Ray Gun (magazine)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Ray Gun was an American alternative rock-and-roll magazine, first published in 1992 in Santa Monica, California. Led by founding art director David Carson, Ray Gun explored experimental magazine typographic design. The result was a chaotic, abstract style, not always readable, but distinctive in appearance. That tradition for compelling visuals continued even after Carson abruptly left the magazine after barely three years; he was followed by a series of forward-looking art directors, including Robert Hales, Chris Ashworth, Scott Denton-Cardew, and Jerome Curchod.

In terms of content, Ray Gun was also notable for its choices of subject matter. The cutting-edge musical artists and pop culture icons spotlighted were typically ahead of the curve, putting such artists as Radiohead, Bjork, Beck, Flaming Lips, PJ Harvey and Eminem on its cover long before its better-known competitors. Those choices were guided by editor Randy Bookasta and an editorial staff that at times included Dean Kuipers, Nina Malkin, Mark Blackwell, Joe Donnelly, Grant Alden, Mark Woodlief, and Eric Gladstone.

Ray Gun produced over 70 issues from 1992 through 2000. Owner-founder-publisher Marvin Scott Jarrett (one-time publisher of a late-1980s incarnation of Creem) also created the magazines Bikini, Stick and huH.[citation needed] Jarret is currently editor-in-chief of Nylon, a successful New York-based fashion magazine.[1] The most notable common thread among all of Jarrett's magazines (from his latter-day Creem through Nylon) has been an attraction to dynamic next-generation graphic design.

[edit] Partial list of issues

[edit] Books

  • Ray Gun: Out of Control by Dean Kuipers and Marvin Scott Jarrett, Simon & Schuster (1997), ISBN 0-684-83980-6.

design and art direction by Neil Fletcher and Chris Ashworth.

[edit] External links

www.imagesofsubstance.com

This article about a music publication is a stub. You can help by expanding it.