Growing up in Hull there wasn’t a lot of interesting independent print going around, so I was excited to receive a copy of Article in the post recently. Granted it’s made in Sheffield not Hull, but the Yorkshire connection is close enough.

Apparently Article has been on the go for a while now, but its last 13 issues have only been available within its home city. Issue zero of volume two changes all that, distributed for the first time in Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, and of course Sheffield.

The design is strong and simple, mixing full colour with a central section of black, white and yellow, and belies a zine maker’s love for photocopying, which they’ve explored in the theme of copying.

Artists and designers are asked for their thoughts on creativity vs copying, the urban regeneration schemes that have turned northern cities into copies of a homogenised ideal are analysed, and there’s a ‘fade to grey’ fashion shoot that photocopies models and then copies the copies into oblivion. Some of those images are also used for the cover, and it seems it all got a bit too much for their hardware – the magazine opens with photos of Glen the photocopier repair man at work.

Article’s strap line is ‘pop culture and urbanism’, and it covers a wide range of subjects, including art and design, music, fashion and publishing. Not everything in the magazine is about the north, but those are the bits I like the most. For example two stories on alternative city branding in Sheffield and Manchester are really fascinating – the interviews with Sheffield Publicity Department and Manchester Modernist Society give exactly the sort of local perspective that allows for a clear, independent view of those cities.

It’s brilliant to find a strong editorial and design package coming out of the north, or any regional cities for that matter. I’m looking forward to Article updating me on what’s happening outside London again soon.

Jeremy has already posted about this, but I promised I’d give it a mention here as well. So here it is.

Back in April I sent out Popshot, a magazine of poetry and illustration. The next issue is due out soon, and before the new one hits they’re trying to clear the decks of all the slightly damaged copies they’ve got knocking around. So while stocks last you can pick up a slightly scuffed copy of Popshot at half price – just £3 including postage within the UK. Bargain!

Stack took a few weeks off in August, but the September magazines arrived today so we’ll be putting those together along with some lovely free newspapers and flyers and mailing it all out to subscribers next week.

And in the meantime I’ll be trying to catch up with all the stuff that went on while I was away, beginning with Longshot, the magazine made in one weekend by the people who were behind 48HR Magazine.

I’ve always been a bit sceptical of this stuff – surely the great thing about magazines is that a group of talented people can take their time to bring lots of interesting ideas together in a considered way? But then I read the Columbia Journalism Review’s Q&A with founder Alexis Madrigal and got excited. I love the idea of “an event that is also a magazine”, and I really want to see what somebody who spends most of their time working online makes of editing a paper magazine. The way Madrigal sees it, printing gives an editor a lot more control than online publishing does, helping to “find the back doors into people’s brains”.

I’m sold – literally. I placed my order on Magcloud and apparently my copy of Longshot should be with me in 10 working days. This is the first time I’ve bought from Magcloud too, so I’m interested to see what the whole experience is like. That feels like a good way to start in on the end of the year.

Working with independent magazines, you get used to seeing things that aren’t really very commercial. But when Polarity arrived a few weeks ago I was still taken aback by it.

Editor George Ttoouli teaches creative writing at Warwick University, and says he started the magazine to provide a creative outlet for surreal work. It’s interesting stuff, but it’s not easy going. It took me a few days of reading on the tube to and from work to even work out what it was (the magazine doesn’t do anything as obvious as mention the word ‘surreal’).

The first page begins with an ‘Argument’ – “Being an artefactual recontextualisation of the concepts outlined on the outer shell, through multiple media and minds.” Assuming the outer shell is the cover, I turn back there to look for clues in the cover lines – “Taxonomising, economising, the potty baron rambles through his halls then goes fishing”. Right.

Inside there are statements, poems, stories, photographs and illustrations, and I found myself fascinated and frustrated in equal measure. It has the sort of playfulness that I love in magazines like the Kasino Creative Annual, but it’s also dense with text and asks its reader to work hard.

This is an artistic endeavour for Ttoouli, so he’s not hoping to make a huge profit from the magazine. He does want to make enough to keep it going, though, and he says he firmly believes that there is a reading public out there that likes surprises – people that find Granta a bit predictable and are looking for something different.

I agree. Even with my rudimentary understanding of surrealism I was able to take something from Polarity – it has a power and direction that kept me turning the pages even as it baffled me. If you think you might be the sort of person who gets excited by a surreal surprise, get yourself to the Polarity site and buy a copy. Only 400 copies of issue one were printed, and issue two is due out at the end of the year. I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes next.

The latest Stack America envelope contained two fantastic publications, along with the latest in our ever-popular Designers Series print from typographer Cyrus Highsmith.

First up (only because they answered their questions first) is Put An Egg On It, the “tasty zine” from R&S Media in Brooklyn.

Its first issue, a mere palate-teaser, was just eight pages long. The latest edition, their second, was funded in part by Kickstarter, and comes in at 32 glorious, green-tinted pages. It arrived at Stack America HQ direct from the printer, smelling of lovely matt paper and ink, and went straight into subscribers’ envelopes. Filled with unconventional food stories, great photography, kitchen tips and recipes, it’s an unpretentious, juicy read.

Ralph McGinnis (the R of R&S, who also run the blog Print Fetish) tells us how the magazine came to be colored green, why Gordon Ramsey makes bad food, and confesses a love for Martha Stewart.

OK, we’ll ask. Why that title?
I’ve always liked absurdly long or descriptive titles, like Shell Silverstien’s “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out.” It immediately evokes a sense of play and irreverence before you get started. And Sarah is a prophet about the deliciousness of putting a fried egg on all leftovers – it works pretty much every time on practically anything. And the words come out of her mouth a lot. It sums up our feelings about cooking and art – have fun and make it awesome no matter what you have to work with.

Were you surprised that you reached your goal on Kickstarter?
I don’t think I was surprised – just hopeful and grateful when we reached our goal. We have a lot of amazing friends who have been rooting for us for years, and Kickstarter makes it easy to trust that their money will go for supporting the project – because no one is charged unless the goal is reached.

I’ve never seen a green-tinted magazine before. How and why did that
come about, and how easy was it to get the colors right on that paper?
Green is my favorite color – it represents life, and more literally makes me think of salad or sautéed greens. The green paper automatically adds character and funkyness. We did bump up the contrast to make sure it wasn’t too dark, and we had some of the paper to run through our inkjet printer – but there was no sure way of knowing exactly how images would look in the final mag. I’m a fan of leaving some things to chance. With design and cooking!

What are your criteria for content?
The main thing is that it’s personal – and not reportage.

How different is your attitude to food from that of, say, Martha Stewart?
Actually… I have to say… I love Martha Stewart. I watch her shows and read her magazines. I especially loved Blueprint (RIP) – because it was all about making things for yourself and being creative, rather than just buying things (like Domino). I don’t know if my attitude about food is any different than hers, she can enjoy the finer things and down home things. Like her, Sarah and I believe in making your own meals and sharing them with the people you love. Maybe the main difference is we don’t mind being messy.

What is the difference between good food and bad food?
I know it sounds cheesy… but I really think you have to surround the making of food with love. I wouldn’t want to eat at a Gordon Ramsey Restaurant, ‘cuz he’s way to angry and yelling all the time. I think spit actually flies out of his mouth and into the food. Also, I saw him put an egg into (rather than on) a hamburger on one of his shows. I do love eggs – but I’m sorry… thats a meatloaf sandwich, not a hamburger, Gordon.

What do you hope a reader of PAEOI will do after reading it?
Remember a lovely moment they had at dinner with someone, or a favorite treat from their childhood. So much life springs from a snack.

Where next for PAEOI?
An internet cooking show!

What’s your favorite pizza topping?
Right now I’m particularly into arugula on pizza.

Are you a Stack subscriber? If so, there’s an MA project that wants to pick your brains.

Belinda Johnson is a graduate student at London College of Communication, and she’s working on a final year project looking into the future of the independent magazine in print. She’s also a Stack subscriber, and wants to know what her fellow subscribers think to the service, and to independent magazines in general.

It’s very quick, so if you’d like to have your say go to the online survey and tell her what you think. And check out State of Independents, the blog Belinda has set up. She’s planning to eventually turn the project into a magazine about magazines, which sounds like a nice idea.

Now’s your chance to be part of an infographic!

When the iPad launched I didn’t really want one, but I knew it wouldn’t be long until I did. And now I do.

I’ve watched the demo videos of various magazines on iPads, and I’ve managed to have a quick play with a couple of them. They seem to be fun, but nothing that I could really imagine myself reading every day – and certainly not instead of the paper version. But yesterday Jeremy at magCulture posted about Flipboard, and I’m wondering where I can get £600 from.

If magazines on the iPad have so far focused on creating a new navigation for conventionally edited print magazines, Flipboard starts to show a future in which your magazine is edited by your friends (and so ultimately by you, since you choose your friends). Like I say, I want one.

So much Stack America news to catch up on!

In the two mailings since we last checked in here, Stack America has sent out Pin Up magazine and d[x]i magazine, and Beautiful/Decay, a GOOD infographic sheet and a Little White Lies mini magazine. Not to mention exclusive images by Robert Newman and Lauren DiCioccio.

Plenty more to report too, not to mention the latest mailing, which will be on its way later today, but for now we will leave you with this illuminating interview with Amir from Beautiful/Decay, one of the most remarkable and long-lasting chronicles of counter culture and graffiti out there.

How would you summarize the content of Beautiful/Decay?
We focus on young, emerging art and design from around the world. We take great pride in featuring artists that people haven’t heard of, but deserve greater recognition.

What do you think when you look back at old issues of B/D? What are the stand-out moments for you?
I think, “Wow,” we had humble beginnings. I also think about how many of the artists that are featured in those issues now have big careers. I’d like to think that we helped get them there in some small way.

Has counter-cultural/alternative expression changed a lot since you began? If so, how?
Well, back then everything wasn’t all over the internet. People were barely online and there weren’t a lot of blogs. As a result we were one of the only places that you could find this type of content. Over the years we’ve had to refine our editorial process so that you still had that moment of discovery when you flipped through an issue of B/D. We have to do more legwork to find artists that are underexposed. It’s more work but well worth it.

Have you ever had people refuse for their work to be published in the magazine?
In our first or second issue, people were sometimes hesitant. But, after we built a reputation, people started coming to us. It hasn’t been a big issue over the years as artists have seen that we always put them first. B/D is a magazine by artists, for artists, so we take a lot of pride in making sure the people that we feature are happy with the final result.

Why did you choose to change format/frequency from a magazine to a book?
I think the new format gives us more freedom. It’s actually what I always wanted to do with the mag. I always wanted to create this big archive of interviews with the world’s best creatives. I never liked the ads or the fluff that went in traditional magazines so this was a great way to make a better product for our readers.

When did B/D become financially viable as a company?
Oh, I’d say about 2004-5. We’ve always been small and have remained that way so we can stay viable. So many magazines have gone under this past year. We’ve had a lot of luck staying one step ahead of the game and changing with the times.

What are the biggest challenges and the biggest pleasures of publishing a magazine?
The biggest challenge is always money. Now that we are 100% subscription based, we rely on our readers to subscribe. The biggest pleasure is opening the mail and holding four months of hard work in your hands.

Where next for B/D?
We’re going to keep working to make the B/D book series bigger and better. We have tons of new limited-edition collaborations, prints, and other surprises planned for the next year.