Giant Robot - by Eric Nakamura (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Celebrating the pop culture phenomenon that redefined what it meant to be Asian-American with tributes from Margaret Cho, Randall Park, Jia Tolentino, and more. Los Angeles, 1994. Two Asian-American punk rockers staple together the zine of their dreams featuring Sumo, Hong Kong Cinema and Osamu Tezuka. From the very margins of the DIY press and alternative culture, Giant Robot burst into the mainstream with over 60,000 copies in circulation annually at its peak. Giant Robot even popped right off the page, setting up a restaurant, gallery, and storefronts in LA, as well as galleries and stores in New York and San Francisco. As their influence grew in the 90s and 00s, Giant Robot was eventually invited to the White House by Barack Obama, to speak at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and to curate the GR Biennale at the Japanese American National Museum. Home to a host of unapologetically authentic perspectives bridging the bicultural gap between Asian and Asian-American pop culture, GR had the audacity to print such topics side-by-side, and become a touchstone for generations of artists, musicians, creators, and collectors of all kinds in a pre-social media era. Nowhere else were pieces on civil rights activists running next to articles on skateboarding and Sriracha. Toy collectors, cartoonists, and street style pioneers got as many column inches as Michelle Yeoh, Karen O, James Jean, and Haruki Murakami. Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian-American Pop Culture features the best of the magazine's sixty-eight issue run alongside never-before-seen photographs, supplementary writing by long-term contributing journalist Claudine Ko, and tributes from now-famous fans who've been around since day one. Margaret Cho, Daniel Wu, and Randall Park celebrate Giant Robot's enduring legacy alongside pioneering pro-skateboarder Peggy Oki, contemporary art giant Takashi Murakami, culinary darling Natasha Pickowicz, and critically acclaimed essayist Jia Tolentino."--

Book Synopsis

Celebrating the pop culture phenomenon that redefined what it meant to be Asian-American with tributes from Margaret Cho, Randall Park, Jia Tolentino, and more.

Los Angeles, 1994. Two Asian-American punk rockers staple together the zine of their dreams featuring Sumo, Hong Kong Cinema and Osamu Tezuka. From the very margins of the DIY press and alternative culture, Giant Robot burst into the mainstream with over 60,000 copies in circulation annually at its peak. Giant Robot even popped right off the page, setting up a restaurant, gallery, and storefronts in LA, as well as galleries and stores in New York and San Francisco. As their influence grew in the 90s and 00s, Giant Robot was eventually invited to the White House by Barack Obama, to speak at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, and to curate the GR Biennale at the Japanese American National Museum.

Home to a host of unapologetically authentic perspectives bridging the bicultural gap between Asian and Asian-American pop culture, GR had the audacity to print such topics side-by-side, and become a touchstone for generations of artists, musicians, creators, and collectors of all kinds in a pre-social media era. Nowhere else were pieces on civil rights activists running next to articles on skateboarding and Sriracha. Toy collectors, cartoonists, and street style pioneers got as many column inches as Michelle Yeoh, Karen O, James Jean, and Haruki Murakami.

Giant Robot: Thirty Years of Defining Asian-American Pop Culture features the best of the magazine's sixty-eight issue run alongside never-before-seen photographs, supplementary writing by long-term contributing journalist Claudine Ko, and tributes from now-famous fans who've been around since day one. Margaret Cho, Daniel Wu, and Randall Park celebrate Giant Robot's enduring legacy alongside pioneering pro-skateboarder Peggy Oki, contemporary art giant Takashi Murakami, culinary darling Natasha Pickowicz, and critically acclaimed essayist Jia Tolentino.

Review Quotes

"Giant Robot [had a] punk detachment from mainstream establishments [and] explored Asian American culture, without dwelling too much on what that meant." --Hua Hsu, The New Yorker

"Iconic... Each turn of the page feels like sidling up to another cluster of undeniably cool Asian Americans at a boisterous, multigenerational family reunion." --Hannah Bae, San Francisco Chronicle

"Giant Robot would eventually become: a landing spot for Asian American pop-culture topics, covering television and movies, comic books, manga, music, and, of course, fashion. [It was] a transformative publication, especially for Asian Americans looking for deep dives and alternative approaches to lesser-covered topics in mainstream journalism." --Alex Wong, GQ

"An indispensable documentation of Asian American contributions to the culture, both mainstream and underground, over a very long period of time. Best of all? It's so entertaining, it'll make you want to read like it's still the '90s." --Rae Alexandra, KQED

"Reading the anthology brought me back to my 20s as a Gen X Chinese American... I appreciated that Giant Robot did not pearl-clutch or make sweeping declarations about the state of Asian America." --George Chen, Alta Journal

"Essential... This beautifully presented book encompasses a lot of history. Read it to glimpse what made Giant Robot such a force and how it influenced generations of readers and artists." --Luis Aguasvivas, Pop Matters

"A rousing ode to a vibrant period in pop culture history and an intriguing look at shifting notions of Asian American identity." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Eric Nakamura founded Giant Robot as a photocopied and stapled zine in 1994 and grew the publication until late 2010. Giant Robot magazine reached a multiracial audience interested in Asian popular culture and became known as the premier magazine in the field. Nakamura built on the success of Giant Robot with stores and galleries in Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and has curated over 300 exhibitions. Currently, Nakamura works in and owns the Giant Robot store and GR2 Gallery in Los Angeles, -- which continues to offer pop culture goods and hold art exhibitions.