Bonus drop: "Cover Story" x halfgood
Bonus drop: "Cover Story" x halfgood
Also finally: a first look at an actual real copy of my book.
Hi everyone. Welcome to my newsletter companion to “Cover Story,” a basketball book I wrote which is set for release on October 26th and is available for pre-order here. If you want to tell your followers about my book, feel free to share this tweet or this Instagram post. If you’re not a newsletter subscriber, click here to make sure you get every post in your inbox.
The book is almost here! I got some good and bad news from my publisher Triumph Books this week. First, the good news: the physical books arrived at their office, and thank you Clarissa for sending me the photo above. It’s the first time I’ve seen a physical copy of the book, and damn, it looks pretty cool. The (not really that) bad news: the release date has been pushed by a week to October 26th.
If you are not aware, there are some very serious supply chain issues right now (this is a pretty good article about it), and it is hitting the publishing industry pretty hard. Everyone I know who also has a book ready to come out has been delayed, some by several months. So, all things considered, a delay of a week isn’t anything I’m going to stress over. If you are a media member who I’ve reached out to over the past few months for an address, your copy should finally be arriving in the mail over the next few weeks.
Anyways, if you still haven’t preordered the book yet but plan to, whether for yourself or for someone else for the holidays, I would suggest you do it sooner rather than later. The supply chain issues are here to stay, so my guess is if the first print run of “Cover Story” sells out, it might be awhile before the second print run is available.
Today we have our third “Cover Story” bonus drop courtesy of Tristan Douglas a.k.a. halfgood, who you should follow on Twitter and Instagram. If you missed our first two drops, make sure you check out Dana Smart’s Destiny’s Child print and the UpNorthTrips Source Sports t-shirt and tote.
The t-shirt design is a collage of SLAM covers, of which many are featured in “Cover Story.” I love this assortment of covers because they are all instantly recognizable. That might be the highest compliment for SLAM. Their most iconic covers (and there are many of them) are etched into the memories of hoop fans all around the world. They’re a part of not just the lore of individual players, but serve us time stamps for some of the most important moments and eras in basketball history.
The “Cover Story” x halfgood SLAM tee is available for pre-order here and will ship on October 27th. Keep an eye on Tristan’s website as well, which you can bookmark here. There are plenty of other fun basketball and Raptors-related drops on the way.
Tristan also shared his favorite magazine covers, starting with this 1974 MAD Magazine cover (pictured above). “I found this magazine as a kid while I was sifting through my friend’s dad’s stash of Playboy,” he told me. “For obvious reasons, it instantly appealed to me.” This cover was the only time MAD publisher William Gaines had to issue an apology to his subscribers. The issue was banned from most newsstands and became a coveted collector’s item. You can find a copy of the magazine on eBay for $11.85 these days.
“What a time to be alive!” Tristan said. “I was nine years old when this cover graced the shelves of my local convenience. Two of my favorite things on one magazine cover! Bart Simpson and Bret Hart back-to-back melted my child mind. Frankly, it still gets me excited.” (Editor’s note: The world is generally a terrible place right now, and I think a lot about whether we’re all living in the worst era ever, but I will always be grateful to have grown up during the golden era of pro wrestling.)
This 1993 Rolling Stone cover featuring the main cast of “Seinfeld” arrived on newsstands “only a new months before we got “The Puffy Shirt” episode and the show cementing itself as one of the great American sitcoms,” according to Tristan. He loves this magazine cover so much it is framed at his house. “I get to see leather-clad Jason Alexander whenever I want,” he boasted proudly.
Thanks for reading the newsletter. Feel free to subscribe if it’s your first time reading. You can pre-order “Cover Story” here and find me on Twitter and Instagram. Email me if you want to chat.