Museyon Guides, a new series of travel books, frame tourist traps and hidden neighborhoods alike through the lens of movies, art and music. West Berlin’s Zoologischer Garten train station is the setting for a scene in The Bourne Supremacy; a sequence in Traffic captures Mexico City’s Zócalo. The travel publishing field may be jam-packed with expert guides, but Museyon is attempting to differentiate itself by emulating Japanese guidebooks, which editor-in-chief Anne Ishii says are “more delicate, more tactile and cover more range” than American guidebooks. The books, $15.95 paperbacks, feature full-color photography throughout, and are written by local experts who also have extensive artistic knowledge.

In June, Museyon released its first three titles: Film+Travel Asia, Oceania, Africa; Film+ Travel Europe; and Film+Travel North America, South America. In September, the house will publish Music+Travel ($17.95), which will cover global music. And Ishii says there are more books in the works, on visual art (Art+Travel) and other subjects. Ishii, who left Vertical Publishing three years ago, has been doing freelance writing, editing and translating (including some work for PW Comics Week). She started talking with Akira Chiba, former CEO of Pokémon North America, last year about launching a guidebook series. With Chiba as publisher and Ishii as founding editor and editor-in-chief, the operation got off the ground in New York City, and now has a full-time sales manager, editorial manager and web developer (Ishii is a part-time employee).

Museyon’s sales and marketing manager, Laura Robinson, currently handles distribution; the company uses Whitehurst and Clark to handle warehousing and fulfillment. Ishii said if the company grows larger it may sign up with a national distributor.