Weird Dreams.

There is much great talent coming out Spain at the moment, I can't keep up! My latest new discovery is Jose Miguel Mendez, who graduated last year from London College of Communication. This short film, part of his MA project, is just mesmerizing.

The most extraordinary cake ever!

When our friend Jai from Cooshi Cakes got in touch to say she loves our covers and would love to make a cake out of one of them, I readily accepted as I thought it'd be fun.
It was when a very anxious courier rang our doorbell on Monday and asked me to come and help him to carry a giant cake upstairs that the penny dropped.


Jai hadn't just made a cake using one of our covers. She had made the most EXTRAORDINARY cake we had ever seen! Not only was it gigantic and did require two people to carry it, but it was also a work of art! Jai took inspiration from the cover of our TOYS issue which original artwork was by Supermundane. She painstakinly recreated every little crazy character that Supermundane had drawn. I.N.C.R.E.D.I.B.L.E.


All we were able to do with it for a couple of days was stare at it and take thousands of pictures of it. We couldn't even bring ourselves to eat it! We finally decided to bring it to my son's school (as it was his birthday that week) and share it with all our lil' pals (and teachers!) I can't even begin to tell you how impressed everyone was. On top of being so amazingly beautiful, it was also delicious! A nice fluffy sponge layered with strawberry jam. YUM. I managed to save the little Anorak character, which I intend on keeping as a souvenir!


A massive, humungous thank you to the amazing ladies at Cooshi Cakes for making this week truly magical!

Ch-ch-changes!

Are we really only in February? In Anorak terms, I am pretty sure it is already September 2013, not February. That's because the last few weeks have been absolutely packed with plans, new stuff, challenges and other craziness. Oh yes challenges too. But one thing I have learnt is that challenges are just there to hide major TADA SUNSHINEY changes that make everything great again. Want to hear about our TADA SUNSHINEY change? Here it is!

Once the new issue lands on your doormats next month, you will notice that Anorak's size has changed slightly. Or maybe you won't! I can't blame you if you don't because really the change in format is tiny: 10mm in fact, which we are shaving off the width of the magazine. Why? Because, that extra pesky 10mm meant that to transport our happy mags for kids, we had to pack them in bespoke fancypants boxes. It was perfectly acceptable to do that when we were shipping a few around the world but now that we are sending thousands, it is becoming rather dear!

BUT, as we are not the type to short-change our wonderful fans, I have decided to pass on the savings to you our readers by increasing Anorak's pagination to 68 pages! Eight extra pages!!

Everything else stays the same: paper, same. Ink, same. Price, same. Smell, same. Guaranteed hours of fun: even more! So there you are, a little shaving here and a saving there mean a BIGGER BETTER mag! TADA!
I cannot wait to share this new issue with you and to hear your feedback!

Cover issue three!

Oh yes, beyond excited to share the cover of our forthcoming issue, with theme INVENTIONS. It is made by Jay Wright. It will be available for sale in a month. Patience is a virtue they say.

Meet the Happy Stockist: Librairie D&Q

If you are a comics fan, you will know the fabulous Librairie D&Q (Montreal, Canada). Not only is it a dreamy bookshop filled with the best in the world of comics and graphic novels but they also publish some of the most amazing books around. OK enough gushing. Over to Jason Grimmer.

Tell us who you are, how long you have had your shop for and what inspired you to launch it?
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Bookstore, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Owned and operated by the Drawn & Quarterly Publishing House, we are located in Montreal's Mile End neighbourhood and opened our doors in 2007 in order to showcase not only our books but our favorite books published by our international peers. We are Montreal's only English-curated bookstore with an eye on aesthetically beautiful and quality books of all sorts. Our shelves are filled with French & English graphic novels, classic and contemporary literature, art books, and the best childrens' books and magazines available. Our mandate was to provide a neighbourhood hub for creatives and book lovers and we host many events and workshops throughout the year.

What were your favourite books when growing up?
Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, a very old edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales that my Grandmother enjoyed as a child and then passed down to me, Roald Dahl, Tintin, Les Schtroumpfs, and then later the early books of Stephen King and the stories of Richard Matheson.

What are you currently reading?
George Saunders' Tenth of December, Chris Ware's Building Stories, and the Hobbit (to my daughter).

I LOVE Les Schtroumpfs! Thank you Jason.

Meet the Happy Stockist!

At Anorak, we love our stockists. They are quite simply the lifeline of our business. But, even though I deal with them on a daily basis, I don't always know their story or why they are shop owners at a time when all we seem to hear is that the High Street is dead (a bit like print then!). So inspired by Kate's great Q&As on her blog, I decided to go behind the scenes and meet... our Happy Stockists. Every week, they will share their stories and their favourite books because, well, I am a bit nosy and love finding out about people's reading list. The first one will kick off tomorrow and every Wednesday after that. Enjoy and please, please support your local shops. Thank you, thank you.

Win, win, win!

.....a copy of Anorak. How? You just need to click here and share with us your favourite vintage kids books. EASY!
THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.

Pam & Tom.

We have new pals. They are called Pam & Tom. Can't wait to share their adventures with you in our forthcoming March edition.
by Ben Javens & Cathy Olmedillas.

For the love of mags!

Just before Christmas, I was invited to Midori House to chat to Mr Tyler Brûlé about Anorak, on The Stack, his new radio show dedicated to independent magazines. Talk about ending this year on a high!
After the show, which you can listen to here, I received tons of emails from mag-nerds (or dare I say MAGANORAKS?!) praising indie publishing. It is this sort of feedback that reminds me how incredibly lucky I am to be part of such vibrant industry. It takes a lot of passion, grit and a little madness to produce magazines these days; so hats off to any fellow publishers for even bothering in an age when everyone wants us to believe that print is dying. IT'S NOT, ALRIGHT?!!

As I am about to increase our print run to 12,000 to meet demand, I wanted to thank you for spreading the Anorak love over the last few years. It fills me with joy to know that there are many of you who share the same passion for beautifully produced anti-throw-away magazines.
I am grateful to all of you, contributors and readers alike, who have bought, blogged about, recommended, loved, featured, ordered, passed on and helped me make Anorak. Thank you, thank you and thank you again.

I cannot wait to share more adventures with you in the new year! I hope 2013 brings you good fortune, much love and happiness.

Cathy

They've arrived!

Issue TWO is HERE! Hooray! Sorry about the delay, our bundles were stuck in L.A. customs over the Christmas period. (That sounds glam' but it really isn't!)


You can get hold of a copy here, or here. Hope you enjoy it!