's books are by Todd Hido, Marianne Mueller, Abner Nolan and Alec Soth. Hido's Ohio is the first book we received and in it he returns to his childhood home and first camera, editing together old images and ones taken during a recent return trip. Likes and Dislikes has a second issue. We loved the first one--so check them both out! The Fart Party's Julia Wertz edited a collection of illustrated missed connections from various local papers called I Saw You. There are so many great contributors, including PF favorites Janelle Hessig of Tales of Blarg! and Aaron Renier. Check the I Saw You blog or order from Amazon.

All Butt's Children and Straight to Hell's Granbabies

2009-08-10T15:23:26Z

Way back when I began my homosexual career I marveled at the copies of Straight to Hell that could be found in the bathrooms of my new co-workers in homosexualism. Soon, I was snatching up all the fag zines of the early 90's I could find. Although I was fascinated by these various photocopied "queer-core" zines - I didn't relate to what they were talking about for the most part. "Punks" sometimes take themselves a little to seriously (my opinion at the time was that there were no such thing as punk anymore. Also, I was never into the term "queer" as a self identifier). But then came Butt! It put everything that came before - beefcake digests, Straight to Hell, queer zines - into a new refined amalgamation. Butt taped into a zeitgeist of world-wide fag community that no one had even noticed existed. POST post-gay. Since Butt launched it seems that every little arty homo wants to put out a zine with hot naked "real" guys, usually digest sized. Here I've listed the ones I have - although I'm certain there are many, many more. Images and links after the jump!]]> Handbook Mag out of S.F that's Inspired by the old school beefcake magazines The Josh Photography, illustration and writing out of New York Kaiserin Literary and art magazine from France Kink Gorgeous photography magazine from Spain. Lube magazine Photography and illustration from Madrid, Spain Pink Mince Irreverent zine by a New Yorker in London. Pinups The only traditionally-sized zine on the list, Pinups features Black and White portraits mostly of hairy, "stocky" guys - usually ones in their 20's. Pisszine Photography, illustration and writing from Italy Scumbag Fag Mag Limited edition, hand made zine full of collage and drawings. Shoot Paul Mpagi Sepuya's zine featuring portraits of a single subject Spank Photography, illustration and design inspired by the New York party of the same name Spunk Literary and art magazine They Shoot Homos Don't They Photography and writing from Australia, beautifully printed. When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again Art, photography and writing from the editor of Straight to Hell, Billy Miller.

The September Issue

2009-07-30T17:08:51Z

I think the best magazines have a strong personality in control - of course, a strong personality can also make a magazine very bad. I'm utterly fascinated to see The September Issue, a documentary about Anna Wintour as she puts the fall fashion issue of Vogue together. American Vogue is an example of someone who has hacked their way into a position of power - but with little editorial (written) skill or any real art or fashion insight. She was never cool or ever fierce. Just a spoiled rich kid with an accommodating daddy (another clue to her success - she understands the Vogue readers who can afford the fashion all too well). Basically, it's all through the force of her personality that she bludgeons out a magazine. That's her only skill - BELIEVING in herself to the point that everyone else believes in her as well. She is a shining example of the power of self-confidence and delusion. It CAN make you successful - see this film and learn it well. In the trailer she expresses an inane observation on a type treatment - which is very telling, since the type is so outrageously bad in Vogue - maybe the worst of any major (selling) magazine. Watch the process of how all the skills of designers, writers and photographers are crushed into the dust with a pointy heel - fashion crush porn!

Magazine Rack of the Week: Bender

2009-07-24T17:36:58Z

Gasp, the Magrack of the Week is back! This stylish and easily assembled number can sit on the floor or be mounted to the wall. It might be great slid between couch and wall to make the most of limited space. Hung horizontally it doubles as a display shelf. Comes in red, black or white. Available at DesignCode for €68.00

it's summer, GET OUT!

2009-07-23T15:20:44Z

Go to Printed Matter for the launch party of Julie Schumacher and Rob Trostle's Brooklyn-based press Editions and its premier publication, The Best by artist Rachel Domm. 5-7PM on Thursday, July 23rd at Printed Matter, 195 Tenth Avenue in New York City. If you are in Berlin, join The Pet Shop Bears and BUTT magazine tomorrow for another awesome BEER-B-Q! This time expect a special live PA from Erobique and his super-special guest, plus London's own Disco Bloodbath party crasher Dan Beaumont as well as your hosts, Justin Case and Open Mike. Out in the Biergarten, Rummelsnuff and Bernd Butz perform a extra-special Knopfaccordion set. Friday 24 July 2009 from 9-late at the Berghain Cuntine and Biergarten in Berlin. Oooh! I almost missed this... The East Village Boys, as part of the Hot! Festival, present Bruce Benderson: a reading at 8:45pm at Dixon Place. Bruce Benderson is a writer and a PF favorite. Mr. Benderson's seventh book, The Romanian: Story of an Obsession, won France's prestigious literary award, the Prix de Flore. His new satirical novel, Pacific Agony, comes out with Semiotext(e)/MIT this fall. His most recent book is Sex and Isolation and contains his essays and articles from the last 10 years. Dixon Place, 161 Chrystie St., NY. This Meet Your Printmaker exhibition at D.C.'s Washington Printmaker's Gallery closes this weekend. So if you are in the DC area, go to it and let us know how it was. For over a year Meet Your Printmaker has been compiling a directory of independent print/printmaking studios around the world through its blog. The work in this exhibition presents a selection of printed matter from 40 print/printmaking studios around the world. For more info and a list of participating studios, see above link. Washington Printmakers Gallery, 1732 Connecticut Avenue, NW Washington DC.

Get Out: Colophon in NY Tonight

2009-07-08T15:26:55Z

Tonight Colophon presents The Future of Print at The Art Directors Club in New York. Speakers include Sophie Mörner, founder and publisher, Capricious; Emily Gordon, editor-in-chief, Print, and Jason Crombie, editor and founder, Woooooo!. The panel led by Andrew Losowsky, Co-curator, Colophon and Editor, We Make Magazines, will discuss what makes magazines special, the secrets to publishing success, the importance of creative independence, whether you can make money from a passion project, and what's next for print. ADC Members - Free Non Members - $5 at the door Wednesday July 8, 2009 6:30-8:30pm @ ADC Gallery 106 West 29th Street, NYC

Yes I am, But Who Am I Really?

2009-06-26T17:28:54Z

Matt Idol, a.k.a. Matt Wobensmith, has opened a gallery/zine shop called Goteblüd in San Francisco's Mission District. The former Outpunk editor's first show, titled "Yes I am, but who am I really?," is a selection of queercore artifacts including: over 200 different zines, photos, flyers, posters, correspondence, clothing and skateboards of homopunk heroes. The show opens tomorrow, Saturday June 27th, from 6-8pm and will run through August. A full list of participating zines is here. For more info, check the Goteblüd blog, the store's yelp entry, or drop by and visit them at 766 Valencia St., SF. Actually, if you drop by before we get a chance, email us and tell us what you think... Above photo by P Paula P.