Where did East meet West? In L.A.

It’s been 10 years since Giant Robot editors Erik Nakamura and Martin Wong photocopied and stapled their first ‘zine, a vehicle for their personal interests that sought to explore Asian and underground cultures.

Now the quarterly publication has spawned bustling commercial ventures while establishing itself as a bridge between Asian and pop cultures.

“Over 10 years, [Nakamura and Wong] have nurtured a voice of a generation without knowing it,” says Wing Ko, a local filmmaker who has documented the boarding culture. “They’ve outlasted trends -- ‘zine culture, dot-com boom, glossy Asian-centric magazines, all while doing it on their own terms.”

That connection to culture will be celebrated with an exhibition of artists who have helped shape the magazine’s identity. The show begins Saturday at GR2, the second of two Giant Robot spaces on Sawtelle Boulevard, where a crop of mostly Japanese-owned businesses has taken root in L.A.’s Westside. That a third outlet, GRSF in San Francisco, has opened and that plans are in the works for a restaurant on Sawtelle speak to the editors’ abilities to transform ideas into enterprise.

All have grown from a publication whose content has included in-depth stories on the Sriracha hot sauce factory in Rosemead, Korean cinema and Asian mass murderers, as well as pieces on Snoopy in Japan, Balinese cockfighting and life behind bars in a Tokyo jail cell.

“I think a lot of us at GR grew up on the outskirts of Asian American culture, and I think GR is a response to that,” Nakamura says. “I think there are more people like us.”

Giant Robot seems to speak to a generation raised on equal parts Bruce Lee, Mad magazine, ramen and Hello Kitty.

“GR has become a direct byproduct of the multicultural shabu-shabu bowl here in Los Angeles,” says reader Gregory Han, a Silver Lake-based graphic designer. “The same city where Morrissey’s fan base is comprised of predominantly Mexican rockabilly kids, where Korean clubs are the biggest nighttime draw in the city. I don’t think Giant Robot could have started anywhere else but Los Angeles.”

Still, when GR sought more space for its growing e-commerce business in 2001, Nakamura and Wong weren’t exactly welcomed into Sawtelle’s established enclave of sushi joints, noodle bars, grocers and Japanese nurseries.

“We tried to get a spot in a strip mall near our current location, but they refused, citing we’d bring a bad element into the mall,” Nakamura recalls. Three years after the first GR store opened, Sawtelle brims with vintage clothing stores, hip shops and eateries that open late to accommodate Giant Robot-ites on gallery nights.

“The GR stores themselves are a notable accomplishment, because they’re an Asian American business that is both ‘insider’ yet accessible to almost anybody,” says Han, who says all things Asian have hit the radar.

Browsing GR’s store online (www.giantrobot.com) or on Sawtelle, one finds a harmonious mix of art and anime, comics and classics: issues of McSweeney’s, Uglydoll figurines, Chris Ware comics, Stanley Kubrick from Taschen, Yoshitomo Nara ashtrays, as well as limited-edition kozyndan prints.

Also notable has been Giant Robot’s devotion to emerging talent and movements here and abroad.

“We’ve been actively trying to promote cinema from Asian and Asian American sources, if we like them,” Nakamura says. “Little by little we’re able to do more things like this to help others.”

“GR is our home base,” say Dan Kitchens, of husband-and-wife illustrating team kozyndan, who credits Giant Robot for launching their career from Cal State Fullerton art department grads to highly sought-after artists whose work now appears on everything from Weezer cover art to pricey Japanese sneakers.

Kitchens explains Giant Robot’s influence: “I think GR is a magazine that’s really tackled that aspect of how strange and wonderful Asian culture is -- without snickering at it.”

Perhaps Giant Robot’s biggest feat was navigating a place within the media machine that is L.A., populated with chock-a-block blockbusters, vapid reality shows and celebrity rags.

Nakamura and Wong “proudly stated they don’t give a melted mochi about what others think, and they’ve proclaimed they cover things they like, not what others do,” says Han. “Their favorite response to negative fan mail is to ‘go start your own magazine.’ ”

And Nakamura and Wong have accomplished this while being able to thumb their noses at any notion of “East is East, and West is West, never the twain shall meet” left over from a bygone era.

“I’m a local, grew up around here and know the old-school merchants, and this is where a lot of my childhood memories are,” Nakamura says of Sawtelle. “I’ve always felt it was the perfect place for Giant Robot. It’s home to me.”

The entrepreneurs see the GR-themed restaurant, also planned for the Sawtelle neighborhood, as “a challenge but a logical progression” of the enterprise’s growth, Wong says.

Adds Nakamura: “It was either that or a Laundromat.”

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Heseon Park can be reached at weekend@latimes.com

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‘Giant Robot 10 Years’

What: Group exhibition by artists whose works have inspired Giant Robot magazine, such as Yoshitomo Nara, Gary Baseman, Mark Ryden, Uglydolls, Clare Rojas, Seonna Hong, Ai Yamaguchi, kozyndan, Luke Chueh, Jordan Crane and Adrian Tomine.

Where: GR2, 2062 Sawtelle Blvd., L.A.

When: Opens Saturday. Reception 5-10 p.m. Saturday.

Ends Aug. 4.

Contact: (310) 445-9276 or www.giantrobot.com