Giant Robot Magazine: Asian Pop Culture With an Attitude

Martin Wong, who describes himself as having been “fringey” when he was growing up in Anaheim Hills, knew early on that his interests didn’t always match those of his friends.

“It wasn’t like we could catch kung fu movies and get a Taiwanese slush,” the 28-year-old says. “Instead, we’d watch John Hughes or “Porky’s” movies and go to Denny’s.”

Years later, after Wong met Eric Nakamura at UCLA, the two discovered they shared a fascination for Asian culture--and set out to capture it in print.

But chronicling Asian American culture for their peculiar magazine, Giant Robot, probably won’t include the top 100 Asian entrepreneurs or an Anna Sui fashion spread. In an issue of Giant Robot, you’re more likely to find articles about sumo wrestling, foot binding and Asian porn.

Though Nakamura, 27, once referred to their quirky interests as “Asian junk culture,” he ditched the label in favor of “Giant Robot culture,” after the sci-fi movie character. He and Wong, co-editors, are particularly drawn to aspects of Asian culture that go unexamined elsewhere. Whatever the label, issue eight will be out by the end of April, advertising is healthy, and circulation has grown to more than 10,000.

Wong, who works as a senior editor at McGraw Hill, says that even though Anaheim Hills wasn’t a hotbed of Asian influences, he’d latch on to what he could find. Manga (Japanese comics), Hong Kong films and robot toys were among his childhood favorites. Today, he says, the Asian influence in Orange County is hard to escape, with Jackie Chan movies playing in mall theaters, Blockbuster Video’s selections of Japanese animation, and the influx of professional skateboarders such as Willy Santos and Kien Lieu.

“When I was a kid, everyone had Flintstones lunch boxes, but I could never find the Speed Racer ones,” he says. “That’s all changing now.”

Nakamura, who quit his job as an associate editor at Larry Flynt Publications before starting GR, developed a similar sensibility in Los Angeles. Besides collecting imported Japanese toys, he fondly remembers watching Japanese samurai movies and Bruce Lee triple features.

“I also saw Gamera movies at the Nuart as a kid,” he says. “At the time I was so into it, and the crowd would be laughing at certain scenes. I’d be asking, ‘Why are you all laughing?’ ”

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After Nakamura and Wong met through mutual friends and started GR, their similar backgrounds, along with their love for punk music, provided a perfect springboard for their DIY (“Do It Yourself”)--and at times irreverent--approach to stories. Packed with information and written in a conversational style, GR goes where mainstream Asian American magazines won’t dare.

In a recent issue, Nakamura and Wong decided to write a survival piece about Manzanar, the Japanese internment camp Wong frequently passed en route to snowboarding trips. “We uncovered more stuff than I’ve ever read about,” Nakamura says. “Like the reservoir--we found a skate spot that no one’s ever touched! And the dump--there was garbage there from the 1920s!”

The resulting article featured action skateboarding shots and examples of tagging by “vandal Manzanar internees,” along with a more serious sidebar interview with an internee who organizes pilgrimages to the site.

“To go and skate Manzanar is such a brilliant thing,” says actress Margaret Cho, who recently began contributing to GR. “To take a horrible, painful memory and reclaim it by skating it is so punk rock--it’s so cool.”

The editors’ fascination with the obscure or unscrutinized led to articles such as “The Sickest Asian Porn Video in the World” and a real-life account of working in malls as Hello Kitty, the popular Japanese cartoon character. Other topics have included Asian soft drinks and frozen desserts and interviews with director John Woo and actor Chow Yun-Fat.

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Though GR readers say the appeal lies in the magazine’s informative yet humorous approach, some scholars believe the magazine is chronicling a larger, mainstream interest in Asian American pop culture.

“I think subcultures may have exhausted the storehouses of American pop culture to recycle,” says Steve Dubin, a sociologist at Purchase College in New York. “They may be having to look globally for pop culture--kind of like a pop culture colonialism.”

Darrell Hamamoto, an associate professor of Asian American studies at UC Davis, was intrigued by how GR synthesized elements from Asian culture into U.S. culture. Last fall, he included GR in his list of required reading for a class.

“What I find interesting is that up to this point, we haven’t had a distinct Asian American pop culture. Giant Robot seems to be among the new, young cohorts trying to develop something along those lines.”

Though Wong says he doesn’t mind being deconstructed, he’s more concerned with exposing more Orange County readers, particularly Asian American, to GR culture. Despite selling well in cities such as San Francisco and New York, GR is still struggling in Orange County.

“Orange County doesn’t suck,” Wong says. “It’s just that Giant Robot could improve it.”

* Giant Robot is carried by Super Collector in Fountain Valley, 21st Century Comics in Orange and the UC Irvine Bookstore. Information: (310) 395-5218.