Giant Robot Store and GR2 News

By now, most of you have probably seen the “Asian Girlz” video, by Day Above Ground. They credit Linkin Park as one of their influences, but clearly they couldn’t afford to hire Joe H. to help them make a video that wouldn’t end up becoming the laughing stock of the internet… The controversy surrounding the video is also the hottest topic on sites sensitive to Orientalism, even if they aren’t entirely sure what it means. Asian American fans who used to fetishize the featured “music video girl” in their private realm of import car model worship, are super bummed that Day Above Ground are doing it now. The video features the 30 year old Vietnamese model, Levy Tran. She dances around a modern-day opium den apartment in lingerie, while the band in a gilded cage, serenades her with degrading, racist lyrics featuring every cliched stereotype in the Yellow Fever lexicon. She has a Lilliputian bubblebath gangbang with the entire band, after they’ve all taken her out to eat in the most Asian areas of Los Angeles – which they give shoutouts to in the video. (Hey, 626 Night Market, I think you’ve got your next headliner!!) She farts sparkling designer vinyl toys, lucky cats, and bootleg high-end fashion brand logos. The band claims that the video is satire, but that’s a pretty lousy excuse for such profound grossness. They even throw their Indonesian bass player under the bus, using the classic “we aren’t racist, we have Asian friends” routine. Write-ups about the video have inspired some of the best headlines I’ve read in a while, including “‘Asian Girlz’ Video So Racist, You Almost Don’t Notice The Misogyny”. I’d be bummed for Levy Tran, who has publicly apologized for her participation in the video, except that she’s built a career on selling her Asian sexuality to fetishists. You reap what you sow in your Pan-Asian rice paddies of objectification.
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I went to Comic-Con and actually came back with comic books. Go figure! Above, Congressman John Lewis with his graphic novel debut. Below, some reviews.

Brian Ralph, Reggie-12
Giant Robot readers who lovingly recall the two-color strip that owned the back page for years should be stoked about this. I know I am. With jumbo proportions and a very cool spot-UV job on the cover that has to be seen to be believed, this deluxe collection makes the strips look better than they ever did in the magazine. Bigger, bolder, and run side-by-side, the craftsmanship and storytelling are revealed to be every bit as masterful as the strips that inspired them–Felix, Atom, Nancy. Essential not only for fans of vintage manga but classic comic strips in general. [Drawn and Quarterly]

John Stanley, Nancy
I was already familiar with (and smitten by) Ernie Bushmiller’s strips via the Kitchen Sink reprints, and these stories from the Dell comic books are similarly essential. The four-color reprint gloriously captures the Little Lulu writer’s take on Nancy from 1957 through 1958, and is loaded with surrealism, class consciousness, and classic storytelling. Can be read by children and dissected by art majors with equal enjoyment and gusto. [Drawn and Quarterly]

Shigeru Mizuki, Kitaro
For EC Comics freaks and Takashi Miike junkies alike, this is the holy grail of Japanese horror comics and it is finally being made available to the mass market. Somewhere between The Addams Family and The Twilight Zone in character and tone, the classic manga series which began running in 1959 follows a one-eyed monster boy and his equally whimsical and monstrous yokai friends. Too creepy, fun, and culturally pervasive for words. Just go get it already. [Drawn and Quarterly]

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I went to Comic-Con and actually came back with comic books. Go figure! Above, Congressman John Lewis with his graphic novel debut. Below, some reviews.

Brian Ralph, Reggie-12
Giant Robot readers who lovingly recall the two-color strip that owned the back page for years should be stoked about this. I know I am. With jumbo proportions and a very cool spot-UV job on the cover that has to be seen to be believed, this deluxe collection makes the strips look better than they ever did in the magazine. Bigger, bolder, and run side-by-side, the craftsmanship and storytelling are revealed to be every bit as masterful as the strips that inspired them–Felix, Atom, Nancy. Essential not only for fans of vintage manga but classic comic strips in general. [Drawn and Quarterly]

John Stanley, Nancy
I was already familiar with (and smitten by) Ernie Bushmiller’s strips via the Kitchen Sink reprints, and these stories from the Dell comic books are similarly essential. The four-color reprint gloriously captures the Little Lulu writer’s take on Nancy from 1957 through 1958, and is loaded with surrealism, class consciousness, and classic storytelling. Can be read by children and dissected by art majors with equal enjoyment and gusto. [Drawn and Quarterly]

Shigeru Mizuki, Kitaro
For EC Comics freaks and Takashi Miike junkies alike, this is the holy grail of Japanese horror comics and it is finally being made available to the mass market. Somewhere between The Addams Family and The Twilight Zone in character and tone, the classic manga series which began running in 1959 follows a one-eyed monster boy and his equally whimsical and monstrous yokai friends. Too creepy, fun, and culturally pervasive for words. Just go get it already. [Drawn and Quarterly]

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      Areaware – Cubebots Wooden Cubebots! From a cube to a bot. Play with the limbs to create any pose you can imagine. Jeffrey Brown – Cats Are Weird and More Observations Cartoonist Jeffrey Brown’s drawings perfectly capture the humor and quirkiness of cats in all their strange and charming glory. Suehiro Maruo – The Strange Tale of Panorama Island On a remote and mysterious island, one man builds a playground of hedonistic excess – a backdrop for his decadent feasts, orgies, and dark secrets. Flat Bonnie – BatBun SDCC 2013 Plush Flat Bonnie released this SDCC 2013 exclusive for Giant Robot’s booth. Edition of 10. Hilda Hufalar x GR – Handmade Robot Plush The talented Hilda Hufalar handmade these Giant Robot logo plushes special for SDCC 2013!    
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      Areaware – Cubebots Wooden Cubebots! From a cube to a bot. Play with the limbs to create any pose you can imagine. Jeffrey Brown – Cats Are Weird and More Observations Cartoonist Jeffrey Brown’s drawings perfectly capture the humor and quirkiness of cats in all their strange and charming glory. Suehiro Maruo – The Strange Tale of Panorama Island On a remote and mysterious island, one man builds a playground of hedonistic excess – a backdrop for his decadent feasts, orgies, and dark secrets. Flat Bonnie – BatBun SDCC 2013 Plush Flat Bonnie released this SDCC 2013 exclusive for Giant Robot’s booth. Edition of 10. Hilda Hufalar x GR – Handmade Robot Plush The talented Hilda Hufalar handmade these Giant Robot logo plushes special for SDCC 2013!    
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