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Current Hollywood blockbusters have gotten me contemplating choices in alternate universes—Peter Parker-type ones, the place I can see the Spidey meme lived out in actual life. I’m not speaking concerning the Metaverse, I’m speaking a few short-term escape to the locations on TV and film screens that look extra habitable than right here. The place everyone seems to be completely satisfied and I’ve secret superpowers that clear up issues. All of them.
However earlier than I resolve the place to name dwelling, there’s one thing else to consider: How and the place might SLAM exist in one other dimension? That query has been answered, a couple of instances over.
The largest world, a universe actually, the place SLAM has a presence is the Marvel Universe. Luke Cage collection creator Cheo Hodari Coker—who additionally wrote SLAM 24’s cowl story on Kobe Bryant—confirmed some like to his SLAM Fam by together with a fictional excerpt of the PUNKS column (our former HS part, now referred to as The Come Up) within the first episode of the Netflix present. Quick ahead to a scene in Pop’s Barbershop, and among the article’s finer particulars might be seen within the freeze body. I strained my eyes to learn extra about “RUN-DSC…”
You’ll additionally discover SLAM on this planet of comedy, due to Shea Serrano and Arturo Torres, the bestselling author and illustrator of a ton of New York Occasions’ hits like Basketball and Different Issues, who immortalized fictional Sixers fan Jim Halpert from The Workplace on a canopy that I’d fortunately purchase a number of copies of. There’s additionally a rumor going across the SLAM Dome that the publication’s effective literature might be present in STARZ’ Survivor’s Regret. Any world with a personality performed by Mike Epps might be enjoyable.
Again in 1998, two universes nearly intertwined for actual, for actual. Filmmaker Spike Lee was engaged on his subsequent masterpiece, He Acquired Recreation, and the movie’s lead character, Jesus Shuttlesworth, was (on the time) about to be a fair larger deal than Ray Allen. By then, SLAM was type of an enormous deal too. Spike shared SLAM’s love for the Knicks, the playful hate of Reggie Miller and understood that the journal’s readers have been his viewers. Our mutual viewers could be flooding film theaters to look at Denzel Washington rock a pair of Jordan XIIIs and battle Ray one-on-one. He additionally understood that (within the basketball world of the late ’90s) a SLAM cowl was as large of a promo as anybody might get. SLAM Ed. Tony Gervino additionally noticed it as an opportunity to tug nearly any stunt vital.
A plan was fashioned. Spike wished a Jesus Shuttlesworth cowl and SLAM was the one magazine who might legitimately pull it off. The film was in manufacturing, but nobody knew about it or Allen’s involvement, so the concept was to drop the Jesus cowl as the final word April Idiot’s prank within the spring of 1998. It will make historical past as the primary SLAM cowl that includes a fictional character. But it surely didn’t occur. An irritating leak meant that the aspect of shock was gone and the idea was void.
Whereas the Shuttlesworth cowl could not have entered our galaxy, followers of Spike’s traditional film can have noticed that “Coney Island Jesus” did in actual fact get a canopy. It sits in delight of place above the TV of Jesus’ humble abode…and in Spike Lee’s workplace in Brooklyn.
Earlier than emails and remark sections in social media, SLAM’s Trash Discuss part was made up of bodily letters. Not solely would followers complain to the editors about tales, yell at readers who made up the earlier situation’s Trash Discuss and vent about their crew’s shedding streak, some would additionally submit rigorously crafted items of artwork. Generally it was a sketch of an older cowl, generally their favourite participant, generally simply their very own model of the SLAM emblem. One such submission got here from a storyboard/design crew primarily based in L.A. who occurred to be large followers of SLAM. In writing, they requested again points, t-shirts and even supplied content material solutions. These letters have been from the crew who labored on just a little up and coming animated collection referred to as South Park.
The crew at South Park despatched SLAM a couple of letters within the early days, however the one that actually caught the employees’s consideration was a reworked SLAM cowl despatched within the type of a greeting card. It featured Kobe’s Problem 24 joint, solely with Kenny’s head changing the Spalding ball underneath Bryant’s arm. They wished to work it right into a story that might be aired, however (in true South Park type) would take it a step additional, with Kobe holding an AK-47.
World occasions within the spring of ’99 led to this cowl by no means taking place—it’s in all probability higher that it didn’t—however we’ll all the time keep in mind when Kobe was hanging out in South Park.
Seeing the journal immortalized in animated kind is wild. It was Christmas 2020 once we have been as soon as once more reminded of that feeling. The pandemic had me, my spouse and our 1-year-old daughter caught in our tiny flat in London on Christmas Day. It wasn’t all dangerous. We purchased some fancy meals and drinks, didn’t have to journey wherever and Pixar was premiering a film referred to as Soul that gave us one thing to stay up for. We cherished the movie and appreciated the finer particulars of the world that the lead character, Joe Gardner, referred to as dwelling.
One such element was one thing I’d missed utterly. It sat—in fact—within the barbershop scene, on the desk by the lollipops. A duplicate of SLAM. It was immediately recognizable as a rework of Problem 106, LeBron’s emblem cowl, with a fictional baller from the Pixar universe. Nobody at SLAM knew about it forward of time, however everybody thought it was dope.
The film was the work of Kemp Powers, a author from Brooklyn who understood the cultural significance of SLAM. Soul’s launch capped off a 12 months marred with rigidity, but Pixar’s world felt like a spot of solitude.
These SLAM covers could also be fictional, however they offered a touch of familiarity and have been a nod of appreciation from the designers of alternate universes. For these of us who want to flee, even for a second, they’re as actual because it will get.
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