The Worst of While You Were Sleeping

496-page compilation of The Worst of While You Were Sleeping magazine. With over 900 images of the graffiti crazed, boozed-up partiers, and scantily clad ladies that were WYWS, this magazine content pushed the envelop of morality, sanity, and maturity.

While You Were Sleeping [WYWS] was a graffiti and pop culture magazine started in 1997, by Roger Gastman when he was just 19 years old. Finally available again here are some of the greatest stories the magazine ever published-and many that are not so good. From stories on admirable serial killers, punk rock and hardcore (AFI to Vanilla Ice), child stars (Gary Coleman & Corey Feldman), photos and interviews with the days best graffiti and street artists (ESPO, BANKSY, SHEPARD FAIREY, BATES, QUIK...), people's naked sisters and porn stars (Ron Jeremy, Jeanna Jameson...) this book takes you into the dirty minds of Gastman and his team of juvenile delinquents.

As you will no doubt see in this book, WYWS was anything but normal. Its success wasn't normal. Its lasting influence on pop culture wasn't normal. Its creator certainly wasn't normal. But it wasn't this lack of normalcy that caused WYWS to become such a unique entity. What made WYWS awesome was that everything seemed so absolutely normal to everybody involved. It wasn't about posturing or proving anything because WYWS didn't need that. It was WYWS and that came with its own set of rules and logic.

The book includes a hilarious behind the scenes tale of the start of the magazine up to Gastman's departure, many reflections by contributors on stories they penned or photographed, extras photos from stories they didn't have room to print, interview subjects furious at what they said ten plus years ago - and even more furious that it is going to be printed again. The Worst Of is much more then just reprinted magazine pages - it's an embarrassment to everyone involved.

Roger Gastman started writing graffiti as a teenager in Bethesda, Maryland, and parlayed his love for it into a legitimate career, becoming a trusted mediator between the underground art scenes and mainstream culture. He founded and published two respected pop-culture magazines-WYWS and Swindle (co-publisher)-as well as more than 30 highly sought-after art books. He is the founder and creative director of R. Rock Enterprises. Gastman was the supervising producer and creative consultant for the feature-length graffiti documentary Infamy, and served as consulting producer for BANKSY's Exit Through the Gift Shop. Most recently, HarperCollins released Gastman's The History of American Graffiti-the definitive story behind the most influential art form in the last 100 years-and Jeffrey Deitch asked him to co-curate Art in the Streets at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, which is the first comprehensive U.S. museum survey of graffiti and street art.