Anthony Alvarado‘s “D.I.Y. Magic” ran as a column for this website in 2010-11. In 2011, it was collected and expanded into book form through Floating World Comics, with 40 illustrations (curated by FWC’s Jason Leivian) and a cover designed by Lord Whimsy…
With that initial edition of 1,000 copies now sold out, Anthony has signed a deal with Perigee Books, an imprint of Penguin, to bring a revised, second edition of D.I.Y. Magic to the public in Spring 2015. This new edition will have about 50 pages of new material, with accompanying artwork again curated by Jason Leivian.
Congratulations, Mr. Alvarado!
D.I.Y. Magic is the third book to see publication in recent years after debuting in some form in Arthur. The others are 25,000 Years of Erotic Freedom (Abrams, 2009), a social history/polemic by Alan Moore based on his article “Bog Venus vs. Nazi Cock-Ring: Some Thoughts Concerning Pornography” from Arthur No. 25 (Dec. 2006); and the novel Zazen by Vanessa Veselka (Red Lemonade, 2011), which was serialized on this website in 2009-10. Zazen won Veselka the 2012 PEN/Robert W. Bingham prize.
ARTHUR No. 35 release party with special live performance by MICHAEL HURLEY!!!
Sunday, August 11, 2013
9:00-11:00pm
The Waypost
3120 N. Williams Ave
Portland, Ore 97227
Wily folkplayer MICHAEL HURLEY (aka Elwood Snock) has charmed hip audiences for over fifty years now with his timeless surrealist tunes and sweetly weird comics, all the while maintaining a certain ornery, outsider mystique.
In the new issue of Arthur, Longtime Snockhead/Arthur Senior Writer BYRON COLEY investigates this Wild American treasure in an enormous 11,000-word, 8-PAGE feature replete with rare photos, artwork, comics… and a giant color portrait by Liz Devine. Snock attack!
Join Arthur co-publisher Floating World Comics at The Waypost on Sunday August 11th to celebrate the release of the new ish. Stop by for some sweet tunes and pick up the new issue a week before it hits the stands!
Somehow we’re down to our final fifty copies of Arthur No. 33 (Jan 2013), less than three months after publication. We’ve ceased supplying wholesalers and retailers and will reduce the last of our stock through direct sales to individuals only. Copies are available for $5 plus shipping and handling from The Arthur Store (click here).
Arthur No. 33’s contents include…
Dream a Deeper Dream: A how-to conversation with cartoonist ROARIN’ RICK VEITCH by Jay Babcock. Plus “Cartographer of the American Dreamtime,” an appreciation of Rick Veitch and his work by Mr. Alan Moore. Mr. Veitch’s “Self-Portrait in Six Dimensions” graces our cover.
JACK ROSE: the definitive, career-spanning interview with this late great America guitarist, conducted by Brian Rademaekers just months before his death three years ago. Plus: Jack Rose discography compiled by Byron Coley, and an illustration of a classic Jack Rose pose by Plastic Crimewave.
An illuminating/endarkening conversation with sparkling Luciferian artist FRANK HAINES by Eliza Swann
Stewart Voegtlin on WAYLON JENNINGS’ dark dream, with an illustration by Beaver
Columnist DAVE REEVES on Burroughs, bath salts and border guards, with an illustration by Arik Roper
Columnist NANCE KLEHM on new modes of exchange—and homemade smokes, with an illustration by Kira Mardikes
The Center for Tactical Magic on “The Magic(k) of Money” — and how YOU can win $1000 for planning a BANK ROBBERY!
“Bull Tongue” columnists BYRON COLEY & THURSTON MOORE survey happenings in underground culture, paying special attention to new and archival releases from Claude Pelieu; Spectre Folk; United Waters; Devin, Gary & Ross; Jess Franco; Mick Farren; Chris D.; Donna Lethal; Crystal Siphon; Mad River; Horace; Erewhon Calling by Bruce Russell; Toy Love; The Clean; David Kilgour; The Heavy Eights; Chris Corsano; Joe McPhee; Rangda; Ben Chasny; Sir Richard Bishop; David Oliphant; Brothers Unconnected; 200 Years; Six Organs of Admittance; Gary Panter; Marcia Bassett & Samara Lubelski; Cheater Slicks; Ron House; Above Ground; Vacuum; Max Block; Dead C; Axemen; Hamish Kilgour; Circle Pit; Kitchen’s Floor; Bits of Shit; and Boomgates. Plus a special report on The Ex 33 festival at Cafe Oto in East London, featuring The Ex, John Butcher, Zea + Charles, Jackadaw With Crowbar, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Trash Kit, Steve Beresford, Wolter Weirbos, Valentina Campora, Gabriella Maiorino, Andy Moor, Yannis Kyriakides, Anne-James Chaton, Ad Baars, Jorge Vega, Ian Saboya, Enrique Vega, Tony Buck and Roy Paci.
ARTHUR RE-LAUNCH PARTY TONIGHT IN PORTLAND, OREGON
Come celebrate the release of Arthur’s first new issue in four years at a free party TONIGHT Thursday, January 3, 2013 at Floating World Comics, Arthur’s new co-publisher.
We’ll have original comic art on display from contributors Rick Veitch and Gabby Schulz. Floating World head honcho/Arthur co-publisher Jason Leivian will be there, and Arthur Art Director Yasmin Khan is rumored to be stopping by. Plus: Betel nuts, and other surprises.
WHO: Arthur No. 33
WHAT: Magazine release party and art exhibit
WHEN: Thursday, January 3, 6-10pm
WHERE: Floating World Comics, 400 NW Couch St., Portland, Ore. (503)241-0227
“The new oversized print-only issue of Arthur Magazine is even more gorgeous and satisfying than expected. Like a Sunday supplement for heads.” — Jesse Jarnow, author of Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock
“The Haydukes of music/art/culture journalism return…welcome back!” — Team Love Records
“A coffee-table newspaper, printed on 16 immense pages of newsprint with minimal ads, and almost every inch covered with words or pictures… The cover, a gigantic piece by surreal comics artist Rick Veitch, is gorgeous, and the crispness and clarity of the print is perhaps the best I’ve seen in a newspaper. Everything in the new [issue] is worth absorbing… Opening the mammoth pages of the new Arthur feels much like unfolding a road map, one that points to strange, unfamiliar worlds.” — Ned Lannamann, The Portland Mercury
Tim Goodyear and Morgan Enfield give a close inspection to Arthur No. 33, the publication’s first issue in four years and the first in our new giant-sized compostable newspaper format.
Arthur No. 33 is available for $5 starting today at Portland, Ore.’s Floating World Comics, and the rest of the planet (more or less) on the day after the Winter Solstice, December 22, 2012.
Arthur No. 33, our first issue in four years, and our first in our new giant-sized compostable $5 newspaper format, will be available starting THIS WEDNESDAY (12.12.12) at publishing partner Floating World Comics, located in downtown Portland at 400 NW Couch St. Do what you need to do!
Arthur Magazine Raised from the Dead, with Help from Floating World
Posted by Ned Lannamann on Thu, Nov 15, 2012 at 3:44 PM
The news spread quickly this morning that late, lamented Arthur Magazine has been resurrected. Arthur was a free, bimonthly music and culture publication that also dabbled in incisive political commentary, and when it departed the physical plane—it ceased publication in 2008 and existed on the web for a few years, before publisher Jay Babcock officially pronounced it dead in 2011—a gaping, literate hole was left in the landscape of music discourse. (That last, terrible sentence reminds us of why Arthur was so important.)
Now Arthur is back! (Arthur 2: On the Rocks, perhaps?… hello?) It ain’t free anymore ($5), and it will be on newsprint instead of sleek, paper-cutty magazine stock, and its publication costs will be predominantly reliant on the purchase price rather than advertisers to stay afloat. The new version of Arthur is due in large part to a new partnership forged with Portland’s own Floating World Comics and its proprietor Jason Leivian. We asked Leivian about the new Arthur, and how both he and Portland will be involved in the new incarnation.
The new Arthur (Issue No. 33) will be available December 22, and can be pre-ordered now. (UPDATE) There will be a First Thursday release party for the new issue at Floating World Comics (400 NW Couch) on Thursday, January 3 at 6-10 pm. Leivian says Babcock may fly up to make an appearance, although that is not yet confirmed. [I can’t be there, unfortunately! —Jay]
MERCURY: How did you get involved?
JASON LEIVIAN: I am really excited about Arthur’s comeback. It was such an influential and important magazine to me when I used to find them at Jackpot Records (usually) back in the day.
It’s interesting for me to recall the steps that brought Floating World and Arthur together. I discovered this bizarre Steve Aylett project ‘The Caterer’ in the pages of Arthur. I went on to reprint that comic. I was publishing a newsprint anthology called Diamond. I submitted an issue to Bull Tongue and they reviewed it. I was so stoked! So Jay knew who I was just from those two projects.
When the magazine was online only I took over as the comics editor for Arthur Magazine. That was how I first started working with Jay. That was a fun gig. It led to more publishing on my end and I think Jay was looking at the newspapers I was publishing as a potential format for Arthur’s resurrection.
MERCURY: Will Arthur be markedly different from its first incarnation?
JASON LEIVIAN: The first few issues of Arthur were on newsprint, so this is a return to that form in some ways. Although you’ll see the dimensions and format of the new issue are larger and laid out differently. I haven’t seen the Indesign files yet but I imagine it’ll be more like a daily newspaper, the way it folds over, etc… I believe this issue that we’re releasing was actually in production before Arthur went on hiatus before. [It’s a different & fresh animal, actually. — Jay] So it will probably have a similar feel to the previous run, but with an all new layout. Anticipate that the next issue after that will be built fresh from the ground up. Jay’s handling all the editorial but I suspect I’ll be sharing suggestions like “Hey Jay, have you heard this new Psychic Ills record? Hint hint.” I want to think of something cool for new comics content.
MERCURY: Will it be published in Portland? Do you know if there will eventually be Arthur CDs/DVDs as well, or other supplements?
JASON LEIVIAN: I’m using a web press printer in Oregon, the same printers that I’ve worked with on most of the newspapers I’ve published. I’ll be handling the distribution from Floating World. Jay and I definitely hope to do more, but we’ll have to review the sustainability after this issue hits the stands. If we can find a magazine or book distributor to help us with shipping and handling I feel like that would take a huge load off my shoulders.
D.I.Y. MAGIC by Anthony Alvarado 40 b&w illustrations, cover design by Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy First edition letterpress silver foil cover limited to 1000 copies, 176 pages, 5″ x 8″, $13.95 Shipping $5.30 US, $11 INTL, $8 CANADA Now available to order
What is magic? It is the fine and subtle art of driving yourself insane! No really, it is just that. It is a con game you play on your own brain. It is the trick of letting yourself go crazy, and when it’s done right, the magus treads the same sacred and profane ground where walks the madman…
We can read descriptions of myths, of the practices of shamans, but the descriptions we might read by a Pentecostal believer, or a voodoo practitioner ridden by the loa, will be meaningless to us unless we have already been in the state they describe. These are wholly subjective experiences.
If you take these many practices, from across countless fields, cultures, religions, modes of being and systems of ritual (hypnosis, song and dance, duende, speaking in tongues, enchantment, faith healing, divination, out of body experience, sweat lodges, drumming, yoga, drugs, fever and on and on), we find that we are really talking about the same thing: a state where the mind lets go of the normal way of being and is opened up to an experience of existence as a whole that is bigger and without time. These states are all really different forms of the same thing, or if not the precisely the same thing, then near and adjacent territories in a realm that lies parallel to this one, reachable by many means.
In short, rather than advertise this as a book of magick, it could just as well have been labeled a book of psychology hacking. Or a cookbook. Think of it as jail-breaking the iPhone of your mind. Teaching it to do things that its basic programming was never set up for. Advanced self-psychology.
Featuring over 40 b&w illustrations by: Lala Albert, Farel Dalrymple, Ines Estrada, Maureen Gubia, Kevin Hooyman, Dunja Jankovic, Aidan Koch, Jesse Moynihan, Luke Ramsey, Ron Rege Jr. & more!
“What makes this book vastly different from many other books on magic is that there’s no doubt in my mind that the author has actually done the things that he says he has. What’s more is that he has derived a great deal of pleasure and meaningful experience from the doing. And, so will you.” – Aaron Gach, Center For Tactical Magic
“Anthony Alvarado has concocted a cookbook for vivid living: poetry that’s lived rather than written. His “spells” are actually practical suggestions by which the reader may coax the extraordinary from the everyday—and from themselves.” – Lord Breaulove Swells Whimsy, author of The Affected Provincial’s Companion
“Few books are as immediately useful as this delightful, inspirational tips ‘n’ tricks tome. I’m having a backyard betel nut party in five minutes and everyone’s invited!” -Jay Babcock, editor of Arthur Magazine
Arthur ran a two page sample of Steve Aylett’s bizarro masterpiece in one of their back issues and I thought it was hilarious. Years later after opening my own comic shop I contacted Steve to see about reprinting THE CATERER in vintage comic form. I also emailed Jay and mentioned the project to him. A lightbulb must’ve gone on in Jay’s head. He put together that I was the publisher of Diamond Comics, a free comics newspaper anthology and he emailed me a few weeks later asking if I’d like to be comics editor for Arthur Magazine.
In the years since we’ve published work by dozens of incredible artists, interviewed folks, shared trippy animation and hopefully given a sense of what’s good and interesting in the international art comics scene. Will started collaborating with me later and introduced the full screen Greenermags format which I really dig.
We’re going to transfer all the Arthur Comics to my store’s website and I plan on curating more “Arthur Comics” there in the future.
“Just because it is totally dark does not mean there is nothing to see.”
Maria Sputnik does the pictures. She’s been living in New York studying science writing and thinking about chromosomes and the moon. She misses Oregon. Van Choojitarom collaborated on the writing. He’s in Bangkok preparing to join a monastery. — Jason Leivian
Arthur Magazine 