It's definitely fab — an exploration of the Pop/underground worlds done in a three-dimensional manner not possible until Aspen's unique box format came along.

Until now, every magazine was a bunch of pages stapled together. It arrived in your mailbox folded, mutilated and spindled— usually with more ads than editorial. But why? asked our editors.

Why couldn't a magazine come in a box? Why couldn't each article be a separate booklet, in the shape, color and paper most appropriate to the subject? Why shouldn't an article exploring jazz be accompanied by an LP record illustrating in sound our words in print?

Aspen Magazine is the answer. Our editors, no longer limited by the restrictions of a bound magazine, could let their imaginations soar. And they did. They began thinking in three dimensions. And there was no end to the exciting ideas.

Take our third issue, designed by Andy Warhol and David Dalton, it makes the most of the three dimenensional possibilities. In it you'll find the first "underground movie flip book"; a Rock & Roll press kit (with a record of the Velvet Underground and Peter Walker); a Ten Trip Ticket Book (on guess what subject); a card kit of pop and op paintings, with the artists telling why they painted them and the collector, John C. Powers, telling why he collected them; a copy of the first, last and only edition of The Plastic Exploding Inevitable, a newspaper composite of all the underground newspapers flourishing across the country; And Much More. Fab!

Each issue of Aspen will be the work of a different top designer. George Lois, Tom Courtos and Ralph Tuzzo designed the first issue. Frank Kirk designed the second. The third is the Warhol-Dalton Fabulation. The fourth (our Marshall McLuhan issue) is now on the drawing boards of Bob McElrath and Henry Wolf. Our fifth (devoted to Far Eastern thought) will be the work of a Japanese artist in authentic oriental manner, complete with scrolls and fanfold books maybe even edible rice paper. So you see, it's like getting a surprise present every issue; you never know what will pop out.

But Aspen is more than a delight to the eye, it will also be a feast for the intellect. We promise that its content will be as original and rewarding as the format.

We'll cover everything that enhances life and anything that can be described as a civilized pleasure of modern living— from skiing and wildflower watching to houses and humanities. There'll be articles on art, architecture, music (always with a record), dance, gourmet dining, nature and conservation, underground movies, avant-garde theatre, and iconoclastic people— even how to make your own wine and mead.

Why do we call it Aspen? Because we're using the cultural spa of the Rockies as a point of view, a state of mind, a symbol of the free-wheeling eclectic life (much as The New Yorker uses New York).

Does it sound exciting? It is. Does it sound expensive to produce? It isn't cheap. Aspen is published every other month. A single issue is $4. A charter subscription (6 issues) is $16. That's $8 below the single-copy price of $24.

Also, we'll guarantee you that our magazine is in fact as great as it sounds in concept. If you hate it, you can cancel at any time and get a pro-rata refund promptly. You have nothing to lose—and at the very least a conversation piece and collector's item to gain.

Let's go.

from Evergreen Review no. 46, April 1967

Adapted for the web by Andrew Stafford.
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