FLEXING UNBRIDLED AGGRESSION AND CRISP 808 PRODUCTION, WAKA FLOCKA FLAME REINVENTED GANGSTA RAP’S SOUND. NOW, WITH THE RELEASE OF HIS SECOND ALBUM, TRIPLE F LIFE: FRIENDS, FANS AND FAMILY, HIP-HOP’S HEAVYWEIGHT PROVES HE’S READY TO REIGN WHILE STAYING TRUE TO HIS ROOTS

PHOTOGRAPHY TERRY RICHARDSON
FASHION HEATHER MARY JACKSON
TEXT PATRIK SANDBERG

Walking with Waka Flocka Flame along the Bowery comes with a certain amount of hilarious conspicuity: six-foot-six with a hulking frame, Flocka—as he will henceforth be called—surveys his surroundings with a self-aware, wide-eyed lucidity, less a fish out of water than a tiger out of his cage.

When asked if he spends any time in Manhattan, he exclaims, “Not the Lower East Side! I’ll go to the studio but I hang out in Queens. I always live in Queens. Never ever, ever I leave.”

Born in Jamaica, Queens, as Juaquin Malphurs, Flocka moved to Atlanta as a middle schooler before eventually returning, his time in the South indelibly adding to his musical vocabulary. In both places, proximity to the music business affected him from a very young age. “I grew up down the street from Murder Inc., down the street from RUN-D.M.C., Russell Simmons, and LL Cool J. The Lost Boyz used to hang out with my family members,” he says. “Music has always been in my family.”

For the full story from VMAN 26, CLICK HERE.

THE WILD SUCCESS OF HBO’S GAME OF THRONES HAS REWRITTEN THE LAWS OF THE TELEVISION DRAMA, DUE LARGELY TO ITS BRILLIANT SOURCE MATERIAL AND ITS DASHING, MASTERLY CAST

PHOTOGRAPHY CUNEYT AKEROGLU
FASHION TOBY GRIMDITCH
TEXT JUSTIN TAYLOR

Game of Thrones—which you probably know as a bloody, sexy, thrillingly unpredictable HBO drama now in its second season—started life as a novel by George R.R. Martin, the first in a projected trilogy called A Song of Ice and Fire. It was published in 1996 (a year before Harry Potter came out in the U.K., two years before it hit the States) and did pretty well for itself. The follow- up, A Clash of Kings, came out in 1999 and eventually made the New York Times best-seller list. By the time the third book, A Storm of Swords, debuted as a best seller, in 2000, Martin had realized he was going to need more than three books to tell his story of dragons, palace intrigue, dynastic wars, smugglers, slave revolts, religious fanatics, international relations, incest, the undead, and maybe a snowbound apocalypse. A Feast for Crows came out in 2005 and was another best seller, even though it pissed off a significant chunk of his fan base. The problem, basically, was that Martin’s vision had gotten so big that the next installment no longer fit into a single book. He decided to break his story into two 900-plus-page books that would take place more or less simultaneously. Feast is set in the more familiar territory of Westeros, but almost all of its protagonists are characters whom fans regard as bit-players. All the major storylines from Clash, meanwhile, were left untold until Martin finally finished the companion volume, A Dance with Dragons, which came out in 2011—an 11-year cliffhanger! (And you thought almost two years between seasons of Mad Men was bad.)

Read the complete story from VMAN 26 HERE. VMAN 26 is on sale now.

A DECADE AFTER SPIDER-MAN—THE GAME-CHANGING BLOCKBUSTER THAT BROKE ALL THE RECORDS—ANDREW GARFIELD STARS IN THIS SUMMER’S REBOOT, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. WHO BETTER TO GIVE HIM ADVICE THAN TOBEY MAGUIRE, THE ORIGINAL SPIDEY? HERE, THE TWO IMPASSIONED ACTORS DISCUSS THE NATURE OF SUCCESS, STORYTELLING, AND CELEBRITY

PHOTOGRAPHY INEZ & VINOODH
FASHION NICOLA FORMICHETTI
TEXT ELLIOTT DAVID
INTERVIEW TOBEY MAGUIRE

It was a perfect Southern California day last summer when the British actor Andrew Garfield walked into Comic-Con, still—in his mind, at least—just another super fan. But he would walk out knowing things would never be the same.

A year earlier Garfield was in Cancun promoting his role as Eduardo Saverin, co-creator of Facebook, in David Fincher’s The Social Network, when he was told he’d scored the highly coveted role of Peter Parker in Sony’s Spider-Man reboot. The decision had been kept strictly confidential, and roughly thirty minutes after sharing the news, producers surprised Garfield further with a spontaneous press junket—in Mexico—to make the announcement. A visibly in-shock Garfield almost tripped on the stage curtain after being introduced by The Amazing Spider-Man director, Marc Webb ((500) Days of Summer). The ambush may have been a PR stunt, or maybe the cloak-and-dagger process was for Garfield’s own protection from the media blitz that certainly would have ensued had the information leaked. Either way it spoke to the importance of such a role. After all, the original Spider-Man trilogy grossed more than $2.5 billion worldwide.

Ten years ago, 2002′s original Spider-Man became the first film in history to pass the $100 million mark in an opening weekend. At $39 million, it was the highest opening-day gross of all time, a record that would remain unbroken—until Spider-Man 2. It paved the way for the Twilights and Transformers and Hunger Games, pushing box office numbers well past what was previously believed possible. Sort of like when an Olympian breaks a world record: what was once perceived as unimaginable—superhuman even—suddenly becomes the norm. Spider-Man rewrote the rules of the blockbuster, and in turn bestowed upon its cast colossal international fame. Spider-Man isn’t just a movie franchise, it’s a financial institution.

Suffice it to say that Peter Parker is a dream role for every young actor—except none of the obvious motivators appeal to Garfield, which he made quite clear at Comic-Con. As the The Amazing Spider-Man symposium was about to begin, the Los Angeles–born, U.K.-raised Garfield surprised audiences by taking the stand disguised in what appeared to be a child’s Spider-Man halloween costume, saying in a perfect American accent, “This might be the most incredible day of my life—I’ve always wanted to be at Comic-Con in hall H.” He then took off his mask, revealing himself, and proceeded to give a deeply earnest, heartwarming speech about his lifelong devotion to the character. “I’ve always wanted to come here as a fan, so here I am, as a fan,” he told the audience, the pages of a prepared speech shaking in his hands as he nearly hyperventilated, then nearly cried, then beamed with appreciation and disbelief. “I needed Spidey in my life as a kid, and he gave me hope…Peter Parker has inspired me to feel stronger, he made me, Andrew, braver. He reassured me that by doing the right thing it’s worth it, it’s worth the struggle, it’s worth the pain, it’s worth even the tears and the bruises and the blood…He saved my life.”

But you know the saying: with great power comes great responsibility.

For the full story, including Garfield’s interview with Tobey Maguire, CLICK HERE. VMAN 26 is on sale May 17.

KEYWORDS: Andrew Garfield, Elliott David, Inez & Vinoodh, nicola formichetti, Spider-Man, Tobey Maguire, VMAn 26

Designer Bumsuk Choi has carved a unique niche within the arguably over-saturated collaboration market; he is the creative director of both his own label, General Idea, and the global sportswear brand HEAD (Korea), and he’s partnered the two for Fall/Winter 2012. The results are an excellent product of total control, a synergistic and modern blend of both high-fashion athletic wear and every-day basics, without the slightest air of disconnect.

Using the 1968 Grenoble Olympic Games as his jump off (how timely), Choi’s overall aesthetic skews a tiny bit mid-meets-mod century, but the HEAD pieces are totally 2012—and they range across the design board, from accessories to ready-to-wear. Think ice-blue and yellow ski goggles, slimline puffer vests and scarves with carabiner hooks. “The collaboration comes very naturally to me,” says Choi.

General Idea is still finding its international footing, but Choi is encouraged by the American response to his brand, especially in New York. “New York always gives me the comfort to do my version of fashion when I compare it with Paris.” If that’s not reason enough for fandom, I don’t know what is.

Choi has hinted that we can expect to see more of the collaboration in the near future. Until then, General Idea is sold at Oki-ni.com.

KEYWORDS: Bumsuk Choi, General Idea, Head Korea, Nick Remsen

Not only does James Franco act, direct, and publish fiction, he now has an artist monograph to boot. Entitled The Dangerous Book Four Boys, the tome, published by Rizzoli, directly reflects Franco’s first solo exhibition of the same title, which opened in 2010 at New York’s Clocktower Gallery. It is less the images in the book and more the essays—written by such luminaries as MoMA chief curator Klaus Biesenbach and original P.S. 1 founding director Alana Heiss—that shed light on Franco’s subject matter. The most prominent of the installation shots are that of three simple wooden structures resembling playhouses—our first clue that Franco is exploring themes of childhood. Through the texts we discover that these structures also house videos, some dealing with the houses’ own destruction and others taking a more narrative tone. Their content varies from a masked Franco making a film for his favorite director, Wes Anderson, to ruminations on artist Paul McCarthy’s indulgent installation “Pig Island” (2003-10), to an awkward yet explicit sex scene between Star Trek‘s Spock and Kirk. While the show’s reviews focused primarily on Franco’s meditations on childhood and memory, this book, which reveals much of the process behind the exhibition, seems to move beyond such basic categorizations. Franco’s work is disjointed yet it patches together various corners of our media-saturated culture, within which he knowingly plays a large and influential part. It is this self-acknowledgment more than any specific imagery that grounds his work and, more importantly, brings to it a certain sense of intrigue. Courtney Malick

The Dangerous Book Four Boys is available now from Rizzoli.

KEYWORDS: art, Courtney Malick, james franco, Rizzoli, vman 25