Free web magazines

July 12, 2008 12:24 AM

Free web magazines Click to read. But not the first mag - the link doesn't appear to work. Mostly "flip" mags but some PDFS.
posted by Tokil (18 comments total)

This thread will be fun to watch. Thanks!
posted by allkindsoftime at 12:52 AM on July 12, 2008

Jeebus H. Gonzales, these look awful.

The tattoo magazine called "PRICK" might be of interest to Mefier plexi, though! Killing two birds with one stone!

And hey, Tokil, what's up with that monkey tag?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 12:54 AM on July 12, 2008

Oh, I see. Monkey is the name of one of the magazines. That's the one you wanna plug more than the others?

Um... where's our UK mod?
posted by flapjax at midnite at 1:07 AM on July 12, 2008

What's a "flip" mag? Is "flip" the latest Internet slang for "awful"? Because that would make sense. Although then I'd wonder why the "flip" "digi-zines" were being contrasted with the PDF ones.
posted by A Thousand Baited Hooks at 1:25 AM on July 12, 2008

*raises eyebrow*
posted by amyms at 1:45 AM on July 12, 2008

It's like 30-40 years ago when the students would come knocking on your door selling magazine subscriptions to earn tuition money. Tokil, what's your major?
posted by netbros at 1:50 AM on July 12, 2008

The magazine 'Sleek' (under Art and Design), which appears to be a German publication (text in English and German, lots of settings in Berlin) is packed with intensely colorful, really beautiful images, and a few semi-interesting articles.

Now I want to go to Berlin...
posted by dancestoblue at 1:54 AM on July 12, 2008

It's like 30-40 years ago when the students would come knocking on your door selling magazine subscriptions

They STILL do that, at least in my neck of the woods. They're the ones who responded to the "Great opportunity! Travel the country! No experience required!" ads in their local newspaper. They end up in a van, driven by a scum sucking pig who seems to have plenty of money for drugs but not for food or for phone calls to home. They get a few miles away from their home state and they're trapped. I give them a "you poor thing" face and a bottle of water. I offer to report their employer to the police (my husband is a police office). Most of them refuse any "help," so I send them on their way. Very sad.
posted by amyms at 1:59 AM on July 12, 2008

officer*
posted by amyms at 2:00 AM on July 12, 2008

A lot of these appear to be just dashed off and trashy, but 'Sleek' is very good.

I actually like this way of flipping through pages... somehow it feels a more substantial and higher quality experience than just scrolling and clicking through a webpages, even if the content might be the same.
posted by Flashman at 3:18 AM on July 12, 2008

Is this spam?
posted by chillmost at 3:49 AM on July 12, 2008

Pretty Dumb For Sure?
P.Diddy For Senator?
Please Don't Fling Shit?
Paddling Doesn't Flatten Shiners?
Pee Diddle Foo Shank?
posted by ardgedee at 4:24 AM on July 12, 2008

More of this here: http://imgs.zinio.com/iphone/ - with mainstream US magazines (U.S. News, Saveur, Playboy, etc.).
You need to set your user-agent to iPhone, though.
posted by bashos_frog at 5:28 AM on July 12, 2008

Prick magazine! How am I going to start a magazine for narcissistic onanists now?
posted by parmanparman at 5:59 AM on July 12, 2008

The only one I looked at, Monkey Magazine #87, I enjoyed the American intern imitating British accents. Not that I would read it again, but can see its appeal. It does a pretty good job of blending formats: youtube, glossy magazine.

I actually like this way of flipping through pages... somehow it feels a more substantial and higher quality experience than just scrolling and clicking through a webpages, even if the content might be the same.

Agreed. One reason I like reading books on Internet Archive, compared to Google Bpoks. Google has about 10 to 20 times more books, but they don't have IA's "Flip Book".
posted by stbalbach at 6:00 AM on July 12, 2008

I suspect that Monkey Magazine was the inspiration for "Sugar Ape" from the Nathan Barley TV series.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:16 AM on July 12, 2008

It's Dennis, who was recently covered ... somewhere on this site, variously bragging of killing men, starting forests, and running a publishing empire on Cleveland Street, home of Edwardian London's favourite royal rent boy scandals.

I'm half repulsed by this - the weirdness of hoisting paper metaphors on the web, with tactile interfaces and turny pages strikes me as failing to understand the medium. The video-on-paper pages seem clever, like an 80s sci-fi version of magazines from the future, which failed to see that magazines would migrate to screen, rather than screen to magazine, until you realise it could be handled so much better. And if you're using a non-computer device, these pages will be so heavy and difficult to use they'd be useless. Not to mention how badly they play with the web, skipping all that indexing, bookmarking, sharing, greasemonkeying, et al.

But the other side of me says - it's not that the metaphor fits badly, it's that the metaphor fits at all. Someone had to try it, sooner or later, and it's cute while it lasts - it's a great thing to show what can (as opposed to should) be done with interactive technologies. I know I'll be looking back at these one day the same way I look back at CD Rom magazines and thinking... 'what were they thinking?!', probably.
posted by davemee at 6:21 AM on July 12, 2008

Oh and saying a rude word on TV for the first time. That's your aide memoire now I've lost interest.
posted by davemee at 6:21 AM on July 12, 2008