Description
Collector's Note – Why This Issue Matters
The December 1981 issue of Kick Illustrated, identified as Vol. 2 No. 12, belongs to a period when martial arts were becoming increasingly visible in American popular culture. The listing identifies Master Jhoon Rhee as the featured figure, which gives the issue strong historical relevance. Rhee was widely known as a pioneering taekwondo instructor in the United States and is often associated with the popularization of Korean martial arts for American students, public figures, and families. His presence in a martial-arts magazine from 1981 connects the issue to a generation of instructors who helped move martial arts from specialized schools into broader public awareness. It also reflects a time when martial-arts authority was often built through teaching reputation, demonstrations, tournament involvement, and print visibility rather than digital media.
The early 1980s were an important moment for martial-arts publishing. Interest in karate, kung fu, taekwondo, kickboxing, self-defense, and tournament competition had expanded through movies, television, demonstrations, and local schools. A magazine feature on Jhoon Rhee during this period reflects the way martial-arts periodicals presented instructors not only as technicians, but as cultural ambassadors and system representatives. Since the provided collection link is for magazines published in 1981, this issue can also be viewed alongside other periodicals from the same year to understand how American print culture was documenting fitness, discipline, combat sports, and self-improvement at the start of the decade. In that context, Kick Illustrated functions as a useful marker of how martial arts were being framed for serious readers rather than casual spectators alone.
For collectors, the issue is significant because it centers on a named martial-arts figure rather than relying only on generic training coverage. Jhoon Rhee’s reputation gives the magazine a clear reference point for anyone researching taekwondo history, early American martial-arts instruction, or the personalities who shaped the public image of martial arts before the internet era. The December date also marks the issue as a late-year record of the martial-arts conversation in 1981, a time when specialist magazines were still one of the main ways readers encountered interviews, techniques, school culture, and instructor profiles beyond their local communities. Issues like this help preserve the language and priorities of the period, especially the emphasis on discipline, mastery, technique, and the public role of respected instructors.
About the Publication
Kick Illustrated was a martial-arts magazine aimed at readers interested in fighting arts, training methods, instructors, tournament culture, self-defense, and the personalities who shaped the martial-arts community. Its audience would have included students, instructors, school owners, competitors, and collectors following the growth of martial arts in the United States. Like other specialist martial-arts magazines of the period, it served as a printed meeting place for technique discussion, personality coverage, photographs, and commentary on the evolving martial-arts scene. By 1981, magazines of this kind were especially important because they preserved instructor reputations, training ideas, and martial-arts trends in a format that reached readers far beyond individual dojos and local tournaments. The magazine’s subject matter also reflected the practical interests of its readership, who often looked to periodicals for drills, profiles, equipment references, competition news, and insight into different systems. For modern collectors, Kick Illustrated offers a period-specific view of how martial arts were presented before online video, social media, and searchable digital archives changed the way practitioners learned about instructors and styles.
Key Highlights Inside
- December 1981 issue of Kick Illustrated, identified in the listing as Vol. 2 No. 12.
- Features Master Jhoon Rhee, a major figure associated with the growth and public visibility of taekwondo in the United States.
- Reflects the early-1980s martial-arts culture, when public interest in traditional martial arts, self-defense, and training systems continued to expand.
- The listing notes insights, interviews, and training techniques, though specific article titles and complete interior contents are not confirmed.
- Newsstand edition with no label, giving the cover a cleaner presentation for collectors who value unobstructed front-cover display.
- Useful as a reference issue for collectors studying Jhoon Rhee, taekwondo history, and American martial-arts publishing in 1981.
- Represents the kind of specialist martial-arts periodical that helped connect readers with respected instructors and training ideas before digital martial-arts communities existed.
- Relevant to collectors interested in how early-1980s magazines framed martial arts as a blend of discipline, technique, personal development, and public demonstration.
Condition & Rarity
Collector evaluation for this issue should note the described very good to excellent condition, with only minor wear typical for its age. The listing identifies it as a newsstand edition with no label, which is a meaningful condition and presentation detail because the cover remains free from subscriber-address markings. The included plastic protective covering is useful for storage and handling, although grading should still focus on the magazine itself: cover gloss, spine stability, staple condition, page completeness, edge wear, creases, tears, markings, and any evidence of clipped or missing pages. Martial-arts magazines from the early 1980s were often read actively by students and instructors, sometimes used as training references rather than preserved untouched. For that reason, a clean, complete, no-label example from this period has stronger collector and archival value than one with heavy handling wear or missing instructional material. Collectors should also examine whether the cover remains firmly attached and whether the interior pages show signs of gym handling, moisture exposure, or clipped technique sections. Because the issue is tied to Jhoon Rhee, completeness is especially important for preserving the full context of the feature and the surrounding martial-arts culture documented in the magazine.
Looking for More Issues Like This?
Martial-arts magazines featuring foundational instructors such as Jhoon Rhee can be tough to place in context unless they are compared with other publications from the same period. Collectors interested in the broader era may want to browse other 1981 magazines to see how martial arts, sports, entertainment, and popular culture were being represented that year. Those related issues help frame this Kick Illustrated feature within the wider print landscape of the early 1980s. They also offer useful comparison points for understanding how specialty magazines documented instructors, training culture, and the growing public visibility of martial arts during that period.