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Spy: The Funny Years
 
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Spy: The Funny Years [Hardcover]

Graydon Carter (Author), George Kalogerakis (Author), Kurt Andersen (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)


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Hardcover, Bargain Price $15.98  
Hardcover, October 25, 2006 --  

Book Description

October 25, 2006
Just in time for the 20th anniversary of Spy’s creation comes the definitive anthology, inside story, and scrapbook. Spy: The Funny Years will remind the magazine’s million readers why they loved and depended on Spy and bring to a new generation the jewels of its reporting and writing, photography, illustration, design, and world-class mischief-making. It will demonstrate Spy’s singular niche in American magazine and cultural history. But it is also intended to be enjoyed on its own: one beautiful volume containing Spy’s funniest and most creative work, along with the ultimate insiders’ account of how it all came to be.

All the best is here: Separated at Birth; Naked City; The Fine Print; Logrolling in Our Time; the Blurb-o-Mat; those hysterical (and now ubiquitous) charts; the inside stories on the New York Times and Hollywood by J.J. Hunsecker and Celia Brady; the covers; investigative features; and the hilarious stories on pretty much everyone who was anyone during the late 80s and early 90s. Not to mention the often grisly but always entertaining regular cast of characters from Spy’s pages -- the churlish dwarf billionaires; beaver-faced moguls; bull-whip-wielding uber-agents; knobby-kneed socialites; and, of course, short-fingered vulgarians.

During its heyday, from 1986 through 1993, Spy broke important ground in journalism and design, defining smartness for its generation. It was a once-in-a-lifetime creation that shaped the zeitgeist and succeeded (for a while) against all odds. Spy: The Funny Years will be the fun, stylish, hilarious holiday gift of the year.



Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With equal parts nostalgia and snarkiness, this history /anthology celebrates the now legendary satirical magazine during its heyday—aka 1986 to 1991, when founders and partners Andersen (Turn of the Century and host of [PRI's] Studio 360) and Carter (editor of Vanity Fair) ran the show (the magazine folded as a monthly in 1994). "We were very lucky to catch two waves—the post-'60s ironic mood and the go-go financial mood," observes Andersen, and these pages offer plenty of opportunity to travel back to those heady days of "Separated at Birth?" and "The Spy Guide to Postmodern Everything." Those who wondered what life at Spy was really like will also be rewarded: former deputy editor Kalogerakis [...] has collected plenty of stories about minuscule paychecks, ridiculously tight budgets and bacchanalian parties (Andersen and Carter chime in with extensive annotations). Certain to be on the holiday wish lists of aging hipsters. (Nov.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Spy was the most influential magazine of the 1980S . . . it was cruel, brilliant, beautifully written and perfectly designed . . ." -- Dave Eggers

"It's a piece of garbage." -- Donald Trump

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Miramax; 1st ed. edition (October 25, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1401352391
  • ISBN-13: 978-1401352394
  • Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 10.2 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #418,591 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
While it's (marginally) interesting to me to learn about the backstage goings-on that went into creating this magazine that I used to love, what I really wanted was lots of reprints of articles that defined Spy. While a few of them are reprinted here (such as the wonderful piece on "yuppie porn") others are inexplicably printed in extremely small type ("A Spy Guide to Postmodern Everything") that literally require a magnifying glass to read! What a disappointment. I gave it an extra star because it's bound very nicely and obviously took a lot of effort to put together.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
How glorious to revisit the magnificent "Checks to Cheapskates" caper! Whereby Spy sent checks for 13 cents to Adnan Koshoggi and Donald Trump, who cashed them. (Cher, Bill Blass, Faye Dunaway, Rupert Murdoch, Mort Zuckerman and others cashed $1.11 checks.)

Most huge fans of Spy will want more reprints of classic articles (and in bigger, more readable type) than appear here. Still, it's wonderful to revisit the definitive article, "It's Yuppie Porn, and we can't help ourselves," as well as pieces on washed-up celebrities after-hours wanderings through the Big Apple, "Separated at Birth," "Logrolling in our Time," "Blurb-o-Matic" and "Celebrity Math."

We also have oddball gems such as "Meet the Nobelists: This month's question: What's the best way to eat an Oreo cookie?"

"Spy: The Funny Years" is a 50-50 split between being a narrative about the founding and history of the 1980s' funniest magazine and excerpts from the more infamous articles.

This book will leave you wanting to rush to eBay for some back issues, or wanting to beg Miramax, the publisher of "The Funny Years," to also bring out a "Best of Spy" compilation of the original articles.

I found myself enjoying the narrative of how Spy came to be, a narrative which may create envy in many a journalist in the stuffy mainstream media, reading about the vastly underpaid minions working at Spy to create its hilarious, information-rich visuals that presaged the Web. Spy also presaged "South Park's" evisceration of pompous celebrities (and Saturday Night Live's "Hollywood Minute").

Spy's founders managed to create articles that were hilarious, visually inspired, tough yet accurate, requiring top-notch lawyering. Will we ever see something comparable for our era?
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22 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
"SPY: The Funny Years" is the next best thing to an announcement that the magazine is resuming publication. This book is more than just a "greatest hits" collection. Indeed, it discusses in detail how the remarkably vicious and intelligent publication came to be. Reading the book, one gets nostalgic and then angry that it didn't survive to chronicle the W years. Just imagine what SPY could have done to the likes of Ann Coulter.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good History of the most innovative magazine of the 1980s
In terms of design, humor, serious journalism, good pranks and interesting weirdness, there was nothing like Spy Magazine in the second half of the 1980s. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mark bennett
Apres Spy, Le Deluge
Magazine publishing is all about timing -- having whatever your audience wants, just a moment before they want it. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Andrew C Wheeler
The Coffee Table Book of Spy
If there was a hip, satirical sensibility that came out of the New York of the 1980s, Spy magazine embodied it. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Dr. F. S. Ledgister
Spy lives!
The greatest magazine of my youth is reprised here in book form! Anyone familiar with how wonderful and fascinating Spy magazine was back in the late 1980's should read this one. Read more
Published on January 21, 2009 by Joseph C. Sweeney
Great book
I loved Spy. I remember one issue that had autopsy reports on Jim Croce and someone else, in tiny print, in the margins. Read more
Published on August 13, 2008 by Zabadu
Nice walk down memory lane
It was really great when one day my wife & I were at the Jersey shore on a rainy summer afternoon and lo & behold what did appear before my very eyes??? SPY: The funny years! Read more
Published on September 23, 2007 by Seafood
Run Away!
I thoroughly enjoyed this magazine when it was published. I assumed I would enjoy this book! No. I expected a recap of witty stories, fun articles, and the mirth and humor I used... Read more
Published on March 29, 2007 by Hank Chinaski
Spy this!
If you ever read one or more of the great ol' Spy magazines - and miss them passionately - like me . . . getting, perusing & drooling delightfully over this book is a gotta! Read more
Published on January 23, 2007 by Len Wayne
SPY: More Influential Than Ever
I have several piles of old SPY magazine back issues around my house, so I suppose I am part of the ideal audience for this book, "SPY: The Funny Years. Read more
Published on January 16, 2007 by R. W. Rasband
The most brilliant magazine now in a book!
Why do I miss "Spy"?

Because it started out as a satire on all things New York (Trump, rats, Supermodels, Giuliani, etc. Read more
Published on October 13, 2006 by Sharon Langworthy
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