American Homebody was born out of the lack of a jobsite and the urge to construct a virtual arena of friends, neighbors, families and stay-at-homes. The first issue, in May of 1998, featured the first photograph of the "American Homebody Covergirl" engaged in the pressing task of painting the kitchen in her bachelorette apartment in South Pasadena. The windows looked out towards the San Gabriel Mountains, and the color she chose to adorn the walls was, appropriately, "Valentine."

(from the opening page of American Homebody's first issue)

"Welcome to American Homebody
"It's summer in South Pasadena. Trips to the farmer's market have started to turn up tomatoes, and the neighbors have taken their domestic squabbles into the public arena. It's simply too hot to argue inside, and so their marital woes ring throughout the otherwise quiet neighborhood. Eavesdropping is an inescapable fact of sumer. Open windows make neighbors into family. With the smog and the pollen count, we've been staying undercover, claiming agoraphobia and fits of the vapors. Hibernation in one's private cesspool produces unbalance schemes, including the decision to start new magazines."

The inside pages of American Homebody were filled with tidbits and tips for domestic living, the premiere report of the Feral Spaniels Hiking Club, recipes galore, the ground-breaking beginning of What's That Bug? and the back cover feature, "Homebody of the Month."

Future issues contained more of the same. American Homebody eventually went online, in 2001, and turned bloggy. What's That Bug?, Daniel Marlos' amazing column answering readers queries about insects, received so much mail that it was spun into WhatsThatBug.com. American Homebody went offline in 2006, after a few years of benign neglect.

PDFs of two issues, May, 1998, and Autumn, 1999, can be found below.

American Homebody, May, 1998 Cover Photo by Daniel Marlos Download pdf American Homebody, Autumn, 1999 Cover photo by Daniel Marlos Download pdf