Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Part 14 of this mess. 14. “World domination” This sounds ridiculous in this context, but I’ve heard some people say this phrase, so I’ll down step it an infinite amount just so it makes some sense. (at least to me) People have said you’re “taking over the world.” It’s of course overstated, but in the end, it may actually make some sense in the right context. This is the new GRSF. We moved to 618 Shrader. Right next door. Back in the day, junior high, high school, and even in my Japanese school, then to UCLA, I felt like an outsider. I’m Asian American and a regular dude, but for some reason, I didn’t fit into either categories. I felt like I was friends with the outcasts. I have no idea why while walking down Bruin walk, which is the central main drag on the UCLA campus Asian American groups would pass out flyers to Asian American kids. I could clearly see them, passing them to a guy, then a girl, then when I walked up, no flyer. The hand holding the paper went back in. This happened a lot. Did I have a sign on me saying, No? Was it because I didn’t wear the right clothes or had the sidewall haircut? When I did get a flyer, I remember the person asking, “who did I know?” I told them some random names, my parents, my dog, nothing worked. What he wanted to hear were “popular” kids names. The guys who ran the frats, the lowered car clubs, or threw the big parties. I didn’t know them. I took some of that energy when Giant Robot got started and eventually that was the many reasons why we got started. Overtime, we found that there was a lot of folks with these same experiences. So in effect, it’s nice to think that we were able to create an outlet for people “like us.” The main lesson I can cite here is that although World Domination is a Hitlerian word, it’s what happened with GR in a microcosm. The World ends up being the world we created. Domination, not sure how that works, but I suppose it can mean, we’re good at the niche world we’re in. There was no audience for GR, so we created one, there were no stores like GR so we made that too, and so forth. Now, years later, there’s more than one magazine with similar interests, there’s more than one store that’s something like ours, and so forth. Although taking credit feels selfish, although I’m sure many would try and take it anyway, it’s fun to see what we created expanding, even when it’s not ours. This includes artists who grow thanks to some of our help, writers who get bigger gigs (is that possible?), and people who are making better for themselves thanks to an article we wrote or even an article written about us.
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Lastly wanted to throw up some quick Eishi show shots here in SF. If you’re in the bay, come on down.
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Also don’t sleep on this Happy Together Box set. Remember the lamp of the waterfall that lit up the room? You can get your own and pretend you’re Tony Leung. This set comes with the lamp and boxers along with remastered movie, remixed CD, posters, postcards, and it’s limited to 2046 pieces for $118. Shipping is a bitch but oh well. In other news Michelin Man found dead! RIP. What was he doing on a boat?! Boats don’t use tires!
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Part 13 publishing series. Networking. I know some of you might cringe at this word. I know I do. Some people are born with it. They can make friends with a sasquatch and then do some projects together. I unfortunately don’t have this gift. I don’t make friends easily, I don’t drink, I don’t go to many parties, bars, or too many places for that matter. So where does that leave me with networking? Maybe the fella who commented negatively on the Mike Patton photo is right. I don’t fit in, I am better with “comics, toys, and fat people!” The good thing about the rise of kids who grew up with these things, (fat people?! – how does that fit in?) is that there might be more of us. We communicate in different ways. Back in the day, I remember writing a letter to Boylan’s soda. I was thinking, why not, I really like the drinks, so I just dropped a letter in the mail saying how good they are. About a month later, a package comes in the mail and it’s a four pack of soda, a t shirt, and a letter from the president of the company. I was impressed. Now, years later, we opened gr/eats, and guess what? We carry Boylan’s soda. I suppose you can network over the mail or internet. Perhaps that can work too. The only tip I can give is that in publishing, and in many other world of business, being a good networker only helps. It may get you better distribution, media coverage, advertisements, and even articles. The sky’s the limit when you have the gift of being a crowd pleaser. You may want to work with whoever you meet, but remember, you have to be able to offer them something as well. It seems a lot of people don’t understand that and only want to take. If you’re good at this, tell me what it does for you. I see people who network well, and it seems to help them a lot. Giant Robot has always an uphill battle. At the same time, since I’m not out “networking”, I am spending time trying to make GR better. That’s important since no matter what connections you make, you’ll still need to back up your words with some proof of a good product or project.
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Just in! This is the new Giant Robot San Francisco space.
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