- Highlight
- #1
Pork Magazine was a free paper in Portland, basically a vehicle for cartoonist Sean Aaberg to do his "weirdo art", sell merchandise, and install he and his wife Katie Aaberg into the hip youth culture of the 2010s. The magazine is padded with a lot of bad photoshoots, PLENTY OF CRUISE CONTROL, ads for local businesses, and rambling vanity articles written by random portland scenesters.
But if you can stand to wade through all the mess and fat chicks there are media reviews, interviews with bands and artists, and random bits of content that are worth a look. Sean Aaberg interviews some legendary artists like Ralph Bakshi, for instance. There's also a seemingly forgotten Gavin McInnes interview from his gap years between the Vice days and the toying his ass to pwn the libs days. There is some cool art too, from Sean and many other artists who you might know of if you're a fan of alt comics and metal music and stuff like that. It's not all good, and the aesthetic can get real samey and repetative, but there are definitely gems to be found if you're into combing through random media.
PORK magazine started in late 2010/early 2011 in Eugene, Oregon by Sean & Katie Äaberg AKA GOBLINKO & eventually moved with them to Portland, Oregon. PORK had the stated goal of being "Coney Island in Magazine Form". Inspired by the 60s Underground Comix, MAD, PUNK & SCREW magazines, dodgy ads for things like monkeys, switchblades, self-hypnosis, militaria, novelties & get-rich quick schemes from the backs of old comic books & the Do It Yourself sleaze empire of Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, PORK set out to turn the tide on an increasingly uptight, sterile & boring America & essentially "fuck the soul" back into the nation. PORK took all the Rock&Roll & associated subcultures & ground them up into a big hot dog, smoked it & loaded it with the works, extra sauerkraut. Each big issue was full of Rock&Roll, Weirdo Art & Bad Ideas. PORK was free on the streets, & now it's free online.
From their website [archive]
From their website [archive]
PORK has a page where you can read every issue of the magazine ever online for free, but it's all in galleries and they all load on the page simultaneously really slowly so my diagnosis is CANCER and that page is here, but I'm going to just link directly to the galleries in the list below which is a little less cancerous I guess.* An attempt at archives is linked in a spoiler at the end of this post. I also pointed out a few of the more interesting interview features.
- Issue 1 - interview with Charles Krafft, who made ironic Hitler pottery and everyone had a good laugh***
- Issue 2
- Issue 3
- Issue 4 - interview with Anarcho-Primitivist John Zerzan, a friend and supporter of Ted Kazynski, the Unabomber
- Issue 5 - interview with Gavin McInnes
- Issue 6 - interviews with psychedelic artist Stanley Mouse and cartoonist/animator Ralph Bakshi
- Issue 7
- Issue 8
- Issue 9
- Issue 10 - interview with Mike Diana, cartoonist famous for getting fucked by an obscenity trial
- Issue 11 - interviews with keith morris from Black Flag and Dr. Demento
- Issue 12
- Issue 13
- Issue 14
- Issue 15
- Issue 16
- Issue 17
- Issue 18
- Issue 19
- Issue 20
- Issue 21
- Issue 22
- Issue 23
- Issue 24
- Issue 25
- Issue 26
- Issue 27
- Issue 28
- Issue 29
PORK had a robust internet following in its heyday (especially on Tumblr and Instagram) and fielded some of its own drama. The short version is that they use a lot of nazi imagery and produce some ironic swastika accessories to SCARE THE SQUARES and honor "hot rod culture" and then in 2016, as cancel culture ramped up, told the local press that they had stopped using nazi imagery because orange man bad. That article here. [archive] Since the magazine ended, Sean has a board game called Dungeon Degenerates that's big in the indie games world. He also suffered a stroke in 2018, but has been recovering and regaining his motor skills since. Sean and Katie still have an online store, where you can still buy swastika merch if you wanna get punched in the mouth by a stranger sometime soon.**
*Baby's first thread. Of course I had to pick a topic that uses that weird third party fliphtml gallery thing. I am not sure if archives work for that but I tried it just in case. Mods can feel free to set me straight. I considered uploading pdfs but I can always do that later if kiwis want em. Happy browsing!
**screencap of swastika merch for posterity in attached files
*** Until "On July 28, 2012, he participated (not for the first time) in a podcast produced by the white nationalist website The White Network, whose tagline is 'Whites Talking to Whites About White Interests.'" Source [archive]
- Issue 1 - [archive] interview with Charles Krafft, who made ironic hitler pottery and everyone had a good laugh and then in 2012 (two years after this interview) everyone found out that he posted on white nationalist messageboards
- Issue 2 [archive]
- Issue 3 [archive]
- Issue 4 [archive] - interview with Anarcho-Primitivist John Zerzan, a friend and supporter of Ted Kazynski, the Unabomber
- Issue 5 [archive] - interview with Gavin McInnes
- Issue 6 [archive] - interviews with psychedelic artist Stanley Mouse and cartoonist/animator Ralph Bakshi
- Issue 7 [archive]
- Issue 8 [archive]
- Issue 9 [archive]
- Issue 10 [archive] - interview with Mike Diana, cartoonist famous for getting fucked by an obscenity trial
- Issue 11 [archive] - interviews with keith morris from Black Flag and Dr. Demento
- Issue 12 [archive]
- Issue 13 [archive]
- Issue 14 [archive]
- Issue 15 [archive]
- Issue 16 [archive]
- Issue 17 [archive]
- Issue 18 [archive]
- Issue 19 [archive]
- Issue 20 [archive]
- Issue 21 [archive]
- Issue 22 [archive]
- Issue 23 [archive]
- Issue 24 [archive]
- Issue 25 [archive]
- Issue 26 [archive]
- Issue 27 [archive]
- Issue 28 [archive]
- Issue 29 [archive]
