For the past 43 years, the monthly Australian Street Rodding magazine has been published from the offices of Graffiti Publications in Castlemaine.
Now, the latest issue of Graffiti’s large-format annual magazine, Hot Rodding International, has just been released and is available in newsagencies.
Produced entirely in the Castlemaine-based production centre, Hot Rodding International is true to its name with international features on the best of hot rodding from around the world.
The full-colour, 208-page glossy magazine is also distributed around the world through specialist dealers in the United Kingdom, New Zealand and through a national distributor based in California, USA.
Graffiti Publications publisher Larry O’Toole said they were pleased to get the magazine out despite the challenges facing publishers during the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is arriving in America as we speak. It’s always a great feeling to get the annual publication out to our faithful followers,” Larry said.
Inside, hot rodding readers will find extensive features on project cars, major events and profiles on personalities within the hobby.
There are also two automotive artist profiles in this issue with spreads of their fantastic artwork.
Despite the hard times being encountered by most magazine publishers, Graffiti Publications is also continuing to turn out their monthly Australian Street Rodding magazine to a dedicated Australia-wide audience.
“Everyone has been fantastic. We have received support from a lot of new subscribers keen to support us and many of our regular magazine subscribers have paid up for two years to help us out,” Larry said.
“As magazines work several months in advance it is hard to tell the full impact, but at this stage we are holding up okay.”
Larry said the major hurdle for them had been the cancellation of events.
“We normally travel all over Australia and the world gathering content. This is the first time in 35 years we won’t be going to America to gather material. We do have some contributor content in our monthly magazine but our international magazine is pretty much all our own material, collated throughout the year from the various events,” Larry said.
“Fortunately we are always working ahead so we do have enough material for another two or three months’ worth of magazines after that we will be looking at drawing on our rich archives,” he said.
“We have been archiving materials since day one and we have loads of unseen photographs and material. At any given event we may take as many as 1500-2000 photos and we might only use 50. We will be able to explore some of these untapped resources as part of event histories and commemorative pieces,” Larry said.
Graffiti Publications are also the Australian distributors for a range of other highly sought-after hot rod mags including American publications The Rodder’s Journal, Rodding USA and Wheel Hub, and Australian Hot Rodder produced by fellow Aussie enthusiast Graham Smith who is now based locally at Campbells Creek.
“Graham is about to drop his latest magazine too so there is plenty of reading material available for those at home undertaking projects or social isolating to delve into!” Larry said.
To get your hands on Hot Rodding International visit your local newsagency or check out Graffiti’s website at www.graffitipub.com.au for magazine purchases or Australian Street Rodding subscription details.
