Top Digital Magazines on Zinio
- Text by HUCK HQ
Like our writers and photographers, physical copies of Huck are always travelling. By air, sea, rail and road, this very minute, bundles of the mag are making their way to newsstands around the world — to stockists like Mac’s Fireweed Books up in the Yukon or Mag Nation down under. A tablet or mobile phone can never have that same ink-and-paper smell as a new copy of Huck, but there is something to be said for being able to read the mag instantly anywhere.
That’s why we’ve made Huck available on Zinio, the world’s largest digital newsstand. We hope you’ll check us out — especially if you have yet to see what we can do in print. You can find the latest digital issues of Huck here, starting from Huck 41, The Documentary Photography Special (which was named one of the best covers of 2013 by CreativeBloq). As we settle in at Zinio, it’s amazing to find that some of the magazines that inspire us are neighbours. We couldn’t resist introducing them. So without further ado, here’s Huck’s list of some of the raddest mags on Zinio:
1. The Fader
The Fader doesn’t look like any other music mag on the newsstand – and that’s why we dive straight for it each month. Huck Editor Andrea Kurland says: “The Fader is probably the magazine that’s had the single-greatest influence on Huck‘s aesthetic. I remember picking up my first copy and being blown away by the strong reportage photography. At a time when most music and fashion mags were still obsessed with over-stylised, hyper-glossy, posed-for portraits, The Fader‘s intimate documentary approach was a game-changer. Phil Bicker and John Francis Peters set the bar high by working with the best photojournalists around, and Geordie Woods is carrying on that good work to this day.”
Get The Fader on Zinio here.
2. Juxtapoz
An ode to street art, photography, erotica, illustrations and all things visually rad, Juxtapoz catalogues ancient, modern and offbeat art visionaries ranging from Daniel Clowes to the makers of Japanese Edo period scrolls depicting fart-offs. Every issue is a journey through full colour double spreads and annotated galleries. The magazine founded by surreal cartoonist Robert Williams is an aesthetic masterpiece in itself.
Get Juxtapoz on Zinio here.
No one else offers a better glimpse into the mind of a writer. From Hemingway, Capote and Dorothy Parker to R. Crumb, Joan Didion and Bret Easton Ellis, the Paris Review’s “Writers at Work” interviews have been mapping literary DNA since “participatory journalism” pioneer George Plimpton founded it in 1953. From the writers it interviews, to the stories and essays it runs, passion is the secret to Paris Review’s longevity, editor Lorin Stein told Huck’s Rob Boffard in Huck 038. “We publish what we publish because we enjoy it.”
Get The Paris Review on Zinio here.
This is the magazine that unleashed Hunter S. Thompson on Richard Nixon (See: ‘Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail’), embedded Evan Wright with marines from First Recon in Iraq (the resulting book Generation Kill was one of the most unfiltered, raw records of the war) and let Matt Tabbi loose on the global financial crisis, giving us the image of Goldman Sachs as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity.” Since it began in the ’60s, Rolling Stone has given great journalists the time, space and freedom to show us the world in new ways. And its blend of counter culture and investigative journalism has inspired Huck since we began.
Get Rolling Stone on Zinio here.
A method actor in magazine form. Little White Lies transforms and reinvents itself in the spirit of its cover film with each issue to create the world’s most beautiful movie magazine. Its pages explore the people, themes and inspirations behind movies. The mag is an authoritative alternative voice to the blockbuster and gossip focused status quo presented by mainstream movie magazine. “Each issue of LWLies strives to immerse the reader in a new film that we love,” Deputy Editor Adam Woodward says. Oh, and LWLies is also Huck’s sister magazine.
Get Little White Lies on Zinio here.
In the mid-noughties a group of skate editorial giants – among them J. Grant Brittain, Atiba and Ako Jefferson, and Dave Swift – grew frustrated with the corporate trajectory of big-dog skate mags like Transworld, where they all worked, and decided to jump ship to found their own rag: The Skateboard Mag. Resolutely independent and creative, The Skateboard Mag’s mission is to “maintain the independent nature and integrity of skateboard culture at all levels, provide readers with a broad, accurate, and knowledgeable view of skateboarding, and advance skateboard publishing through excellence in photography, writing, and design.” And it does, time and time again.
Get The Skateboard Mag on Zinio here.
6. Clash
Clash is a music and fashion magazine that has its finger firmly on the pulse of new trends and sounds in all corners of contemporary culture. Its wry, British voice cuts through the noise of most US-based pop media and, always securing great access, Clash goes for challenging story structures that reveal new things about its idiosyncratic subjects. The design is always beautiful with off-kilter photography compositions and tactile, ‘zine-like designs that elevate it from the newsstand and onto the mantelpiece.
Get Clash on Zinio here.
Design matters to us at Huck. Just as Mark Gonzales took skateboarding to places nobody had previously imagined and Miles Davis exploded conventions of form and structure to redefine music, pioneers are using digital techniques to push the boundaries of what is possible in art and design. Computer Arts celebrates the best new ideas from people who are constantly innovating and imagining new creative possibilities.
Get Computer Arts on Zinio here.
8. Stab
What makes Stab intriguing? Huck Staff Writer Tetsuhiko Endo, a man who knows his way around the surf media landscape, says the key is how it reflects the obsessions of its storied editor-at-large: “I love Stab magazine because the man at the helm, Derek Rielly, will publish almost any story in its entirety if he likes it. It’s always been my theory that he would dedicate an entire issue to a story if it were good enough. Say what you want about him, that is a man who loves words and the mag is his baby.”
Get Stab on Zinio here.
Smith Journal has carved out a territory made up of offbeat stories about thinkers, adventurers, makers, writers and inventors.In addition to contributors like Dave Eggers, Ira Glass and Jon Ronson sharing life lessons and their favourite things, it’s also where we learned the stories behind Field Notes, the Internet’s Wayback Machine and how 1980s Flash Gordon actor Sam J. Jones is now a real-life hostage negotiator.
Get Smith Journal on Zinio here.
10. AFAR
We heard about this independent San Francisco-based travel magazine through our nomadic friends at Boat magazine. In each issue, Afar chooses a destination at random — by literally spinning a globe — and sends a writer there for an unplanned, spontaneous journey. Afar provides great street-level guides to unusual destinations with features like the ‘Wandering Chef’, where chefs write about discoveries in bars and food markets and city guides based on the diaries of locals.
Get Afar on Zinio here.
We hope you love the mags we love. Don’t forget you can pick up a digital copy of Huck on Zinio here.
