The arrival of the latest offering from Stack is always a treat. May's package, in its distinctive envelope, was waiting on my doorstep when I got home this afternoon.
Stack is a magazine subscription service that surprises you each month with a pair of beautifully crafted, lovingly designed independent magazines, sometimes from the UK, sometimes from beyond, but always English language. There are no clues as to what the next package will contain so you never know what you're going to get, but whatever's in it is always worth spending some time with.
This month, the envelope held copies of POSTRmagazine and Under/current.
POSTRmagazine is an A1 fold-out publication from Belgium that bills itself as a Counter-Culture Chronicle. Its producers say it's designed to be put up like a poster. The sheer size of it means it's not intended to be read on the bus. Unfolded, reading it is like wrestling with an ordnance survey map. This is issue number five, and the theme is art. Spread it over the table and plan your route through it.
Under/current is a bi-annual publication that's more like a bigger-than-A4 paperback book than a magazine. It's hefty with a thick spine and is printed partly on substantial, textured paper and partly on glossy stock. It has a smokey cover image overlaid with a subtle white embossed masthead and a short contents list printed in white against the pale, hazy background. You have to look closely to see what it's called and what's in it. This is the third issue, subtitled Dawn, and like POSTRmagazine its theme is art. Under/current is a work of art in itself. It looks like it costs a fortune to produce. There's a lot to get through here. It's going to take some time.
In recent months, Stack distributions have included copies of Popshot (illustrated poetry), Anorak (a visually stylish children's magazine that, like pop music, is wasted on the young), Fire & Knives (food), and Manzine (an antidote to the usual knocker-obsessed men's mag fare). Here in Edinburgh we've still got a great independent magazine and art book store, Analog, where you can find a fine selection of Stack-style titles, but since Borders went down the pan, a key UK-wide outlet for scores of other small, non-mainstream magazines has disappeared for good. The likes of Analog can't fill the void on their own, so Stack offers an alternative form of distribution and a means of reaching a wider audience. Consider taking out a subscription. It's worth every penny.
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