McSweeney's Issue 33: The San Francisco Panorama (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern) [Unbound]

McSweeney's 33 takes the form of a one shot newspaper called The San Francisco Panorama, about the size of a sunday paper. Besides the news section (brief), you get sections of investigative reportage, a sports section, a food section, a book review magazine, another magazine of various articles, and a comics section, all of which is presented in broadsheet fashion with two magazines inside.

There are a huge number of contributors, many of them big names. Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, writes about the value of public schools, Nicholson Baker does a piece on closed paper mills in Maine and posits the idea that they save forests more than broadband stations. China Mieville writes about how bored he is with end of the world movies and suggests a reprieve. Salman Rushdie writes about Kara Walker, an artist who works with silhouettes. There's a fantastic appreciation of J G Ballard by Geoff Nicholson which'll make you want to re-read all of Ballard's work again. Also Dave Eggers interviews Junot Diaz and Miranda July interviews James Franco.

The comics section is definitely worth a section as it's amazing. Chris Ware provides a build it yourself spacecraft for his comic strip "Rocket Sam", Dan Clowes spoofs "Lost in Space" with "The Christian Astronauts", while Alison Bechdel, Ivan Brunetti, Gene Luen Yang, Art Spiegelman, Adrian Tomine, Kim Deith, and Seth all provide strips. It's a definite highlight to an already gobsmackingly brilliant issue.
The fiction in this issue, the reason why McSweeney's was created, is few at only 4 short stories by George Saunders, Seth Fried, the actor James Franco, and Roddy Doyle. Ironically, they're not that great except the always great Roddy Doyle who supplies a great story about a homeless Polish man and his friend who win the lottery.

The best thing about this issue is the nonfiction. Investigative reporting on environmental degradation in California by Jesse Nathan, the cover story on the enormous new bridge being built in San Francisco and it's impact by Patricia Decker and Robert Porterfield, romance novels' cover men, an article on NASCAR racing, Sarah Palin's lack of ethics, film distribution, a playwright's fight against Wells Fargo to save a family from foreclosure, a 500 mile pilgrimage in South America, and a 5 month stint in Antartica for a local Oakland resident are all amazing.

There's so much here I've barely cracked the surface in the review. I didn't read all of it, particularly sports as I've no interest in American football, basketball, or baseball, though Stephen King provides a massive article, wonderfully illustrated, about the 2009 World Series. But basically, there's so much here, so well done, there's something for everyone.

Created over a year, this is McSweeney's most ambitious and best production yet. It continues to be a shining example of the relevance of the arts in the modern world and sustains a high level of creativity and imagination. You'll never read a newspaper with so much world class talent in one production, it's really amazing. In the mood to read something different? This is the one for you.

McSweeneys is the publishing house in USA that makes Granta look like the The Oldie.
This is the brainchild of Dave Eggers, a writter and publisher of a small quarterly journal, short stories and many interesting articles.
That is enough, but what these guys do is to make the design of each issue different. In this case they have produced 40,000 print run colour newspaper, in its own bag.
The contents are as they often are but more news, more San fran!
I remember an earlier issue was a series of pamplets in a box, there was another devoted to comic art, just as Chris Ware exploded.
Always at the centre of design and good writing, I recommend McSweeneys and this is an amazing issue to start your collection with, oh and by the way they often surprise by turning out a book or two and they are immaculate and a lesson in typography too!

Christmas came again in March when I opened my copy of issue 33. A heft wadge of broadsheet with magazines and bits and bobs slipping out all over the carpet. I sat for a whole Sunday with my coffee and this paper. I have a problem with facts, despite being surrounded by them all day every day, they just don't seem to stick .But McSweeneys made the conflict in the congo fascinating and digestable, the American Soldiers in Iraq were finally real people. I wish I could buy this paper every week, just to ease the awkward silences in dinner parties when who or what rules Israel slips clean out my head and Gaza may aswell be a washing detergent.