My week of reviews was even more of a miserable failure than I anticipated. In my defense I did end up sleeping a lot last week. I'd intend to do some reviews, then I'd take a little nap not wake up until the next morning. But I still have zines right here and I'm gonna review 'em, by gum.
SUNDOGS #6, Nov./Dec. 2008 This is a good one. It's a zine with 3 panel diary comics about Adam's life as an American living in Japan with his wife and baby son. This issue more or less covering Halloween through Xmas. It's a very enjoyable read with brief snippets about pretty much all aspects of Adam's life including fatherhood, growing a mustache. teaching, odd Japanese customs (A Christmas cake? Seriously? This strikes me as wrong for some vaguely odd reason.) and watching THE WIRE (seriously, THE WIRE is fucking awesome. I could go on and on about THE WIRE. ) It's not quite laugh out loud funny, but most of it is pretty light hearted and will bring a smile to your face. 24 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 Send $2, trade, or 200 yen to
Adam Pasion
1-42 Namiuchi-Cho, Kita-ku
Nagoya, Aichi, 462-0041
Japan
www.biguglyrobot.net
OH HO- This is a mini zine by Susan Boren who did (does?) the zine CLIP TART and it's basically a mini version of CLIP TART. Some really nice looking collages, some black & white, some full color and the full color ones are really beautiful. Like I've said before about Susan's work, I'm not sure what to make of it exactly, but I like it. 24 pages, 2.75 x 4.25 Send either a few bucks or trade to Susan Boren PO Box 66512, Austin TX 78766
BROOKLYN! #64- Sixty four issues? Holy shit. I feel like I'm not as familiar with Fred Argoff's work as I should be. Let's see, this zine is quarterly so that means he's been doing it for 16 years. Wow. Impressive. And it's a good zine though to honest even 16 years of a shit zine would be impressive in it's way. The name of this zine is BROOKLYN and that's also what the zine is about, Fred's beloved borough of Brooklyn. I've always liked zines about one certain topic that the author has a passion for. Even if I don't care about what's being written about I usually enjoy it just for the passion the author brings to it. This issue features a Brooklyn fable, photos of Brooklyn, (my personal favorite being of an SUV that fell into a giant sinkhole.) Brooklyn lexicon, Brooklyn signs and just a lot of info about Brooklyn. Good stuff here. 24 pages, 5.5 x 8.5 $10 for a 4 issue subscription to Fred Argoff Penthouse L 1170 Ocean Parkway Brooklyn NY 11230
Who and What We Are
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Eric's Week of Reviews
You know what? I have not shaved since the death of Billy Mays. Is it a touching tribute to America's most beloved bearded pitchman? Is it sheer laziness and poor grooming habits? Or maybe just maybe is it a little bit of both? OK, it's mostly the second one, but I must confess a certain fondness for ol' Billy.
At any rate, every day this week I will be posting some reviews here until I either get through all the zines I have to review or I get bored. Oh, and I got me one of those fancy dan new facebook pages. It's www.facebook.com/ericfishlegs. Add me as a friend. Or don't. Either way.
INNER SWINE Vol.14 #4 December 2008. Josh Saitz who does the zine NEGATIVE CAPABILITY (www.negcap.com) told me that he recently had a dream that he, I, Jeff Somers of INNER SWINE) and R. Lee (UNDERWORLD CRAWL which is one of my favorites and you should be able to find a review of it somewhere on this site) went on a zine tour. He said it was a huge disaster because everywhere we went people to read people just thought "Who the hell are these assholes?" I mention this because this zine has just been reviewed so often that it's hard to come up with something new to say. The theme of this issue is "Kids" and he makes a convincing argument that kids do indeed suck and rule the world. There's a lot of good stuff in this issue. I even found Jeff's story about taking guitar lessons for the first time in his life at age 35 to be almost inspiring. he also wrote a brief anti-Kindle piece which reminded me of something- my Mom got a Kindle for Xmas she loves it and says she rarely even goes to the library anymore. because instead of reading books for free she can now pay $10 to read them on a little machine. I don't quite fathom how that makes any sense, but who am I to argue? 60 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, send either $2 or a trade to Jeff Somers PO Box 3024, Hoboken, NJ, 07030 mreditor@innerswine.com
SLICES- Hey, I just remembered I owed Jaime (the author of this zine) a trade. I'd better get on that. Jaime Crespo does a weekly comic strip called Slice O' Life and this zine collects what Jaime considers to be his 40 best cartoons. His strips are mainly about odd people Jaime has met over the years, many of whom seem to do a lot of drugs and die bizarre deaths. Some of the comics are funny, some were oddly touching, all are worth reading. Jaime also does a zine called TORTILLA that features more comics and stories by Jaime and like SLICES it's also worth reading. SLICES is 40 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, send $5 to Jaime Crespo, PO Box 112 San Anselmo, CA 94979 www.jaimecrespo.com
CRANKY BUDDHA #7- I like this kind of zine. It's basically a compendium of useless and bizarre information (one tid bit so useless and bizarre that I mentioned it way back in issue 7 of my own zine.) along with some reviews of books considered to be "hobo literature", the entire text of Calamity Jane's autobiography, a "stupid cop trick" that is truly stupid, kind of cruel, and I am ashamed to admit I would love to see somebody try and a review of a strange movie featuring a cameo by Col. Sanders. I enjoyed this one. 60 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, $2 or trade Danny Swank 2262 SE 39th Ave, Portland OR 97214 drdannyswank@gmail.com www.crankybuddah.com
At any rate, every day this week I will be posting some reviews here until I either get through all the zines I have to review or I get bored. Oh, and I got me one of those fancy dan new facebook pages. It's www.facebook.com/ericfishlegs. Add me as a friend. Or don't. Either way.
INNER SWINE Vol.14 #4 December 2008. Josh Saitz who does the zine NEGATIVE CAPABILITY (www.negcap.com) told me that he recently had a dream that he, I, Jeff Somers of INNER SWINE) and R. Lee (UNDERWORLD CRAWL which is one of my favorites and you should be able to find a review of it somewhere on this site) went on a zine tour. He said it was a huge disaster because everywhere we went people to read people just thought "Who the hell are these assholes?" I mention this because this zine has just been reviewed so often that it's hard to come up with something new to say. The theme of this issue is "Kids" and he makes a convincing argument that kids do indeed suck and rule the world. There's a lot of good stuff in this issue. I even found Jeff's story about taking guitar lessons for the first time in his life at age 35 to be almost inspiring. he also wrote a brief anti-Kindle piece which reminded me of something- my Mom got a Kindle for Xmas she loves it and says she rarely even goes to the library anymore. because instead of reading books for free she can now pay $10 to read them on a little machine. I don't quite fathom how that makes any sense, but who am I to argue? 60 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, send either $2 or a trade to Jeff Somers PO Box 3024, Hoboken, NJ, 07030 mreditor@innerswine.com
SLICES- Hey, I just remembered I owed Jaime (the author of this zine) a trade. I'd better get on that. Jaime Crespo does a weekly comic strip called Slice O' Life and this zine collects what Jaime considers to be his 40 best cartoons. His strips are mainly about odd people Jaime has met over the years, many of whom seem to do a lot of drugs and die bizarre deaths. Some of the comics are funny, some were oddly touching, all are worth reading. Jaime also does a zine called TORTILLA that features more comics and stories by Jaime and like SLICES it's also worth reading. SLICES is 40 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, send $5 to Jaime Crespo, PO Box 112 San Anselmo, CA 94979 www.jaimecrespo.com
CRANKY BUDDHA #7- I like this kind of zine. It's basically a compendium of useless and bizarre information (one tid bit so useless and bizarre that I mentioned it way back in issue 7 of my own zine.) along with some reviews of books considered to be "hobo literature", the entire text of Calamity Jane's autobiography, a "stupid cop trick" that is truly stupid, kind of cruel, and I am ashamed to admit I would love to see somebody try and a review of a strange movie featuring a cameo by Col. Sanders. I enjoyed this one. 60 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, $2 or trade Danny Swank 2262 SE 39th Ave, Portland OR 97214 drdannyswank@gmail.com www.crankybuddah.com
Saturday, June 27, 2009
In My Mailbox 6-27-09
Good morning alt.zines,
I suppose I should start cross-posting these to things like wemakezines etc but I am lazy. For a while I kept coming to alt.zines because I liked newsgroups better than web forums etc, but now, in all honesty, it's mostly laziness. If there was one mecca-like place where every zine person in the universe congragated I might make the effort to switch over, but signing up for fifteen places is a drag. And also I find I have less to say about zines these days. I still put mine out and still enjoy trades etc but I have less drive to discuss anything. Not that I was ever a Deep Zine Thought kind of fellow to begin with.
Hmmph.
Anyway, we have our first sunny day in Hoboken in 56 years, and a few days ago I actually wandered to my PO Box. Hurrah! Zines in the mail:
- Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore! #11 ($3, William P. Tandy, Eight Stone Press, POB 11064, Baltimore, MD 21212; www.eightstonepress.com) Another thick, well-made issue from the 8SP folks, a powerhouse of DIY publishing. Always happy to see a new one of these in my box.
- Going Postal #2 (trade/donation, Kris & Lola, Calle Obispo 4B, Plasencia 10600, Caceres, Spain) Full-sized collection of new and reprinted writing about zines, mail art, and other stuff. Favorite thing: A small piece of Kris' favorite old wool sweater, now too dilapidated to wear, pasted onto a page with a brief history of the sweater above.
- .zap!! #6 (no price listed, Heath Row, 101 Russell St. #4R, Brooklyn, NY 11234-0241) I had to sit this one out due to crushing laziness and bad time management, but Heath was kind enough to send me a comp anyway, thank goodness. Loosely the alt.zines APA, this is a fascinating ongoing venture and I'm looking forward to taking part again in the future!
That was it for zines. I also got a letter and some monies, so overall a gangbuster of a day at the POB. Hope everyone is rockin'.
L
J
--
Blog - http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/
The Inner Swine - http://www.innerswine.com
I suppose I should start cross-posting these to things like wemakezines etc but I am lazy. For a while I kept coming to alt.zines because I liked newsgroups better than web forums etc, but now, in all honesty, it's mostly laziness. If there was one mecca-like place where every zine person in the universe congragated I might make the effort to switch over, but signing up for fifteen places is a drag. And also I find I have less to say about zines these days. I still put mine out and still enjoy trades etc but I have less drive to discuss anything. Not that I was ever a Deep Zine Thought kind of fellow to begin with.
Hmmph.
Anyway, we have our first sunny day in Hoboken in 56 years, and a few days ago I actually wandered to my PO Box. Hurrah! Zines in the mail:
- Smile, Hon, You're in Baltimore! #11 ($3, William P. Tandy, Eight Stone Press, POB 11064, Baltimore, MD 21212; www.eightstonepress.com) Another thick, well-made issue from the 8SP folks, a powerhouse of DIY publishing. Always happy to see a new one of these in my box.
- Going Postal #2 (trade/donation, Kris & Lola, Calle Obispo 4B, Plasencia 10600, Caceres, Spain) Full-sized collection of new and reprinted writing about zines, mail art, and other stuff. Favorite thing: A small piece of Kris' favorite old wool sweater, now too dilapidated to wear, pasted onto a page with a brief history of the sweater above.
- .zap!! #6 (no price listed, Heath Row, 101 Russell St. #4R, Brooklyn, NY 11234-0241) I had to sit this one out due to crushing laziness and bad time management, but Heath was kind enough to send me a comp anyway, thank goodness. Loosely the alt.zines APA, this is a fascinating ongoing venture and I'm looking forward to taking part again in the future!
That was it for zines. I also got a letter and some monies, so overall a gangbuster of a day at the POB. Hope everyone is rockin'.
L
J
--
Blog - http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/
The Inner Swine - http://www.innerswine.com
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Xerography Debt #25 is now available!
Xerography Debt #25 is now available!
Microcosm has copies and is currently distributing to their usual retail outlets. To learn more go to:
http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/2693/
Microcosm has copies and is currently distributing to their usual retail outlets. To learn more go to:
http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/2693/
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
In My Mailbox 6-3-09
Hola,
I actually made it to my PO Box some unspecified time in the recent past, but I can't remember when, actually. I just opened a desk drawer and found all this stuff waiting for comment but forgotten. I think I may be senile.
Anyways...
- Inscape (The Ursuline College Fine Arts Annual 2009, 2550 Lander Rd, Pepper Pike, OH 44124) contains a short story by zine personage and full-on-no-kidding professor Wred Fright. Not sure how to get yer mitts on one if you're interested, but thought I'd note it, even though it is not a zine.
- Tenebrous Thaumaturgy #2 (Andrew Conde, GCDC, 2120 East B Street, Torrington MY 82240). Another interestin' issue filled with dense, tightly-packed words by inmates, former inmates, relatives and friends, different, it seems, from other prison zines I've seen.
- The Ken Chronicles #11 ($2, Ken Bausert, 2140 Erma Drive, East Meadow, NY 11554-1120; passscribe@aol.com). Centered around marking the 50th anniversary of Ken buying his first car, this is another great-looking and packed issue. Plus, he mentions TIS in here--what more can I want?
And that's it, sad to say, aside from some correspondence and a returned issue of my zine, marked return to sender, from someone I used to work with. It's odd to me that people I knew 15 years ago, who have been on my mailing list for that long, suddenly deicde to not bother any more, whether they're simply not updating me after they move or purposefully rejecting it. I can totally understand not wanting the zine any more, but after so long it just seems. . .unexpected. I dunno.
L
J
I actually made it to my PO Box some unspecified time in the recent past, but I can't remember when, actually. I just opened a desk drawer and found all this stuff waiting for comment but forgotten. I think I may be senile.
Anyways...
- Inscape (The Ursuline College Fine Arts Annual 2009, 2550 Lander Rd, Pepper Pike, OH 44124) contains a short story by zine personage and full-on-no-kidding professor Wred Fright. Not sure how to get yer mitts on one if you're interested, but thought I'd note it, even though it is not a zine.
- Tenebrous Thaumaturgy #2 (Andrew Conde, GCDC, 2120 East B Street, Torrington MY 82240). Another interestin' issue filled with dense, tightly-packed words by inmates, former inmates, relatives and friends, different, it seems, from other prison zines I've seen.
- The Ken Chronicles #11 ($2, Ken Bausert, 2140 Erma Drive, East Meadow, NY 11554-1120; passscribe@aol.com). Centered around marking the 50th anniversary of Ken buying his first car, this is another great-looking and packed issue. Plus, he mentions TIS in here--what more can I want?
And that's it, sad to say, aside from some correspondence and a returned issue of my zine, marked return to sender, from someone I used to work with. It's odd to me that people I knew 15 years ago, who have been on my mailing list for that long, suddenly deicde to not bother any more, whether they're simply not updating me after they move or purposefully rejecting it. I can totally understand not wanting the zine any more, but after so long it just seems. . .unexpected. I dunno.
L
J
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Submissions wanted for Going Home zine AND Borderlands 3
Friends! The deadlines for Going Home zine AND Borderlands 3 are being
extended one LAST time! What's that you say? You wanted to submit last
time but didn't have time to write something? The deadline for both
zines is JUNE 27th. Ready, set, write! <3 Nia
GOING HOME ZINE
This call for submissions is open to everyone.
I am looking for your writings and art that speak to any or all of the
following themes:
What does home mean to you? What makes home "home"?
Where is home?
Who is home?
Can you go home?
In what ways have home changed?
Why?
How have the meaning and significance of home been shaped by:
-your experiences (at and away from home)?
-your politicization?
-your race(s)?
-class (including changes in class status)?
-gender(s)/identity(ies)/transition
-sexual orientation(s)
-ability(ies)
-religion(s)
-spirituality
-surviving abuse?
-immigration?
-diaspora(s)?
-gentrification?
-displacement?
-repatriation?
-transience?
-homelessness?
(These are just a few of many themes you could choose to write on.)
How do these things affect your relationship to the places that you're from?
What have your experience of building home and community been like,
successes and challenges?
Please send non-fiction, personal stories and black and white visual
art on these themes to nia.is.king@gmail.com. Writing submissions
should be no more than 1,000 words and in .rtf format. Art submissions
should be .jpeg files. The deadline for submissions is JUNE 27th,
2009. Please repost this call widely!
BORDERLANDS ZINE #3
This call for submission is open to mixed-race, bicultual and
transracially adopted people of color.
I am currently seeking personal stories and visual art on the theme of
(romantic and/or sexual) RELATIONSHIPS and PARENTING for the upcoming
issue of a compilation zine about people of color's mixed-race,
bicultural and transracial adoptee identities. Stories should be
non-fiction and no more than 1000 words. No poetry please. Visual art
should be black and white and replicate well in a copy machine
(minimal grey tones). Submissions for issue 3 are due JUNE 27th,
2009. Please email them in RICH TEXT FORMAT to nia.is.king@gmail.com.
Your stories are valuable, and it's time to bring our often neglected
cross-cultural and multi-racial experiences from margin to center by
telling our own stories!
Please forward this call widely!
Also, download past issues of Borderlands for free @
http://www.qzap.org/v5/index.php?searchword=borderlands&option=com_search&Itemid=5
extended one LAST time! What's that you say? You wanted to submit last
time but didn't have time to write something? The deadline for both
zines is JUNE 27th. Ready, set, write! <3 Nia
GOING HOME ZINE
This call for submissions is open to everyone.
I am looking for your writings and art that speak to any or all of the
following themes:
What does home mean to you? What makes home "home"?
Where is home?
Who is home?
Can you go home?
In what ways have home changed?
Why?
How have the meaning and significance of home been shaped by:
-your experiences (at and away from home)?
-your politicization?
-your race(s)?
-class (including changes in class status)?
-gender(s)/identity(ies)/transition
-sexual orientation(s)
-ability(ies)
-religion(s)
-spirituality
-surviving abuse?
-immigration?
-diaspora(s)?
-gentrification?
-displacement?
-repatriation?
-transience?
-homelessness?
(These are just a few of many themes you could choose to write on.)
How do these things affect your relationship to the places that you're from?
What have your experience of building home and community been like,
successes and challenges?
Please send non-fiction, personal stories and black and white visual
art on these themes to nia.is.king@gmail.com. Writing submissions
should be no more than 1,000 words and in .rtf format. Art submissions
should be .jpeg files. The deadline for submissions is JUNE 27th,
2009. Please repost this call widely!
BORDERLANDS ZINE #3
This call for submission is open to mixed-race, bicultual and
transracially adopted people of color.
I am currently seeking personal stories and visual art on the theme of
(romantic and/or sexual) RELATIONSHIPS and PARENTING for the upcoming
issue of a compilation zine about people of color's mixed-race,
bicultural and transracial adoptee identities. Stories should be
non-fiction and no more than 1000 words. No poetry please. Visual art
should be black and white and replicate well in a copy machine
(minimal grey tones). Submissions for issue 3 are due JUNE 27th,
2009. Please email them in RICH TEXT FORMAT to nia.is.king@gmail.com.
Your stories are valuable, and it's time to bring our often neglected
cross-cultural and multi-racial experiences from margin to center by
telling our own stories!
Please forward this call widely!
Also, download past issues of Borderlands for free @
http://www.qzap.org/v5/index.php?searchword=borderlands&option=com_search&Itemid=5
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Xerography Debt #25
Will be out soon! It is now at press and you can pre-order from Microcosm: http://microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/title/2693/
Reviews from Julie Dorn
MIRANDA #18
Kate Haas
3510 SE Alder Street
Portland, OR 97214
oceanreader@gmail.com
www.mirandazine.com
$2, 28 pages, digest
Continually ranking in my top ten zines of all time, MIRANDA delivers another fabulous read. I usually read this zine aloud to my husband, but this time we devoured it together, hunched in a barely-lit room while waiting for a concert to start. Kate’s opening story about watching Obama win on election night with her two sons nearly made me cry. We’re on the cusp of starting to have children, and I’m thinking about the world in a new way. Knowing that the Bush administration’s eight-year plague of war and fiscal irresponsibility and divisiveness is about to end sends me into a happy dance. I finally can support the man that will soon be running our country. What a relief. Kate’s zine strikes a deeper chord in me now, because I not only admire her parenting style but the way she can retain her identity as a woman, a traveler, a storyteller, an activist, a writer—with being a mother.
In #18, Kate compares The Austins by Madeleine L’Engle to the reality of her family, shares homegrown rituals (all three of which are FABULOUS), describes her attempts to memorize “Kubla Khan” one steamy week in Morocco, and her always amazing list of book suggestions. My favorite part is “The Motel of Lost Companions,” where Kate shares a story of a long lost friend and their adventures together. Highly recommended.
RE:PRODUCTIVE v.1
Christa Donner
PO Box 6571
Chicago, IL 60680-6571
http://www.christadonner.com/print/reproductivezine1.html
$5, 48 pages, digest
Christa writes LADYFRIEND, another stellar zine, but RE:PRODUCTIVE is a companion piece to a visual art show from 2008. She collected narratives from twenty seven diverse women on topics related to how reproduction and fertility shape identity (or don’t) and accompany them with drawings similar to those featured in the show. These stories run the gamut from motherhood, labor, midwifery, lesbian parenting, body image, hysterectomies, adoption, egg donation, infertility, miscarriages, abortions, the pressure to procreate and opting out of parenthood. It was particularly interesting for me to read these different perspectives and see how my views of this topic have changed over the years, shifting from my original desires of spinsterhood to my current state of married and ready for kids. Smart, compelling and pro-woman (as always). Highly recommended.
MAN UP
Sarah Morean
PO Box 3629
Minneapolis, MN 55403
$2?, 36 pages, half-size
This compilation zine is about one of the most reviled, misunderstood and polarizing phenomenon in the world: the moustache. Love it or hate it, MAN UP covers the spectrum of commentary—the moustache as indicator of villainy, defense of the humble patch of upper lip fur, knitting patterns to make your own moustache, instructions on how to grow a fab ‘stache, and an interview with local Minneapolis artist Scott Seekins. Each copy of MAN UP includes your very own adhesive moustache (mine was “The Rogue,” a tan stripe of what looked like carpeting). I believe that only certain people can successfully pull off a moustache without looking smarmy or ridiculous, but I have new respect for this underdog of the hair world.
LISTY #3
Maria Goodman
PO Box 303, 2000 NE 42nd Street Suite D
Portland, OR 97213
mariasoapy@yahoo.com
$2, 38 pages, digest
As always, Maria has created a charming zine full of stories and whimsical fun. She and her partner, Andrew Robinson, trade off with list-related topics like the top five awkward moments, literary pet peeves, people currently in a ten-foot radius of her at the public library, the largest amounts of found money (Andrew once found $100!) and displeasing desserts. Delaine Derry Green makes a guest appearance with one of the most organized, detailed list/monthly planners I’ve ever seen. Highly recommended.
POETS ESPRESSO Sept. 2008
Donald R. Anderson and Nikki Quismondo, editors
1426 Telegraph Avenue #4
Stockton, CA 95204
poetsespresso@gmail.com
http://poetsespresso.com
Free locally, $7 for 6 mailed issues, 24 pages, digest
I feel inept when I try to critique poetry. Many times, I have no idea what the poem is really about, but I can appreciate the flow, the rhythm of the words and the way it sounds in my head as I read it. As a reviewer, I get a lot of poetry and fiction. A lot of it is bad, and I don’t write a blurb for XEROGRAPHY DEBT. Sometimes, like in the case of POETS ESPRESSO, it’s good and I’m happy to share my limited opinion with you.
Three poems in particular stood out for me: “Tribute to David Humphreys” by Marie J. Ross and “One Last Farewell” by Patricia Ann Mayorga, both about their late poet and friend, and the delicious “Fig” by Chantel C. Guidry. All were moving, melodic and lingering. This issue also includes Bruce Crawford’s “Variant Pressure,” the first place winner in Scott’s Valley Poetry Contest.
LITERAL CHAOS no.1: the water issue
Amanda Wells
10156 Sakura Drive
St. Louis, MO 63128
editor@literalchaos.com
www.literalchaos.com
$7, 24 pages, digest
Another fiction/poetry zine, LITERAL CHAOS offers enjoyable, solid writing around the theme of water. I especially liked Mister Ben’s silly and fun to read “Wetter Tales : Once Told, Twice Forgotten” and Lisa Ebert’s short story “Mississippi.” Even with the pretty color cover, I’m cheap and would be hard pressed to pay $7 for any zine unless I knew I would love nearly every page of it. I wish this zine well—it’s hard to find a market for poetry/fiction zines (reviewers seem to avoid them like the Ebola virus), especially at that price.
DO-IT-YOURSELF SCREENPRINTING : How to turn your home into a t-shirt factory
John Isaacson
Microcosm Publishing
POB 14332
Portland, OR 97293
www.microcosmpublishing.com
www.unlay.com
$9, 160 pages, paperback (ISBN 0-9770557-4-4)
Can I just say how thrilled I was when Davida sent this to me to review? I took my first class in printmaking in spring 2008 and loved it, but I needed to push aside my free studio art classes to make room for the library science ones instead. I’d dreamed of doing woodcuts at home, mostly because they’re pretty cheap, easy and require only a few items (piece of class, oil based ink, brayer, paper, wooden spoon and ink cleaner). Now, thanks to this wonderful comic book, I can make screen prints at home, too! It’s a bit more complicated, especially if you want more than one color, but John breaks down the process into easy-to-understand steps. He shares his experiences selling his work, moving out of his house and into mass-production and gives helpful hints to DIY printers along the way. John has been a screenprinter, cartoonist and musician for over ten years. Currently living in Berkeley, he’s traveled to Ireland, Chile, China and Peru. Check out the second website to see samples of his work.
BOOTY #21
Anne Thalheimer
8 Clark Street #2
Holyoke, MA 01040
motes@simons-rock.edu
$2?, 16 pages, digest
After a year hiatus, Anne returns with another great comic depiction of her life. After getting a new job that uses her Ph.D., joining the roller derby and launching her very own monster hat venture (check out https://mymonsterhat.com/home.php), Anne’s got a lot to write about! My favorite pages were “100 random facts about me” and her drawings for “All I Need” by Radiohead. I always find Anne inspiring because no matter how busy she is, she incorporates art into her life. (My distractible and procrastinating self is jealous.) I’m grateful I can read about it in BOOTY and hopefully inject the same sense of fun and creativity in my own life amidst the chaos and laziness. Yay, BOOTY!
ZINE WORLD #26: A reader’s guide to the underground press
POB 330156
Murfreesboro, TN 37133-0156
www.undergroundpress.org
$4 US, $5 Canada/Mexico, $6 Everywhere else, 62 pages, full size
ZINE WORLD, like XEROGRAPHY DEBT, is a review zine. Chock full of suggestions for fabulous independent media, this is a wonderful resource (200+ zine reviews plus books). Extra marvelous treats are Heath Row’s article “Censoring news: from Redding to Russia” and the letters to the editor. This is a must-have for those who are new, addicted or curious about the world of zines.
CRANES
Kyt Dotson
http://www.millvexations.com/
Free-$2, printed version pages vary, digest
Dotson writes a serial novella about Vex Harrow, a tough goth in the Mill Avenue area of Tempe, AZ who delves in the supernatural. The story itself currently has nine volumes, and CRANES is a stand-alone “tribute fiction” involving some of the same characters. There is no summary of the story in CRANES, so you’ll have to go to the website to figure out who who’s and what’s happening. By itself, I didn’t have enough context to thoroughly enjoy and understand the story in CRANES but I was impressed by Dotson’s writing abilities and her website, which includes free full-text version of every volume of this story, a discussion forum, links to Mill Avenue business, gothic subculture information and related fiction suggestions. There’s a dedicated following—she has a link to the first fan fiction story related to Mill Avenue Vexations. Dotson also has two published fantasy/paranormal books (one through amazon and the other a free e-book).
POTENTIALLY HEARTWRENCHING DISTRACTIONS AND OTHER WONDERFUL POSSIBILITIES
Bucket D. Siler
POB 10192
Santa Fe, NM 87504
yournamehere@hush.com
myspace.com/bucketsiler
$2/2.50/3, 28 pages, digest
PWDaOWP is a tight, satisfying perzine about Bucket’s travels across the country, breaking up, coming out, friends, love and life. Text heavy with a few drawings.
WATCH THE CLOSING DOORS #44
Fred Argoff
Penthouse L
1170 Ocean Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11230-4060
$10 for four quarterly issues, 20 pages, digest
I’ve heard about WATCH THE CLOSING DOORS for years but have never read it. Thanks to Davida, I finally got one in my review envelope. Fred writes about all things subway, mostly encompassing NYC but also including Guadalajara, Shanghai, Paris and Buenos Aires. I LOVED the photo of the Underground Catwalk in Berlin (the model was wearing leather and pasties) and the detailed description of the no. 4 (Lexington Avenue express) line in New York. This zine is well worth the hype!!!
Kate Haas
3510 SE Alder Street
Portland, OR 97214
oceanreader@gmail.com
www.mirandazine.com
$2, 28 pages, digest
Continually ranking in my top ten zines of all time, MIRANDA delivers another fabulous read. I usually read this zine aloud to my husband, but this time we devoured it together, hunched in a barely-lit room while waiting for a concert to start. Kate’s opening story about watching Obama win on election night with her two sons nearly made me cry. We’re on the cusp of starting to have children, and I’m thinking about the world in a new way. Knowing that the Bush administration’s eight-year plague of war and fiscal irresponsibility and divisiveness is about to end sends me into a happy dance. I finally can support the man that will soon be running our country. What a relief. Kate’s zine strikes a deeper chord in me now, because I not only admire her parenting style but the way she can retain her identity as a woman, a traveler, a storyteller, an activist, a writer—with being a mother.
In #18, Kate compares The Austins by Madeleine L’Engle to the reality of her family, shares homegrown rituals (all three of which are FABULOUS), describes her attempts to memorize “Kubla Khan” one steamy week in Morocco, and her always amazing list of book suggestions. My favorite part is “The Motel of Lost Companions,” where Kate shares a story of a long lost friend and their adventures together. Highly recommended.
RE:PRODUCTIVE v.1
Christa Donner
PO Box 6571
Chicago, IL 60680-6571
http://www.christadonner.com/print/reproductivezine1.html
$5, 48 pages, digest
Christa writes LADYFRIEND, another stellar zine, but RE:PRODUCTIVE is a companion piece to a visual art show from 2008. She collected narratives from twenty seven diverse women on topics related to how reproduction and fertility shape identity (or don’t) and accompany them with drawings similar to those featured in the show. These stories run the gamut from motherhood, labor, midwifery, lesbian parenting, body image, hysterectomies, adoption, egg donation, infertility, miscarriages, abortions, the pressure to procreate and opting out of parenthood. It was particularly interesting for me to read these different perspectives and see how my views of this topic have changed over the years, shifting from my original desires of spinsterhood to my current state of married and ready for kids. Smart, compelling and pro-woman (as always). Highly recommended.
MAN UP
Sarah Morean
PO Box 3629
Minneapolis, MN 55403
$2?, 36 pages, half-size
This compilation zine is about one of the most reviled, misunderstood and polarizing phenomenon in the world: the moustache. Love it or hate it, MAN UP covers the spectrum of commentary—the moustache as indicator of villainy, defense of the humble patch of upper lip fur, knitting patterns to make your own moustache, instructions on how to grow a fab ‘stache, and an interview with local Minneapolis artist Scott Seekins. Each copy of MAN UP includes your very own adhesive moustache (mine was “The Rogue,” a tan stripe of what looked like carpeting). I believe that only certain people can successfully pull off a moustache without looking smarmy or ridiculous, but I have new respect for this underdog of the hair world.
LISTY #3
Maria Goodman
PO Box 303, 2000 NE 42nd Street Suite D
Portland, OR 97213
mariasoapy@yahoo.com
$2, 38 pages, digest
As always, Maria has created a charming zine full of stories and whimsical fun. She and her partner, Andrew Robinson, trade off with list-related topics like the top five awkward moments, literary pet peeves, people currently in a ten-foot radius of her at the public library, the largest amounts of found money (Andrew once found $100!) and displeasing desserts. Delaine Derry Green makes a guest appearance with one of the most organized, detailed list/monthly planners I’ve ever seen. Highly recommended.
POETS ESPRESSO Sept. 2008
Donald R. Anderson and Nikki Quismondo, editors
1426 Telegraph Avenue #4
Stockton, CA 95204
poetsespresso@gmail.com
http://poetsespresso.com
Free locally, $7 for 6 mailed issues, 24 pages, digest
I feel inept when I try to critique poetry. Many times, I have no idea what the poem is really about, but I can appreciate the flow, the rhythm of the words and the way it sounds in my head as I read it. As a reviewer, I get a lot of poetry and fiction. A lot of it is bad, and I don’t write a blurb for XEROGRAPHY DEBT. Sometimes, like in the case of POETS ESPRESSO, it’s good and I’m happy to share my limited opinion with you.
Three poems in particular stood out for me: “Tribute to David Humphreys” by Marie J. Ross and “One Last Farewell” by Patricia Ann Mayorga, both about their late poet and friend, and the delicious “Fig” by Chantel C. Guidry. All were moving, melodic and lingering. This issue also includes Bruce Crawford’s “Variant Pressure,” the first place winner in Scott’s Valley Poetry Contest.
LITERAL CHAOS no.1: the water issue
Amanda Wells
10156 Sakura Drive
St. Louis, MO 63128
editor@literalchaos.com
www.literalchaos.com
$7, 24 pages, digest
Another fiction/poetry zine, LITERAL CHAOS offers enjoyable, solid writing around the theme of water. I especially liked Mister Ben’s silly and fun to read “Wetter Tales : Once Told, Twice Forgotten” and Lisa Ebert’s short story “Mississippi.” Even with the pretty color cover, I’m cheap and would be hard pressed to pay $7 for any zine unless I knew I would love nearly every page of it. I wish this zine well—it’s hard to find a market for poetry/fiction zines (reviewers seem to avoid them like the Ebola virus), especially at that price.
DO-IT-YOURSELF SCREENPRINTING : How to turn your home into a t-shirt factory
John Isaacson
Microcosm Publishing
POB 14332
Portland, OR 97293
www.microcosmpublishing.com
www.unlay.com
$9, 160 pages, paperback (ISBN 0-9770557-4-4)
Can I just say how thrilled I was when Davida sent this to me to review? I took my first class in printmaking in spring 2008 and loved it, but I needed to push aside my free studio art classes to make room for the library science ones instead. I’d dreamed of doing woodcuts at home, mostly because they’re pretty cheap, easy and require only a few items (piece of class, oil based ink, brayer, paper, wooden spoon and ink cleaner). Now, thanks to this wonderful comic book, I can make screen prints at home, too! It’s a bit more complicated, especially if you want more than one color, but John breaks down the process into easy-to-understand steps. He shares his experiences selling his work, moving out of his house and into mass-production and gives helpful hints to DIY printers along the way. John has been a screenprinter, cartoonist and musician for over ten years. Currently living in Berkeley, he’s traveled to Ireland, Chile, China and Peru. Check out the second website to see samples of his work.
BOOTY #21
Anne Thalheimer
8 Clark Street #2
Holyoke, MA 01040
motes@simons-rock.edu
$2?, 16 pages, digest
After a year hiatus, Anne returns with another great comic depiction of her life. After getting a new job that uses her Ph.D., joining the roller derby and launching her very own monster hat venture (check out https://mymonsterhat.com/home.php), Anne’s got a lot to write about! My favorite pages were “100 random facts about me” and her drawings for “All I Need” by Radiohead. I always find Anne inspiring because no matter how busy she is, she incorporates art into her life. (My distractible and procrastinating self is jealous.) I’m grateful I can read about it in BOOTY and hopefully inject the same sense of fun and creativity in my own life amidst the chaos and laziness. Yay, BOOTY!
ZINE WORLD #26: A reader’s guide to the underground press
POB 330156
Murfreesboro, TN 37133-0156
www.undergroundpress.org
$4 US, $5 Canada/Mexico, $6 Everywhere else, 62 pages, full size
ZINE WORLD, like XEROGRAPHY DEBT, is a review zine. Chock full of suggestions for fabulous independent media, this is a wonderful resource (200+ zine reviews plus books). Extra marvelous treats are Heath Row’s article “Censoring news: from Redding to Russia” and the letters to the editor. This is a must-have for those who are new, addicted or curious about the world of zines.
CRANES
Kyt Dotson
http://www.millvexations.com/
Free-$2, printed version pages vary, digest
Dotson writes a serial novella about Vex Harrow, a tough goth in the Mill Avenue area of Tempe, AZ who delves in the supernatural. The story itself currently has nine volumes, and CRANES is a stand-alone “tribute fiction” involving some of the same characters. There is no summary of the story in CRANES, so you’ll have to go to the website to figure out who who’s and what’s happening. By itself, I didn’t have enough context to thoroughly enjoy and understand the story in CRANES but I was impressed by Dotson’s writing abilities and her website, which includes free full-text version of every volume of this story, a discussion forum, links to Mill Avenue business, gothic subculture information and related fiction suggestions. There’s a dedicated following—she has a link to the first fan fiction story related to Mill Avenue Vexations. Dotson also has two published fantasy/paranormal books (one through amazon and the other a free e-book).
POTENTIALLY HEARTWRENCHING DISTRACTIONS AND OTHER WONDERFUL POSSIBILITIES
Bucket D. Siler
POB 10192
Santa Fe, NM 87504
yournamehere@hush.com
myspace.com/bucketsiler
$2/2.50/3, 28 pages, digest
PWDaOWP is a tight, satisfying perzine about Bucket’s travels across the country, breaking up, coming out, friends, love and life. Text heavy with a few drawings.
WATCH THE CLOSING DOORS #44
Fred Argoff
Penthouse L
1170 Ocean Parkway
Brooklyn, NY 11230-4060
$10 for four quarterly issues, 20 pages, digest
I’ve heard about WATCH THE CLOSING DOORS for years but have never read it. Thanks to Davida, I finally got one in my review envelope. Fred writes about all things subway, mostly encompassing NYC but also including Guadalajara, Shanghai, Paris and Buenos Aires. I LOVED the photo of the Underground Catwalk in Berlin (the model was wearing leather and pasties) and the detailed description of the no. 4 (Lexington Avenue express) line in New York. This zine is well worth the hype!!!
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
in My Mailbox 5-5-09
Yo,
After a brief absence caused by completely forgetting, I finally made it back to the PO Box yesterday and gathered my treats, which included an airline bottle of vodka from a kind soul who chose to remain anonymous. If I can get this free-booze-in-the-mail deal off the ground, I believe I will be remembered for generations as a great man.
Anyway, I also got:
- Insignificant Proportions (A Memoir of Sorts) & Insignificant Proportions Companion Coloring Book [No price, DB Pedlar, 25727 Cherry Hill Rd, Camb. Spgs, PA 16403] I love getting stuff from DB, and I love the statement on page 3 that he is making this zine for his grandchildren and hopes that one of us--his readers--will be the one to hand them a copy, someday. The coloring book just blows my mind.
- Fed Up Mag #11 (gerryorchard@iol.ie; myspace.com/fedupmag) 6 screaming pages about shopping, decluttering, and animated movies.
- Blackguard #1 ($7, PO Box 93, Paddington NSW 2021 Australia; blackguard23.livejournal.com; sstratu@gmail.com). Wow, pretty gorgeous 4-color cover and crisp, well-done comix inside by various artists. $7 is high, but looks worth it. Theme is "Religious Crazies" - who can't get behind that!
- Brain Food #15 ($1, Mike Toft, POB 7246, Minneapolis MN 55407; cartoonistconspiracy.com/brainfood; miketoft@usfamily.net) An installment in an ongoing comic story, digest-sized and good-looking.
And that was it! The booze counts for about 27 zines, though.
L
J
--
Blog - http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/
The Inner Swine - http://www.innerswine.com
After a brief absence caused by completely forgetting, I finally made it back to the PO Box yesterday and gathered my treats, which included an airline bottle of vodka from a kind soul who chose to remain anonymous. If I can get this free-booze-in-the-mail deal off the ground, I believe I will be remembered for generations as a great man.
Anyway, I also got:
- Insignificant Proportions (A Memoir of Sorts) & Insignificant Proportions Companion Coloring Book [No price, DB Pedlar, 25727 Cherry Hill Rd, Camb. Spgs, PA 16403] I love getting stuff from DB, and I love the statement on page 3 that he is making this zine for his grandchildren and hopes that one of us--his readers--will be the one to hand them a copy, someday. The coloring book just blows my mind.
- Fed Up Mag #11 (gerryorchard@iol.ie; myspace.com/fedupmag) 6 screaming pages about shopping, decluttering, and animated movies.
- Blackguard #1 ($7, PO Box 93, Paddington NSW 2021 Australia; blackguard23.livejournal.com; sstratu@gmail.com). Wow, pretty gorgeous 4-color cover and crisp, well-done comix inside by various artists. $7 is high, but looks worth it. Theme is "Religious Crazies" - who can't get behind that!
- Brain Food #15 ($1, Mike Toft, POB 7246, Minneapolis MN 55407; cartoonistconspiracy.com/brainfood; miketoft@usfamily.net) An installment in an ongoing comic story, digest-sized and good-looking.
And that was it! The booze counts for about 27 zines, though.
L
J
--
Blog - http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/
The Inner Swine - http://www.innerswine.com
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Reviews from Matt Fagan: BFF, Estrus Comics, Alpha City Comics, Fish With Legs, Guide to Steel Bikes, Fake Life, Not My Small Diary, 600 Rubles...
BFF
by Nate Beaty
5x7, perfect bound, 200-something pages
Microcosm Publishing
222 S. Rogers St.
Bloomington, IN 47404
microcosmpublishing.com
Title misconceptions aside, this book is called BRAINFAG FOREVER, a collection of 8 years worth of mostly journal-style comics by Nate Beaty – originally printed as part of his long-running comics zine, Brainfag. The title, which one reviewer has noted that Nate will spend the rest of his life explaining, is a “medical” term meaning “brain fatigue”, culled from a turn-of-the-century advertisement for Grape-Nuts cereal.
How much do I love zine omnibuses? The appeal, as always for me, is watching the artist embark on a journey of self-discovery, and seeing how their abilities and interests evolve over time. With Nate, it isn’t so much that he starts at A and eventually ends at Z, but rather that he embraces the opportunity to constantly experiment with different styles and techniques. The presentation of BFF, which reprints in whole several issues of Brainfag, is always changing. Sometimes the comics are vaguely fictional with obvious real-world repercussions. Some of them overtly transcribe conversations between Nate and his friends or lovers. Sometimes the comics are lush with brush-and-ink urban landscapes that wordlessly set the scene of Nate’s life at a particular juncture. Sometimes the comics are hastily scribbled illustrations with tiny, urgent paragraphs of text. But he does not jump from one style to another and abandon his roots, he searches for the best way to express his desires and concerns… sometimes the results are simply adequate to preserve his thoughts for posterity, and sometimes they are rich with aesthetic beauty.
In terms of subject matter, BFF is mostly the story of Nate bouncing back and forth between urban environments (generally Portland, Oregon) and his rural retreat on Orcas Island, where he often lived in an unheated greenhouse, wrote and drew comics long into the night, and survived by performing manual labor. Through it all, Nate preserves friendships with other creative, marginalized individuals and attempts to find a romantic relationship that doesn’t immediately crumble into dust. He spends a lot of time single and frustrated, and the rest of the time he’s just frustrated full stop.
The litmus test of a book like BFF, for this reviewer, is how it inspires me. As somebody who has been making zines and comics for more than ten years, and whose self-publishing output has dwindled as I approach my 35th birthday, I can truly enjoy and appreciate a lot of zines without being really moved by them. But as I read BFF I found myself shifting restlessly. By the time I reached the halfway point in the book, I had to take a break to start my own journal comic, because I’d been carrying around some issues that needed to be worked out and BFF had given me a sense of direction. Now I’m finished with Nate’s book, and not only am I several pages into my own comic but I’ve somehow stumbled upon a series of personal revelations in the process. The way I see it, the most vital creative output is that which begets more creative output in those who experience it, and that is exactly what Nate has achieved in BFF.
ESTRUS COMICS #6
by MariNaomi
digest size, 44pp., $5 US or $7 international
PO Box 640811
San Francisco, CA 94164-0811
marinaomia@pobox.com
marinaomi.com
The subtitle of this zine is “more kiss & tell stories”, and while I haven’t seen her previous kiss and tell stories I did not exactly have any difficulty jumping into the fray. MariNaomi is detailing her entire romantic history through a series of very revealing comics, each of which takes its name from the subject and date of the comic (for example, the first entry in the zine is “Andrew – 1984”.)
What MariNaomi gets just right is the awkwardness of young infatuation, the way everything is either dreadfully important or completely meaningless, with no grey area in between. She doesn’t hide her own mistakes or indiscretions, she doesn’t try to make herself seem like the hero of her own story – as far as I can tell, she relates each of these tales just the way it happened, warts and all. Poorly-considered breakups, revenge sex, unstoppable teenaged tears, and even gullibly optimistic young fantasies are all represented here.
The motivation behind these comics may be no more complicated than MariNaomi’s need to get some of these incidents off her chest, to relate her stories as romantic victim or romantic aggressor in order to put the past in the past. But the result for the reader is something better than a mere voyeuristic thrill. These kiss and tell stories are alternately funny, touching, familiar and weird. They probably won’t make you wish you could relive your own teenage years, but you will very likely recognize a part of your past in these pages. I certainly enjoyed a mental stroll through the most embarrassing and triumphant moments of my own passionate youth as I was reading ESTRUS COMICS, and I doubt anybody could open this zine without having a similar experience.
ALPHA CITY COMICS #1
story by Kevin Sciretta, art by Neil Brideau
magazine size, 28 pp., $4? (e-mail to ensure correct price)
cannonballkevin@gmail.com
friendshipisterrible@gmail.com
fromthewell.info
This is the ambitious debut of a science fiction anthology, set in the futuristic Alpha City and framed by the narration of a pirate radio DJ named Betty Beyond.
The two-part “Run Like Hell” occupies most of the issue, and goes the farthest in terms of establishing the science fiction context of the story. Utilizing everything from faceless police-state soldiers, flying cars, and the sort of technology where you can use computers to interface directly with another person’s consciousness, “Run Like Hell” is a straight up, us-against-them story of an urban future gone wrong. By contrast, “The Horrible Case of Fred P. Lemke” is a simple comedy about a jilted nerd, who uses a transmogrification machine for all the wrong reasons.
“Dancin’ Larry” is ultimately the weirdest (and to me the most interesting) of all the ALPHA CITY COMICS. The story of a bum who stands on a street corner every day, dancing to music that nobody else can hear, culminates in a strangely touching twist ending. I don’t know if it demands a sequel, or if further exploration would even fit into the sci-fi world that the writer and artist have in mind, but it was pretty cool.
On a strictly technical level, their first issue does have a few problems. The fellows could do with a proofreader, as the English major in me always gets knocked out of a story when I encounter things like “wheather” or “The correct calibration seems to allude me”. And sometimes the ideas in the story are a bit too grandiose for the artist to effectively handle. I don’t really want to criticize because Brideau is clearly working very hard on this book, and he has done a remarkable job of conveying some difficult scenes. He has a personal style that would probably be better suited to a different genre, and he’s doing his best to adapt and grow to meet the challenges posed by ALPHA CITY COMICS. It will be interesting to see how things progress from here.
When it comes to self-published comics, you don’t see a whole lot of science fiction. I really hope these guys stick with it and continue to build on what they started here. Sciretta and Brideau have laid the foundation for a universe that has a lot of possibility, establishing enough to make their world solid but not defining so much that they’ve limited themselves. Here’s to the future!
FISH WITH LEGS #12
By Eric Lyden
Digest size, 32 pp. $2 or $1 and 2 stamps
224 Moraine St.
Brockton, MA 02301-3664
ericfishlegs@aol.com
I have a confession to make. Ever since I turned eighteen, I craved being called for jury duty. Yearned for it. For years, I waited. Never once did I get the letter, while friends and acquaintances who didn’t even want to go were constantly being called down to the courthouse. Why not me?, I thought, cursing my luck. It wasn’t until I turned 33 that I finally got the summons in the mail, and I promptly threw the letter away.
Eric Lyden, on the other hand, seems to be in that special class of people who is always being summoned to jury duty, only he never gets selected. Most of FISH WITH LEGS #12 is his story of finally being picked to sit on a jury in a drug sting case, and reading his account was just like being there. If I hadn’t thrown out the summons.
You can never go wrong with Fish With Legs. Reading Eric’s zine is always like having a friend tell you a story. I’ve never met Eric, but I think I know the way he talks.
Also included in this issue are the usual “Fun Facts”, one of which I will share with you now:
“Today at the comic book store I saw a girl with purple hair hanging out with a guy wearing a New England Patriots jersey. It raised a very interesting question – have girls with purple hair gotten lamer or have guys who wear football jerseys gotten cooler? I dunno, but quite frankly I liked it better when you could look at a girl with purple hair and automatically know she was cool and you could look at a guy in a football jersey and know he was a douche bag. I hate to think that now you can’t even tell.”
GUIDE TO STEEL BIKES
Lindsey Howard
7 x 8½, 24 pp., $2.50 US or $3 world
1593 E. Bainbridge Rd.
Sandy, VT
ratsinthecity403@hotmail.com
I quite enjoyed GUIDE TO STEEL BIKES, but I don’t know why it exists. The zine includes information about tube and component manufacture, frame construction, chemical differences between various types of steel, and some history about how bicycle manufacture has changed over the past decades. But much of the information is drawn from out-of-date sources, and none of the subjects are covered thoroughly enough to be very useful as a proper reference.
However, I use a bicycle as my primary means of transport. I’m not hardcore or anything – never worked as a messenger, don’t wear tight shorts, and I still have to go to a bike mechanic when I have a problem. I love my bike though, and I love riding, and despite not finding anything I could employ practically, GUIDE TO STEEL BIKES was pretty interesting to me. As the rider of an aluminum bicycle, my curiosity about steel bikes was piqued, and the idea of trying out a few of them has a definite appeal. I’m sure any bike lover would feel the same.
I suspect Lindsey Howard is someone who just finds this stuff truly interesting, like I did, and wants to spread it around. So, I don’t know what this guide is for, but I liked it. If this sounds cool to you, it probably will be.
FAKE LIFE #7
digest size, 28 pp., $2
PO box 1174
Tallahassee, FL 32302-1174
gomek@comcast.net
www.pxdistro.com
FAKE LIFE #7 is a classic piece of self-publishing, the sort of thing you could hand to somebody who just asked you, “What is a zine?”
Here you’ll find personal stories from the authors, a piece of fiction, and interviews with underground artist Gus Fink, queerpunk band Bromance, and author Deran Ludd. There’s cut-and-paste illustrations, handwritten titles and page numbers, and photocopied photographs. Just like a zine should have! Plus, since the stories and interviews are actually good reading, FAKE LIFE is the total package. When interviewing Bromance, they don’t just stick to the usual by-the-numbers stuff, throwing in questions like “Have you ever met someone you admired and it went wrong?” and “Know any good Henry Rollins jokes?” (they did).
Also, there was a story that involved projectile diarrhea. Who wouldn’t enjoy a zine like this one?
NOT MY SMALL DIARY #14
the dating issue
edited by Delaine Derry Green
digest size, two volumes, 138 pp. total, $6 plus $1 shipping
1204 Cresthill Rd
Birmingham, AL 35213
delangel3@hotmail.com
www.mysmallwebpage.com
There are few things that brighten up a mailbox like the arrival of NOT MY SMALL DIARY, a compilation comic that has been running strong for more than a decade! The latest double issue features contributions from more than 50 artists and zinesters, regaling us with their juiciest stories about dating, all presented in sequential art form.
Even if you’ve never picked up a zine before, you’ll treasure this collection of comics. There are some terrific stories here: about pathetic attempts to connect by people who don’t know how to have a conversation, about blind dates that are lonelier than being alone, and even about people who actually fell in love with each other. But if you do read a lot of zines, then NOT MY SMALL DIARY will be even better! This collection is full of familiar names and art styles, as some of your favorite zinesters treat you to special stories that they drew just for Delaine. Who knew that Kelly Froh had an accidental encounter with a wrestling fetishist? It was kind of gross, but also hilarious!
This is a zine that is more than worth the price. You should also contribute to NOT MY SMALL DIARY, because if you don’t then…I don’t know, the terrorists win, or something.
600 RUBLES
by Jennifer Manriquez
digest size, 20pp., $3 US, $4 Canada, $5 world (prices include postage)
SAMPLE press
PO Box 471159
Fort Worth, TX 76107
samplepress@gmail.com
www.samplepressonline.com
I’ve previously reviewed Jennifer’s zines Scissor Socket Shocker and Trying On Hats, which she wrote under the name Jennifer Farley, and I always like her work. She’s one of those zinesters (like Eric Lyden) that regularly give me a twinge of guilt when I receive something in the mail from them, because my output has been so minimal these last few years that I rarely have anything to send in return. Nevertheless, I’m always grateful when I find that envelope coming through the slot, and 600 RUBLES is no exception. In fact, this may be her most interesting and personal work to date.
From the time she was a little girl, Jennifer’s dream was to be a dancer… and 600 RUBLES is the story of how that dream died.
At the age of 19 (Jennifer is 35 now) she was on scholarship at a junior college in Athens, Texas, where she performed as a member of their world-traveling dance team The Cardettes. During the winter break, Jennifer was the victim of a vaguely-remembered attack by her boyfriend, which resulted in concussion and hospitalization. The Cardettes were due to perform at a soccer tournament in Moscow the week after Christmas.
The zine relates the physical repercussions of this attack, which continued to plague Jennifer during the trip to Russia. Waking up all alone in an airport medical station in Germany, with no English-speaking attendants and no idea how long she had been there, was only the beginning of her trouble. What follows is traumatic enough to read, it’s hard to imagine what the pain and disorientation would have been like to experience.
Amazingly, Jennifer seems to emerge from this horror story with her spirit intact, and while she could easily be excused for bearing a violent grudge against many of the girls on the trip, she remains forgiving – and generously refrains from using any of their real names. I doubt I would have been as kind.
Not only does 600 RUBLES tell a pretty gripping story, Jennifer’s practical attitude and refusal to be beaten down makes the whole thing kind of inspiring. Brutal, but inspiring.
And be sure to check out Scissor Socket Shocker, too. Good stuff.
PSIONIC PLASTIC JOY #12
by Jason Rodgers (with contributors)
digest size, 24 pp., $2/stamps/trade
c/o Jason Rodgers
PO Box 1683
Nashua, NH 03060
What an awesome piece of work! This is an art-obsessed, collage-riddled masterpiece with a strong and clear message about the importance of creation outside the sphere of corporate influence. The zine opens on an interview with Paul Laffoley, who wears the label of “artist” as comfortably as he might wear the label of “madman”. He is living proof that fringe thinking, occultism and other pursuits that inevitably result in alienation (willful or otherwise) from socially-sanctioned modes of interaction also result in the most interesting, enduring and meaningful works of art. His proposal for the Gaudi Hotel to be built on New York’s Ground Zero site is one of the most baffling, complex and beautiful pieces of architecture that the world may never have the chance to see: a huge building that is equal parts function and mysticism. It would have incorporated not only a complicated pendulum device invented by Thomas Edison for the purposes of amplifying mediumistic abilities in order to scrye the remains of those who perished in the 9/11 attacks, but also an even more ambitious gyroscopic structure intended to help people transcend the boundaries of linear time.
The interview in which Laffoley describes how his building/machine functions is alternately fascinating and impenetrable, something that could be mistaken for the ranting of a lunatic but which somehow rings true in a way that is both uncomfortable and alluring.
“Confusing Activity with Accomplishment” laments the devolution of vital and interesting correspondence art into the unimaginative add-and-pass-on phenomenon of mail art. Like the interview with Paul Laffoley, the greater message here is that allowing a marginal process to be consumed by its homogenous surroundings, to be commodified or adopted or used as a means to an end, will result in the disempowerment of the medium itself.
Another article reviews a biography of Anita Berber, who was a “decadent dancer” in Weimar Germany (predecessor to Leni Riefenstahl and Marlene Dietrich). This story fits perfectly among others in this zine, as Berber was a true artist: a sort of Libertine of the stage whose accomplishments only hinted at her ambitions. Hers was a life lived truly and completely on the edge, and though tragically cut short at the age of 29 she left behind a remarkable legacy.
This zine is unusually dense with content. A meditation on the affect and future of Cinema Verité, a reprinted end-of-the-world pamphlet, “anti-music”; there is so much rich reading here, I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
STILL WE RIDE
directed by Elizabeth Press, Andrew Lynn, and Christopher Ryan, DVD, $14
Microcosm Publishing
222 S. Rogers St.
Bloomington, IN 47404
www.microcosmpublishing.com
STILL WE RIDE provides a chilling look into some of the legal troubles experienced by bicycle activist group Critical Mass, but this isn’t the place to go first if you’re not familiar with the organization. It’s no primer for the uninitiated, offering little in the way of history – though there are a few minutes devoted to the general intentions of Critical Mass and some individual experiences recalled by various participants.
The primary concern of STILL WE RIDE is the series of arrests that occurred on August 27, 2004 during a Critical Mass ride in New York City, exemplifying by extreme the troubles that Critical Mass potentially faces in any city.
This documentary succeeds as a compelling story, beginning with the mass arrest of 264 cyclists and escalating from there. STILL WE RIDE paints the police as criminals, and indeed they seem to live up to that reputation. They saw through locks to seize bicycles that they go on record to describe as “abandoned”, while video shows the owners present, keys in hand, protesting the destruction of their property. They doctor videotaped evidence to excise footage that exonerates an innocent bystander, only dropping the charges against him when the master tape surfaces. The most outrageous violations seem motivated only by a nebulous resentment of Critical Mass, such as when a group of police officers lays siege to a peaceful, indoor Critical Mass after-party, assaulting several attendees and stealing more bicycles. But some of the larger issues remain unclear.
The filmmakers are quick to blame the police actions on some shadowy agenda to quash civilian rights to protest and peaceably assemble, and their case is not without merit. However, I would feel more confident in that conclusion if they had spelled out exactly what the pre-existing laws in New York were, regarding the definitions of “parade” and “obstructing traffic” and the necessity of permits for large gatherings. They state that they were not breaking any laws, but failed to actually cite any laws to support the statement.
On an individual basis the Critical Mass participants are quite justified in asserting their rights to ride, but most seem callously indifferent to the effect that hundreds of cyclists have on traffic in a metropolitan center. As an avid cyclist who has known many people who rode with Critical Mass in Chicago, I haven’t found this attitude to be representative, but in the context of STILL WE RIDE it was difficult to place my sympathies entirely with the victims.
by Nate Beaty
5x7, perfect bound, 200-something pages
Microcosm Publishing
222 S. Rogers St.
Bloomington, IN 47404
microcosmpublishing.com
Title misconceptions aside, this book is called BRAINFAG FOREVER, a collection of 8 years worth of mostly journal-style comics by Nate Beaty – originally printed as part of his long-running comics zine, Brainfag. The title, which one reviewer has noted that Nate will spend the rest of his life explaining, is a “medical” term meaning “brain fatigue”, culled from a turn-of-the-century advertisement for Grape-Nuts cereal.
How much do I love zine omnibuses? The appeal, as always for me, is watching the artist embark on a journey of self-discovery, and seeing how their abilities and interests evolve over time. With Nate, it isn’t so much that he starts at A and eventually ends at Z, but rather that he embraces the opportunity to constantly experiment with different styles and techniques. The presentation of BFF, which reprints in whole several issues of Brainfag, is always changing. Sometimes the comics are vaguely fictional with obvious real-world repercussions. Some of them overtly transcribe conversations between Nate and his friends or lovers. Sometimes the comics are lush with brush-and-ink urban landscapes that wordlessly set the scene of Nate’s life at a particular juncture. Sometimes the comics are hastily scribbled illustrations with tiny, urgent paragraphs of text. But he does not jump from one style to another and abandon his roots, he searches for the best way to express his desires and concerns… sometimes the results are simply adequate to preserve his thoughts for posterity, and sometimes they are rich with aesthetic beauty.
In terms of subject matter, BFF is mostly the story of Nate bouncing back and forth between urban environments (generally Portland, Oregon) and his rural retreat on Orcas Island, where he often lived in an unheated greenhouse, wrote and drew comics long into the night, and survived by performing manual labor. Through it all, Nate preserves friendships with other creative, marginalized individuals and attempts to find a romantic relationship that doesn’t immediately crumble into dust. He spends a lot of time single and frustrated, and the rest of the time he’s just frustrated full stop.
The litmus test of a book like BFF, for this reviewer, is how it inspires me. As somebody who has been making zines and comics for more than ten years, and whose self-publishing output has dwindled as I approach my 35th birthday, I can truly enjoy and appreciate a lot of zines without being really moved by them. But as I read BFF I found myself shifting restlessly. By the time I reached the halfway point in the book, I had to take a break to start my own journal comic, because I’d been carrying around some issues that needed to be worked out and BFF had given me a sense of direction. Now I’m finished with Nate’s book, and not only am I several pages into my own comic but I’ve somehow stumbled upon a series of personal revelations in the process. The way I see it, the most vital creative output is that which begets more creative output in those who experience it, and that is exactly what Nate has achieved in BFF.
ESTRUS COMICS #6
by MariNaomi
digest size, 44pp., $5 US or $7 international
PO Box 640811
San Francisco, CA 94164-0811
marinaomia@pobox.com
marinaomi.com
The subtitle of this zine is “more kiss & tell stories”, and while I haven’t seen her previous kiss and tell stories I did not exactly have any difficulty jumping into the fray. MariNaomi is detailing her entire romantic history through a series of very revealing comics, each of which takes its name from the subject and date of the comic (for example, the first entry in the zine is “Andrew – 1984”.)
What MariNaomi gets just right is the awkwardness of young infatuation, the way everything is either dreadfully important or completely meaningless, with no grey area in between. She doesn’t hide her own mistakes or indiscretions, she doesn’t try to make herself seem like the hero of her own story – as far as I can tell, she relates each of these tales just the way it happened, warts and all. Poorly-considered breakups, revenge sex, unstoppable teenaged tears, and even gullibly optimistic young fantasies are all represented here.
The motivation behind these comics may be no more complicated than MariNaomi’s need to get some of these incidents off her chest, to relate her stories as romantic victim or romantic aggressor in order to put the past in the past. But the result for the reader is something better than a mere voyeuristic thrill. These kiss and tell stories are alternately funny, touching, familiar and weird. They probably won’t make you wish you could relive your own teenage years, but you will very likely recognize a part of your past in these pages. I certainly enjoyed a mental stroll through the most embarrassing and triumphant moments of my own passionate youth as I was reading ESTRUS COMICS, and I doubt anybody could open this zine without having a similar experience.
ALPHA CITY COMICS #1
story by Kevin Sciretta, art by Neil Brideau
magazine size, 28 pp., $4? (e-mail to ensure correct price)
cannonballkevin@gmail.com
friendshipisterrible@gmail.com
fromthewell.info
This is the ambitious debut of a science fiction anthology, set in the futuristic Alpha City and framed by the narration of a pirate radio DJ named Betty Beyond.
The two-part “Run Like Hell” occupies most of the issue, and goes the farthest in terms of establishing the science fiction context of the story. Utilizing everything from faceless police-state soldiers, flying cars, and the sort of technology where you can use computers to interface directly with another person’s consciousness, “Run Like Hell” is a straight up, us-against-them story of an urban future gone wrong. By contrast, “The Horrible Case of Fred P. Lemke” is a simple comedy about a jilted nerd, who uses a transmogrification machine for all the wrong reasons.
“Dancin’ Larry” is ultimately the weirdest (and to me the most interesting) of all the ALPHA CITY COMICS. The story of a bum who stands on a street corner every day, dancing to music that nobody else can hear, culminates in a strangely touching twist ending. I don’t know if it demands a sequel, or if further exploration would even fit into the sci-fi world that the writer and artist have in mind, but it was pretty cool.
On a strictly technical level, their first issue does have a few problems. The fellows could do with a proofreader, as the English major in me always gets knocked out of a story when I encounter things like “wheather” or “The correct calibration seems to allude me”. And sometimes the ideas in the story are a bit too grandiose for the artist to effectively handle. I don’t really want to criticize because Brideau is clearly working very hard on this book, and he has done a remarkable job of conveying some difficult scenes. He has a personal style that would probably be better suited to a different genre, and he’s doing his best to adapt and grow to meet the challenges posed by ALPHA CITY COMICS. It will be interesting to see how things progress from here.
When it comes to self-published comics, you don’t see a whole lot of science fiction. I really hope these guys stick with it and continue to build on what they started here. Sciretta and Brideau have laid the foundation for a universe that has a lot of possibility, establishing enough to make their world solid but not defining so much that they’ve limited themselves. Here’s to the future!
FISH WITH LEGS #12
By Eric Lyden
Digest size, 32 pp. $2 or $1 and 2 stamps
224 Moraine St.
Brockton, MA 02301-3664
ericfishlegs@aol.com
I have a confession to make. Ever since I turned eighteen, I craved being called for jury duty. Yearned for it. For years, I waited. Never once did I get the letter, while friends and acquaintances who didn’t even want to go were constantly being called down to the courthouse. Why not me?, I thought, cursing my luck. It wasn’t until I turned 33 that I finally got the summons in the mail, and I promptly threw the letter away.
Eric Lyden, on the other hand, seems to be in that special class of people who is always being summoned to jury duty, only he never gets selected. Most of FISH WITH LEGS #12 is his story of finally being picked to sit on a jury in a drug sting case, and reading his account was just like being there. If I hadn’t thrown out the summons.
You can never go wrong with Fish With Legs. Reading Eric’s zine is always like having a friend tell you a story. I’ve never met Eric, but I think I know the way he talks.
Also included in this issue are the usual “Fun Facts”, one of which I will share with you now:
“Today at the comic book store I saw a girl with purple hair hanging out with a guy wearing a New England Patriots jersey. It raised a very interesting question – have girls with purple hair gotten lamer or have guys who wear football jerseys gotten cooler? I dunno, but quite frankly I liked it better when you could look at a girl with purple hair and automatically know she was cool and you could look at a guy in a football jersey and know he was a douche bag. I hate to think that now you can’t even tell.”
GUIDE TO STEEL BIKES
Lindsey Howard
7 x 8½, 24 pp., $2.50 US or $3 world
1593 E. Bainbridge Rd.
Sandy, VT
ratsinthecity403@hotmail.com
I quite enjoyed GUIDE TO STEEL BIKES, but I don’t know why it exists. The zine includes information about tube and component manufacture, frame construction, chemical differences between various types of steel, and some history about how bicycle manufacture has changed over the past decades. But much of the information is drawn from out-of-date sources, and none of the subjects are covered thoroughly enough to be very useful as a proper reference.
However, I use a bicycle as my primary means of transport. I’m not hardcore or anything – never worked as a messenger, don’t wear tight shorts, and I still have to go to a bike mechanic when I have a problem. I love my bike though, and I love riding, and despite not finding anything I could employ practically, GUIDE TO STEEL BIKES was pretty interesting to me. As the rider of an aluminum bicycle, my curiosity about steel bikes was piqued, and the idea of trying out a few of them has a definite appeal. I’m sure any bike lover would feel the same.
I suspect Lindsey Howard is someone who just finds this stuff truly interesting, like I did, and wants to spread it around. So, I don’t know what this guide is for, but I liked it. If this sounds cool to you, it probably will be.
FAKE LIFE #7
digest size, 28 pp., $2
PO box 1174
Tallahassee, FL 32302-1174
gomek@comcast.net
www.pxdistro.com
FAKE LIFE #7 is a classic piece of self-publishing, the sort of thing you could hand to somebody who just asked you, “What is a zine?”
Here you’ll find personal stories from the authors, a piece of fiction, and interviews with underground artist Gus Fink, queerpunk band Bromance, and author Deran Ludd. There’s cut-and-paste illustrations, handwritten titles and page numbers, and photocopied photographs. Just like a zine should have! Plus, since the stories and interviews are actually good reading, FAKE LIFE is the total package. When interviewing Bromance, they don’t just stick to the usual by-the-numbers stuff, throwing in questions like “Have you ever met someone you admired and it went wrong?” and “Know any good Henry Rollins jokes?” (they did).
Also, there was a story that involved projectile diarrhea. Who wouldn’t enjoy a zine like this one?
NOT MY SMALL DIARY #14
the dating issue
edited by Delaine Derry Green
digest size, two volumes, 138 pp. total, $6 plus $1 shipping
1204 Cresthill Rd
Birmingham, AL 35213
delangel3@hotmail.com
www.mysmallwebpage.com
There are few things that brighten up a mailbox like the arrival of NOT MY SMALL DIARY, a compilation comic that has been running strong for more than a decade! The latest double issue features contributions from more than 50 artists and zinesters, regaling us with their juiciest stories about dating, all presented in sequential art form.
Even if you’ve never picked up a zine before, you’ll treasure this collection of comics. There are some terrific stories here: about pathetic attempts to connect by people who don’t know how to have a conversation, about blind dates that are lonelier than being alone, and even about people who actually fell in love with each other. But if you do read a lot of zines, then NOT MY SMALL DIARY will be even better! This collection is full of familiar names and art styles, as some of your favorite zinesters treat you to special stories that they drew just for Delaine. Who knew that Kelly Froh had an accidental encounter with a wrestling fetishist? It was kind of gross, but also hilarious!
This is a zine that is more than worth the price. You should also contribute to NOT MY SMALL DIARY, because if you don’t then…I don’t know, the terrorists win, or something.
600 RUBLES
by Jennifer Manriquez
digest size, 20pp., $3 US, $4 Canada, $5 world (prices include postage)
SAMPLE press
PO Box 471159
Fort Worth, TX 76107
samplepress@gmail.com
www.samplepressonline.com
I’ve previously reviewed Jennifer’s zines Scissor Socket Shocker and Trying On Hats, which she wrote under the name Jennifer Farley, and I always like her work. She’s one of those zinesters (like Eric Lyden) that regularly give me a twinge of guilt when I receive something in the mail from them, because my output has been so minimal these last few years that I rarely have anything to send in return. Nevertheless, I’m always grateful when I find that envelope coming through the slot, and 600 RUBLES is no exception. In fact, this may be her most interesting and personal work to date.
From the time she was a little girl, Jennifer’s dream was to be a dancer… and 600 RUBLES is the story of how that dream died.
At the age of 19 (Jennifer is 35 now) she was on scholarship at a junior college in Athens, Texas, where she performed as a member of their world-traveling dance team The Cardettes. During the winter break, Jennifer was the victim of a vaguely-remembered attack by her boyfriend, which resulted in concussion and hospitalization. The Cardettes were due to perform at a soccer tournament in Moscow the week after Christmas.
The zine relates the physical repercussions of this attack, which continued to plague Jennifer during the trip to Russia. Waking up all alone in an airport medical station in Germany, with no English-speaking attendants and no idea how long she had been there, was only the beginning of her trouble. What follows is traumatic enough to read, it’s hard to imagine what the pain and disorientation would have been like to experience.
Amazingly, Jennifer seems to emerge from this horror story with her spirit intact, and while she could easily be excused for bearing a violent grudge against many of the girls on the trip, she remains forgiving – and generously refrains from using any of their real names. I doubt I would have been as kind.
Not only does 600 RUBLES tell a pretty gripping story, Jennifer’s practical attitude and refusal to be beaten down makes the whole thing kind of inspiring. Brutal, but inspiring.
And be sure to check out Scissor Socket Shocker, too. Good stuff.
PSIONIC PLASTIC JOY #12
by Jason Rodgers (with contributors)
digest size, 24 pp., $2/stamps/trade
c/o Jason Rodgers
PO Box 1683
Nashua, NH 03060
What an awesome piece of work! This is an art-obsessed, collage-riddled masterpiece with a strong and clear message about the importance of creation outside the sphere of corporate influence. The zine opens on an interview with Paul Laffoley, who wears the label of “artist” as comfortably as he might wear the label of “madman”. He is living proof that fringe thinking, occultism and other pursuits that inevitably result in alienation (willful or otherwise) from socially-sanctioned modes of interaction also result in the most interesting, enduring and meaningful works of art. His proposal for the Gaudi Hotel to be built on New York’s Ground Zero site is one of the most baffling, complex and beautiful pieces of architecture that the world may never have the chance to see: a huge building that is equal parts function and mysticism. It would have incorporated not only a complicated pendulum device invented by Thomas Edison for the purposes of amplifying mediumistic abilities in order to scrye the remains of those who perished in the 9/11 attacks, but also an even more ambitious gyroscopic structure intended to help people transcend the boundaries of linear time.
The interview in which Laffoley describes how his building/machine functions is alternately fascinating and impenetrable, something that could be mistaken for the ranting of a lunatic but which somehow rings true in a way that is both uncomfortable and alluring.
“Confusing Activity with Accomplishment” laments the devolution of vital and interesting correspondence art into the unimaginative add-and-pass-on phenomenon of mail art. Like the interview with Paul Laffoley, the greater message here is that allowing a marginal process to be consumed by its homogenous surroundings, to be commodified or adopted or used as a means to an end, will result in the disempowerment of the medium itself.
Another article reviews a biography of Anita Berber, who was a “decadent dancer” in Weimar Germany (predecessor to Leni Riefenstahl and Marlene Dietrich). This story fits perfectly among others in this zine, as Berber was a true artist: a sort of Libertine of the stage whose accomplishments only hinted at her ambitions. Hers was a life lived truly and completely on the edge, and though tragically cut short at the age of 29 she left behind a remarkable legacy.
This zine is unusually dense with content. A meditation on the affect and future of Cinema Verité, a reprinted end-of-the-world pamphlet, “anti-music”; there is so much rich reading here, I couldn’t recommend it more highly.
STILL WE RIDE
directed by Elizabeth Press, Andrew Lynn, and Christopher Ryan, DVD, $14
Microcosm Publishing
222 S. Rogers St.
Bloomington, IN 47404
www.microcosmpublishing.com
STILL WE RIDE provides a chilling look into some of the legal troubles experienced by bicycle activist group Critical Mass, but this isn’t the place to go first if you’re not familiar with the organization. It’s no primer for the uninitiated, offering little in the way of history – though there are a few minutes devoted to the general intentions of Critical Mass and some individual experiences recalled by various participants.
The primary concern of STILL WE RIDE is the series of arrests that occurred on August 27, 2004 during a Critical Mass ride in New York City, exemplifying by extreme the troubles that Critical Mass potentially faces in any city.
This documentary succeeds as a compelling story, beginning with the mass arrest of 264 cyclists and escalating from there. STILL WE RIDE paints the police as criminals, and indeed they seem to live up to that reputation. They saw through locks to seize bicycles that they go on record to describe as “abandoned”, while video shows the owners present, keys in hand, protesting the destruction of their property. They doctor videotaped evidence to excise footage that exonerates an innocent bystander, only dropping the charges against him when the master tape surfaces. The most outrageous violations seem motivated only by a nebulous resentment of Critical Mass, such as when a group of police officers lays siege to a peaceful, indoor Critical Mass after-party, assaulting several attendees and stealing more bicycles. But some of the larger issues remain unclear.
The filmmakers are quick to blame the police actions on some shadowy agenda to quash civilian rights to protest and peaceably assemble, and their case is not without merit. However, I would feel more confident in that conclusion if they had spelled out exactly what the pre-existing laws in New York were, regarding the definitions of “parade” and “obstructing traffic” and the necessity of permits for large gatherings. They state that they were not breaking any laws, but failed to actually cite any laws to support the statement.
On an individual basis the Critical Mass participants are quite justified in asserting their rights to ride, but most seem callously indifferent to the effect that hundreds of cyclists have on traffic in a metropolitan center. As an avid cyclist who has known many people who rode with Critical Mass in Chicago, I haven’t found this attitude to be representative, but in the context of STILL WE RIDE it was difficult to place my sympathies entirely with the victims.
Monday, April 6, 2009
New Duplex Planet and more
The Duplex Planet...#184 is now [out] and 185 will be just the usual eight weeks later.
[David Greenberger is] currently wrapping up a project in Milwaukee which grew out of a three month artist residency there in 2008. There will be a new CD out shortly,
titled "Cherry Picking Apple Blossom Time" and a big performance in
Milwaukee at the historic Pabst Theater on May 13. This is a new series of
monologues with music by Paul Cebar, performed by him, members of his band
and other area musicians. The text is based on [David's] conversations with
elderly Milwaukeeans who have memory loss....There's info about the
show and this new piece here: http://pabsttheater.org/paulcebar
[David Greenberger is] currently wrapping up a project in Milwaukee which grew out of a three month artist residency there in 2008. There will be a new CD out shortly,
titled "Cherry Picking Apple Blossom Time" and a big performance in
Milwaukee at the historic Pabst Theater on May 13. This is a new series of
monologues with music by Paul Cebar, performed by him, members of his band
and other area musicians. The text is based on [David's] conversations with
elderly Milwaukeeans who have memory loss....There's info about the
show and this new piece here: http://pabsttheater.org/paulcebar
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Reviews from Gavin Grant: Floation Device, Ker-Bloom, Oh No, the Robot, Prints Not Dead, Lazy Boy, Musea
FLOTATION DEVICE
No.11, $5, half-letter, 64pp., Keith Helt, 1242 Dean St., Woodstock, IL 60098. floatationdevice@gmail.com
Picked this up at some point (this issue came out in 2005) at Giant Robot in San Francisco. A long way to go for zines, but those were the days when a cross-country trip to get some reading material seemed like a sharp idea. And it was: this is a great zine. Keith gave all his stories to different comics artists to illustrate so, while he looks into his relationship to zining over the years, the many illustrators give it a ton of different looks. It’s almost worth the $5 for the cover which you could frame or just put up on your wall. It’s a great idea and his sense of joy at being part of the zining community is catchy.
KER-BLOOM!
No.74, $2+stamp, quarter-letter, 8pp., artnoose, 5532 Baywood St., Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Yay! A Manifesto! This issue of the long-running letterpress-printed Ker-bloom! is titled “Pittsburgh Relocation Project” and it’s very persuasive. Artnoose and partner moved there so that they could have their “Dream Shop”—a print shop (see www.craftycards.net for their other print stuff) in the ground floor of their house. A year later, it’s done and now we should all move there. This zine makes it sound like an idea we should all be considering: free bikes and free screenprinting are both available, there aren’t many cops, there are loads of punk families, punk rock brunches (that may be an oxymoron, but it gets the meaning across), and so on. As economies around the world wait for China to start selling dollars and begin the big collapse, artnoose says Pittsburgh is readying itself for the apocalypse. Read the zine and get on your bike.
OH NO! THE ROBOT
No.10, $2, half-letter, 12pp., Chris Morix, 23 Crystal Villa, Warman, SK, SOKOAI, Canada. ohnotherobot@hotmail.com
A set of short stories about a guy, maybe Chris, who hates much about life including dating, marriage, and other forms of partnership hooking up with a friend and wondering how it will go and whether it will last, some of which are illustrated by naïve-styled color illustrations. There are some great lines here: “The end is when you get to relax after the climax, take a deep breath, and begin plotting a way to do it all again.” It’s hilarious, mercifully short, and ends in a way that points to larger, weirder things. Something like Joe Meno meets Kevin Brockmeier.
PRINTS NOT DEAD
Andrew Coltrin, Look for Signage, PO Box 40782, Tucson, AZ 85717, look_for_signage@yahoo.com
I love that when I read a good zine and google it I find a whole new bunch of interesting people. I just looked up Andrew’s other zine, Bony Landmarks, and came across a well-established distro shop (www.parcellpress.com) that looks like the next place on my buy tour of the internets. Um, right, liked the zine, too.
LAZY BOY
No.1, $2 US/$4 world/trade, quarter-legal, 80pp., Mike Baker, PO Box 1174, Tallahassee, FL 32302. gomek@comcast.net
Mike gives the reader fair warning for what to expect in his preface: it’s a trip through how fucked up he is, so don’t read it if you’re easily offended. It starts off gentle with a couple of letters from prisoners and a photocopied “fag story from the fifties.” Then comes, as it were, the exciting stuff: episodes of his sexual experiences that run the gamut. There are also a couple of nihilistic short short stories that didn’t do much for me.
MUSEA
No.163, $?, half-legal, 8pp., Tom Hendricks, Art with Craft, 4000 Hawthorne, #5, Dallas, TX 75219. tom-hendricks@att.net
Reprints an older essay of Tom’s, “Pentalium,” in which he calls for a Wiki-style collaborative world history to be written. (Does Wikipedia count? Not sure.) There’s also a nice short piece of MUSEA history that will mess up future historians. The last essay is on new ways to know the past. The last of these is astrology, so how you take it will depend on whether your mind is made up on that or not. I don’t think the past will be able to be read by looking at where the sun was or who was born on which days and so on, but maybe you do. I did like checking out his music at hunkasaurus.com.
No.11, $5, half-letter, 64pp., Keith Helt, 1242 Dean St., Woodstock, IL 60098. floatationdevice@gmail.com
Picked this up at some point (this issue came out in 2005) at Giant Robot in San Francisco. A long way to go for zines, but those were the days when a cross-country trip to get some reading material seemed like a sharp idea. And it was: this is a great zine. Keith gave all his stories to different comics artists to illustrate so, while he looks into his relationship to zining over the years, the many illustrators give it a ton of different looks. It’s almost worth the $5 for the cover which you could frame or just put up on your wall. It’s a great idea and his sense of joy at being part of the zining community is catchy.
KER-BLOOM!
No.74, $2+stamp, quarter-letter, 8pp., artnoose, 5532 Baywood St., Pittsburgh, PA 15206
Yay! A Manifesto! This issue of the long-running letterpress-printed Ker-bloom! is titled “Pittsburgh Relocation Project” and it’s very persuasive. Artnoose and partner moved there so that they could have their “Dream Shop”—a print shop (see www.craftycards.net for their other print stuff) in the ground floor of their house. A year later, it’s done and now we should all move there. This zine makes it sound like an idea we should all be considering: free bikes and free screenprinting are both available, there aren’t many cops, there are loads of punk families, punk rock brunches (that may be an oxymoron, but it gets the meaning across), and so on. As economies around the world wait for China to start selling dollars and begin the big collapse, artnoose says Pittsburgh is readying itself for the apocalypse. Read the zine and get on your bike.
OH NO! THE ROBOT
No.10, $2, half-letter, 12pp., Chris Morix, 23 Crystal Villa, Warman, SK, SOKOAI, Canada. ohnotherobot@hotmail.com
A set of short stories about a guy, maybe Chris, who hates much about life including dating, marriage, and other forms of partnership hooking up with a friend and wondering how it will go and whether it will last, some of which are illustrated by naïve-styled color illustrations. There are some great lines here: “The end is when you get to relax after the climax, take a deep breath, and begin plotting a way to do it all again.” It’s hilarious, mercifully short, and ends in a way that points to larger, weirder things. Something like Joe Meno meets Kevin Brockmeier.
PRINTS NOT DEAD
Andrew Coltrin, Look for Signage, PO Box 40782, Tucson, AZ 85717, look_for_signage@yahoo.com
I love that when I read a good zine and google it I find a whole new bunch of interesting people. I just looked up Andrew’s other zine, Bony Landmarks, and came across a well-established distro shop (www.parcellpress.com) that looks like the next place on my buy tour of the internets. Um, right, liked the zine, too.
LAZY BOY
No.1, $2 US/$4 world/trade, quarter-legal, 80pp., Mike Baker, PO Box 1174, Tallahassee, FL 32302. gomek@comcast.net
Mike gives the reader fair warning for what to expect in his preface: it’s a trip through how fucked up he is, so don’t read it if you’re easily offended. It starts off gentle with a couple of letters from prisoners and a photocopied “fag story from the fifties.” Then comes, as it were, the exciting stuff: episodes of his sexual experiences that run the gamut. There are also a couple of nihilistic short short stories that didn’t do much for me.
MUSEA
No.163, $?, half-legal, 8pp., Tom Hendricks, Art with Craft, 4000 Hawthorne, #5, Dallas, TX 75219. tom-hendricks@att.net
Reprints an older essay of Tom’s, “Pentalium,” in which he calls for a Wiki-style collaborative world history to be written. (Does Wikipedia count? Not sure.) There’s also a nice short piece of MUSEA history that will mess up future historians. The last essay is on new ways to know the past. The last of these is astrology, so how you take it will depend on whether your mind is made up on that or not. I don’t think the past will be able to be read by looking at where the sun was or who was born on which days and so on, but maybe you do. I did like checking out his music at hunkasaurus.com.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Maynard Reviews some Zines (March 2009)
Opuntia 66.1 November. 2008 ISSN 1183-2703
Dale Spiers
Box 6830
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
T2P 2E7
$3 cash for a one-time copy, no US checks or US stamps
Oil, oil and more oil. Dale Spiers discusses the driver of modern industry with alacrity. He assures us that Armageddon isn't really at hand, we are just going through yet another awkward economic convulsion, caused, in part, by oil speculators dumping their once-precious black-gold. Personally, I was hoping for Armageddon, as I don't want to have to save for retirement anymore.
Dale also reviews Reinventing Collapse (Dimitri Orlov, 2008). No one knows economic woes better than Russians, but this book will be an unpleasant wakeup call for us spoiled Westerners, whose privately owned dwellings and industries are completely subject to the value of our currency. In the recent Russian collapse, the currency was worthless and people had to rely on barter. This was possible because their housing and major industries are owned by the State, so at least the communities stayed together as housing ownership was unaffected. City dwellers could also go about living as they could use bikes and public transit to get around.
America's impending collapse will be spectacular. So horrifying, in fact, that I am tempted to dig a pit and fill it with Spam and gold bars. The future collapse would be fascinating if I didn't have to participate.
Think how lives will change with no money, no jobs, no cars and no cable! It's primitive as can be. Anyhoo, upshot is we'll have to rely on each other, learn to mend and make do, and give up our selfish, isolated, environmentally detrimental lifestyles, which is a pity because I enjoy having my own bathroom.
Also included are zine reviews.
When the Spam runs out, think of the good old days when you could read zine reviews on the Internet.
Sugar and Spite Presents
Angry Carrot and Diabolical Pea
Ali Thompson and Mikkie McGregor
PO Box 95
Runnemeade, NY 08078
$3 Other titles by these authors are reviewed below and prices vary per title.
These are the chronicles of a murderous pea and carrot who specialize in sophisticated riffs on great moments in history, and ironic illustration of text. Format is a quarter sheet with a quotation and accompanying crude stick-figure drawing to illustrate the concept in the quote.
My only admonition to the authors is the labeling Stairway to Heaven as a great tragedy in History. You young whippersnappers have no idea of the health benefits the DJ population derived from this song. Many years ago, before automated radio, Disc Jockies would play this classic, 6-minute tune, so they could go take a leek. This song is great on so many levels, but the thing that impresses me most is Led Zep was on some pretty heavy drugs and were able to hold and slide a tempo like nobody's business. Mega cool.
If you favor crude, yet erudite drawings, this will bring a grin to even the most jaded, history-major-cum-baristas out there.
Sugar and Spite Presents
Sad Robots
Ali Thompson and Mikkie McGregor
PO Box 95
Runnemeade, NY 08078
$3 Other titles by these authors are reviewed below and prices vary per title.
Brief allegory of the coming Age of Robots and how they sort of appreciate what they lost when they destroyed humanity. Deeply disturbing, but in a good way.
Sugar and Spite Presents
Revelation Chapters 1-11
Ali Thompson and Mikkie McGregor
PO Box 95
Runnemeade, NY 08078
$5 Other titles by these authors are reviewed below and prices vary per title.
Jesus help me! I am a huge sucker for the Book of Revelations, so forgive the Rave for this zine; it probably isn't as great as I think, but I am extremely biased with this sort of thing, and am unable to remain in the proper “reviewer” stance and have shifted over to hopeless fan.
The authors take the best of the Scripture, add some crude drawings, vivid color, and viola! A masterpiece.
The Four Horsemen illustration – alone - is worth $5.
ETC #1 Everybody that Creates: Regret
PO Box 678421
Orlando, FL 32867-8421
$2
This zine has uneven content, and a lot of poetry, so if poesy makes you puke, skip it.
There are some gems in here. Poetical standouts are Song of Songs by Christopher Almond; Doctor Holdout by Curtis Meyer, and the Untitled Comic by Chuck E. Folgar.
This last offering, Untitled Comic, is the highlight of the zine for me. It's a brief comic which is a painfully funny study of what it's like to reveal all the wrong parts of yourself to others whom you wish to impress, and they subsequently reject you.
Regeneration
32 pages, half size
$2 US, $3 outside US, trades accepted
Ashlee Swanson
8150 W 30 ½ St. #306
St. Louis Park, MN 55426
asregeneration@yahoo.com
For those of us who trembled at the thought that there was no replacement generation of zine-creators, think again. Ashlee Swanson's excellent zine on the confusing, twentysomething experience is a fine representation of the next generation of zinesters.
Ashlee captures that feeling of random, drunken-free-fall life. It's the oddly-in-between-time, when one isn't a teen, and isn't exactly sure who or what one is. I am still waiting for this period of life to come to an end, but I am a very slow learner. Ashlee shows us how she stumbled her way through her first years living on her own, and what she experienced as she learned about herself through her relationships with others.
Hand-lettered, slice-of-life style makes you feel you really know the author at zine's end.
Absent Cause, #2, January 2009
PO Box 1568
NY, NY 10276
redguard@gmail.com
www.absent-cause.org
$4 US; $5 Can/Mex; $5 World (includes shipping)
Trades OK
96 p; size: 5.5” X 8.5”
Essays and poems from numerous authors– mostly essays with a central theme of self acceptance or becoming part of a group.
The essays are top-notch, well-written, and highly engaging.
Topics include an interview with rocker Amanda Palmer; fat acceptance; the Muslim experience – one in NY city and one in Egypt; obsessive disorders; transsexuals; horror and fantasy fiction; poetry; and some amazing graphic and photographic art with very strong, sexual images.
The essay that made me stop and think even more than usual, is Andria Alefi's essay “Arab in the American world (or the other way around).” A first-generation, Arab woman describes her complex identity as an Arab-American; Arab-American mistaken for a Jew, and a daughter of immigrants. This essay is a generous, humorous, and complex take on the American Experience.
The revelation of the fear within the Arab-American communities to be themselves is heart-breaking.
The history of immigration to America is one of hazing. And that is for the folks who came here voluntarily. We have forgotten “Irish need not apply” and “No Italians Allowed” on the door of the local watering hole that was a hallmark of the turn of the last century.
Arab-Americans today are suffering a double-whammy of normal American xenophobia and freaky global politics resulting from stateless warfare techniques, which has been cruelly and incorrectly associated with Islam.
Can the Republic survive this episode and preserve Constitutional Integrity? We have an unpleasant chapter of American history to refer to: how we treated Japanese-Americans during WWII. I pray we have learned our lesson from this less-than-glorious period of our history.
Dale Spiers
Box 6830
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
T2P 2E7
$3 cash for a one-time copy, no US checks or US stamps
Oil, oil and more oil. Dale Spiers discusses the driver of modern industry with alacrity. He assures us that Armageddon isn't really at hand, we are just going through yet another awkward economic convulsion, caused, in part, by oil speculators dumping their once-precious black-gold. Personally, I was hoping for Armageddon, as I don't want to have to save for retirement anymore.
Dale also reviews Reinventing Collapse (Dimitri Orlov, 2008). No one knows economic woes better than Russians, but this book will be an unpleasant wakeup call for us spoiled Westerners, whose privately owned dwellings and industries are completely subject to the value of our currency. In the recent Russian collapse, the currency was worthless and people had to rely on barter. This was possible because their housing and major industries are owned by the State, so at least the communities stayed together as housing ownership was unaffected. City dwellers could also go about living as they could use bikes and public transit to get around.
America's impending collapse will be spectacular. So horrifying, in fact, that I am tempted to dig a pit and fill it with Spam and gold bars. The future collapse would be fascinating if I didn't have to participate.
Think how lives will change with no money, no jobs, no cars and no cable! It's primitive as can be. Anyhoo, upshot is we'll have to rely on each other, learn to mend and make do, and give up our selfish, isolated, environmentally detrimental lifestyles, which is a pity because I enjoy having my own bathroom.
Also included are zine reviews.
When the Spam runs out, think of the good old days when you could read zine reviews on the Internet.
Sugar and Spite Presents
Angry Carrot and Diabolical Pea
Ali Thompson and Mikkie McGregor
PO Box 95
Runnemeade, NY 08078
$3 Other titles by these authors are reviewed below and prices vary per title.
These are the chronicles of a murderous pea and carrot who specialize in sophisticated riffs on great moments in history, and ironic illustration of text. Format is a quarter sheet with a quotation and accompanying crude stick-figure drawing to illustrate the concept in the quote.
My only admonition to the authors is the labeling Stairway to Heaven as a great tragedy in History. You young whippersnappers have no idea of the health benefits the DJ population derived from this song. Many years ago, before automated radio, Disc Jockies would play this classic, 6-minute tune, so they could go take a leek. This song is great on so many levels, but the thing that impresses me most is Led Zep was on some pretty heavy drugs and were able to hold and slide a tempo like nobody's business. Mega cool.
If you favor crude, yet erudite drawings, this will bring a grin to even the most jaded, history-major-cum-baristas out there.
Sugar and Spite Presents
Sad Robots
Ali Thompson and Mikkie McGregor
PO Box 95
Runnemeade, NY 08078
$3 Other titles by these authors are reviewed below and prices vary per title.
Brief allegory of the coming Age of Robots and how they sort of appreciate what they lost when they destroyed humanity. Deeply disturbing, but in a good way.
Sugar and Spite Presents
Revelation Chapters 1-11
Ali Thompson and Mikkie McGregor
PO Box 95
Runnemeade, NY 08078
$5 Other titles by these authors are reviewed below and prices vary per title.
Jesus help me! I am a huge sucker for the Book of Revelations, so forgive the Rave for this zine; it probably isn't as great as I think, but I am extremely biased with this sort of thing, and am unable to remain in the proper “reviewer” stance and have shifted over to hopeless fan.
The authors take the best of the Scripture, add some crude drawings, vivid color, and viola! A masterpiece.
The Four Horsemen illustration – alone - is worth $5.
ETC #1 Everybody that Creates: Regret
PO Box 678421
Orlando, FL 32867-8421
$2
This zine has uneven content, and a lot of poetry, so if poesy makes you puke, skip it.
There are some gems in here. Poetical standouts are Song of Songs by Christopher Almond; Doctor Holdout by Curtis Meyer, and the Untitled Comic by Chuck E. Folgar.
This last offering, Untitled Comic, is the highlight of the zine for me. It's a brief comic which is a painfully funny study of what it's like to reveal all the wrong parts of yourself to others whom you wish to impress, and they subsequently reject you.
Regeneration
32 pages, half size
$2 US, $3 outside US, trades accepted
Ashlee Swanson
8150 W 30 ½ St. #306
St. Louis Park, MN 55426
asregeneration@yahoo.com
For those of us who trembled at the thought that there was no replacement generation of zine-creators, think again. Ashlee Swanson's excellent zine on the confusing, twentysomething experience is a fine representation of the next generation of zinesters.
Ashlee captures that feeling of random, drunken-free-fall life. It's the oddly-in-between-time, when one isn't a teen, and isn't exactly sure who or what one is. I am still waiting for this period of life to come to an end, but I am a very slow learner. Ashlee shows us how she stumbled her way through her first years living on her own, and what she experienced as she learned about herself through her relationships with others.
Hand-lettered, slice-of-life style makes you feel you really know the author at zine's end.
Absent Cause, #2, January 2009
PO Box 1568
NY, NY 10276
redguard@gmail.com
www.absent-cause.org
$4 US; $5 Can/Mex; $5 World (includes shipping)
Trades OK
96 p; size: 5.5” X 8.5”
Essays and poems from numerous authors– mostly essays with a central theme of self acceptance or becoming part of a group.
The essays are top-notch, well-written, and highly engaging.
Topics include an interview with rocker Amanda Palmer; fat acceptance; the Muslim experience – one in NY city and one in Egypt; obsessive disorders; transsexuals; horror and fantasy fiction; poetry; and some amazing graphic and photographic art with very strong, sexual images.
The essay that made me stop and think even more than usual, is Andria Alefi's essay “Arab in the American world (or the other way around).” A first-generation, Arab woman describes her complex identity as an Arab-American; Arab-American mistaken for a Jew, and a daughter of immigrants. This essay is a generous, humorous, and complex take on the American Experience.
The revelation of the fear within the Arab-American communities to be themselves is heart-breaking.
The history of immigration to America is one of hazing. And that is for the folks who came here voluntarily. We have forgotten “Irish need not apply” and “No Italians Allowed” on the door of the local watering hole that was a hallmark of the turn of the last century.
Arab-Americans today are suffering a double-whammy of normal American xenophobia and freaky global politics resulting from stateless warfare techniques, which has been cruelly and incorrectly associated with Islam.
Can the Republic survive this episode and preserve Constitutional Integrity? We have an unpleasant chapter of American history to refer to: how we treated Japanese-Americans during WWII. I pray we have learned our lesson from this less-than-glorious period of our history.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
IN My Mailbox 3-11-09
Hola,
Ah, spring is coming, the time of year that a young man's thoughts turn to baseball and illegally distilled homemade liquors. And also too, time for another trip to the PO Box!
This time around, a light load. Two bucks, a couple of letters, and just two publications:
- Intersections ($3, Eight Stone Press, PO Box 11064, Baltimore, MD 21212; www.eightstonepress.com). Man Bill Tandy and 8SP is a busy bunch, eh? And more power to 'em. I have no idea what this zine's about, frankly, as I haven't read it yet and it lacks the sort of easy-to-digest cover patter that a smooth mind like mine likes for easy distillation. But, they use a quote from me in one of their advertisements, so they rock.
- Zine World #27 ($4 US, $5 CAN, PO Box 330156, Murfreesboro, TN 37133; www.undergroundpress.org) Yea! Another issue of ZW, which we love. Contains a good review of TIS, as well, which is always nice, and a bad review of one of my novels, which is the risk you take. It's a *funny* bad review, which takes some of the sting out of it.
And that was it. Never a bad day when there's *something* in the box, so I ain't complaining.
Ciao.
J
--
Blog - http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/
The Inner Swine - http://www.innerswine.com
Ah, spring is coming, the time of year that a young man's thoughts turn to baseball and illegally distilled homemade liquors. And also too, time for another trip to the PO Box!
This time around, a light load. Two bucks, a couple of letters, and just two publications:
- Intersections ($3, Eight Stone Press, PO Box 11064, Baltimore, MD 21212; www.eightstonepress.com). Man Bill Tandy and 8SP is a busy bunch, eh? And more power to 'em. I have no idea what this zine's about, frankly, as I haven't read it yet and it lacks the sort of easy-to-digest cover patter that a smooth mind like mine likes for easy distillation. But, they use a quote from me in one of their advertisements, so they rock.
- Zine World #27 ($4 US, $5 CAN, PO Box 330156, Murfreesboro, TN 37133; www.undergroundpress.org) Yea! Another issue of ZW, which we love. Contains a good review of TIS, as well, which is always nice, and a bad review of one of my novels, which is the risk you take. It's a *funny* bad review, which takes some of the sting out of it.
And that was it. Never a bad day when there's *something* in the box, so I ain't complaining.
Ciao.
J
--
Blog - http://www.jeffreysomers.com/blather/
The Inner Swine - http://www.innerswine.com
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Go listen...
A podcast about zine hosted by Mark Parker & Alex Wrekk. It's called the NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR STUPIC ZINE podcast and it has a wicked catchy theme song by Androo Robinson and I just found it to be an enjoyable listen.
http://nobodycareszine.libsyn.com/
http://nobodycareszine.libsyn.com/
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Reviews from Fred Argoff: Elephant Mess, FlavorVegan, Map of Fog, Musea, Opuntia, For the Clerisy
As we advance deeper and deeper into the 21st century, it comes as more and more of a surprise to find that zines live. Real zines, produced on paper, that you can hold in your hands. I find this to be very comforting. My own brother has been on my back for years to stop doing a hard copy zine and switch over to the e-version. He says I'm wasting my time. "Hah!" I reply to him. And also, "Fuhgeddaboudit!" So saying, it's time to see what was in the bulky envelope with the Maryland postmark...
ELEPHANT MESS. Now, really--how could you go wrong with a title like this? It's a mini-zine full of words. All kinds of words. In fact, #20 is subtitled "Extra Words." And they come under such flavorful headings as How to Repair Everything (I can't repair anything, so I'm pretty impressed by this), Green Tea and Suicide Notes, Ninja Movies and Curse Words at the County Fair. More words like this, I say! It's a Dan Murphy production, and he says he'll accept trades. Otherwise, $2 (US, Canada & Mexico; $3 rest of the world) gets you the next copy from Dan at P.O. Box 3154, Moscow ID 83843.
FLAVORVEGAN is a blog. Their operating philosophy is that vegan food, like life, should be full of flavor. OK, I can accept that; flavor is a good thing. And for those of us still living our lives away from the computer screen, they put out this little notice on paper to tempt us into making a visit. Once there, we find not only recipes, but photography and tutorials. The little teaser sent to me for review had a tasty-looking photo on the front that turned out to be the Pizza Sandwich. And no, I'm not listing the recipe here. You're going to have to check this one out for yourselves. But I'll tell you this much: that photo made it difficult for me to sit here and continue writing. All I could think about was pizza. http://flavorvegan.blogspot.com
At first, I thought that MAP OF FOG was a litzine. But upon further investigation, I realized that it's actually an urban oriented zine focusing on San Francisco...hey, wait a minute! It's practically a West Coast cousin of my own little contribution to zinedom (that would be BROOKLYN!) So then I couldn't wait to dive right in. And the first writing encountered in this, the premiere issue, concerns a suicide at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero. But for your friendly local urban reviewer, the highlight of the zine was a piece entitled "These Stagnant Streets," about the Sunset District in SF, which the editor points out is not usually on the tourist's itinerary but probably ought to be. And there are photos to back up his textual assertions. Two thumbs up, and a gold star besides. I eagerly await further issues. $2, trades accepted, from Marcos Soriano, P.O. Box 27252, San Francisco CA 94127.
Well, I've reviewed MUSEA before, but Tom keeps putting out new issues and besides, I happen to like it. It's the zine devoted to the arts. No politics, no environment, no religion, no finance. Just the arts. Issue #166 (I told you Tom keeps putting out new issues, didn't I?) is the annual holiday story issue, a love story and mystery rolled into one. Here's the opening sentence: "Reich and Van Smith re-opened the taped packing tube with a ceremonious flare." Now try to tell me you aren't curious to see what develops from that point on. And guess what? Each issue is completely different, so you never have any idea what's on tap. No price listed, but for heaven's sake, make a contribution to the arts, willya? Tom Hendricks, 4000 Hawthorne (#5), Dallas TX 75219.
OPUNTIA is the coded zine. Each issue has a number on the front containing a decimal, so you know what to expect. .1 issues are reviewzines, .2 indexes, .3 apazines and .5 perzines. Here's issue 66.3, devoted to amateur press association zines. In particular, the Fantasy Amateur Press Association. Now you know the deal; ask for the topics that interest you. $3 cash for a one-time sample from Dale Speirs, P.O. Box 6830, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 2E7
And then there's FOR THE CLERISY. People are always confused by that title, and some avoid the zine because of it. But if you look it up, you'll find that the clerisy happen to be (the envelope, please)...people who read. Go figure! The zine's purpose of statement is twofold: one, to assure readers that other readers do, in fact, exist--a comforting assurance in the Age of the Internet--and two, to provide suggestions for expanding one's horizons through reviews of generally neglected books. Just as a small sampling, here in Vol. 15, No. 75 we find David Sedaris' "Barrel Fever," wherein ordinary people wind up in predicaments; Hannah Ropes' "Civil War Nurse," a collection of her correspondence; and "West with the Night," by Beryl Markham, the pioneering avatrix who was the first to fly solo across the Atlantic from London to North America. And there are letters of comment, too--not entirely surprising from people who read! No price listed, from Brant Kresovich, P.O. Box 404, Getzville NY 14068-0404.
And now I must curtail my reviewing activities in order to start working on the next issue of my own zine. Until next time, adieu, adios and foor gezuntaheit.
ELEPHANT MESS. Now, really--how could you go wrong with a title like this? It's a mini-zine full of words. All kinds of words. In fact, #20 is subtitled "Extra Words." And they come under such flavorful headings as How to Repair Everything (I can't repair anything, so I'm pretty impressed by this), Green Tea and Suicide Notes, Ninja Movies and Curse Words at the County Fair. More words like this, I say! It's a Dan Murphy production, and he says he'll accept trades. Otherwise, $2 (US, Canada & Mexico; $3 rest of the world) gets you the next copy from Dan at P.O. Box 3154, Moscow ID 83843.
FLAVORVEGAN is a blog. Their operating philosophy is that vegan food, like life, should be full of flavor. OK, I can accept that; flavor is a good thing. And for those of us still living our lives away from the computer screen, they put out this little notice on paper to tempt us into making a visit. Once there, we find not only recipes, but photography and tutorials. The little teaser sent to me for review had a tasty-looking photo on the front that turned out to be the Pizza Sandwich. And no, I'm not listing the recipe here. You're going to have to check this one out for yourselves. But I'll tell you this much: that photo made it difficult for me to sit here and continue writing. All I could think about was pizza. http://flavorvegan.blogspot.com
At first, I thought that MAP OF FOG was a litzine. But upon further investigation, I realized that it's actually an urban oriented zine focusing on San Francisco...hey, wait a minute! It's practically a West Coast cousin of my own little contribution to zinedom (that would be BROOKLYN!) So then I couldn't wait to dive right in. And the first writing encountered in this, the premiere issue, concerns a suicide at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero. But for your friendly local urban reviewer, the highlight of the zine was a piece entitled "These Stagnant Streets," about the Sunset District in SF, which the editor points out is not usually on the tourist's itinerary but probably ought to be. And there are photos to back up his textual assertions. Two thumbs up, and a gold star besides. I eagerly await further issues. $2, trades accepted, from Marcos Soriano, P.O. Box 27252, San Francisco CA 94127.
Well, I've reviewed MUSEA before, but Tom keeps putting out new issues and besides, I happen to like it. It's the zine devoted to the arts. No politics, no environment, no religion, no finance. Just the arts. Issue #166 (I told you Tom keeps putting out new issues, didn't I?) is the annual holiday story issue, a love story and mystery rolled into one. Here's the opening sentence: "Reich and Van Smith re-opened the taped packing tube with a ceremonious flare." Now try to tell me you aren't curious to see what develops from that point on. And guess what? Each issue is completely different, so you never have any idea what's on tap. No price listed, but for heaven's sake, make a contribution to the arts, willya? Tom Hendricks, 4000 Hawthorne (#5), Dallas TX 75219.
OPUNTIA is the coded zine. Each issue has a number on the front containing a decimal, so you know what to expect. .1 issues are reviewzines, .2 indexes, .3 apazines and .5 perzines. Here's issue 66.3, devoted to amateur press association zines. In particular, the Fantasy Amateur Press Association. Now you know the deal; ask for the topics that interest you. $3 cash for a one-time sample from Dale Speirs, P.O. Box 6830, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 2E7
And then there's FOR THE CLERISY. People are always confused by that title, and some avoid the zine because of it. But if you look it up, you'll find that the clerisy happen to be (the envelope, please)...people who read. Go figure! The zine's purpose of statement is twofold: one, to assure readers that other readers do, in fact, exist--a comforting assurance in the Age of the Internet--and two, to provide suggestions for expanding one's horizons through reviews of generally neglected books. Just as a small sampling, here in Vol. 15, No. 75 we find David Sedaris' "Barrel Fever," wherein ordinary people wind up in predicaments; Hannah Ropes' "Civil War Nurse," a collection of her correspondence; and "West with the Night," by Beryl Markham, the pioneering avatrix who was the first to fly solo across the Atlantic from London to North America. And there are letters of comment, too--not entirely surprising from people who read! No price listed, from Brant Kresovich, P.O. Box 404, Getzville NY 14068-0404.
And now I must curtail my reviewing activities in order to start working on the next issue of my own zine. Until next time, adieu, adios and foor gezuntaheit.
Friday, February 27, 2009
"Underground, Overground: the State of Zines Today" - article on Dandizette
This article http://dandizette.net/features/zines-zines talks about the state of zines.
The National Library of Scotland looking for UK zines
The National Library of Scotland looking to document and collect zines from the UK: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/7908705.stm
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Ungrateful Black-White Girl (review by Anne)
"This is, above all, a zine about race, but since I experience the world not only as a mixed-race person, but as a mixed-race queer woman with an inconsistent gender presentation, you will find experiences pertaining to all those identities in this zine." I've reviewed a lot of Nia's work before and I always come away from it thinking, Yeah, this is work people need to read. Because it is. That said, I think of all of Nia's work, Ungrateful Black-White Girl is the most articulate I've seen her be in writing about her own experiences. Her work is always powerful, but there's something about this zine that is both direct like her other work and also proactive; the anger is still there, but the setting feels more external--in this zine she's starting at a new school and is in a few setting different from her other zines. Maybe that's it. Maybe this zine feels more tied to a sense of place, whereas her other work was working through specific events or certain issues. UB-WG takes the form of dated individual entries that are titled things like "How to be a better white ally"and "This is what self-care looks like." It'll make you think; it's honest and forthright, and it's evocative of some of the things that I like best about zines. Get it. It's absolutely worth your time.
$2/Digest/24 pgs
Nia Diaspora
PO Box 9009, Oakland, CA 94613
oxette@riseup.net
$2/Digest/24 pgs
Nia Diaspora
PO Box 9009, Oakland, CA 94613
oxette@riseup.net
Saturday, February 21, 2009
In My Mailbox 2-21-09
Today, a beautiful day. Sunny, filled with promise. And on all such days filled with promise I wddle on down to the PO Box to see if the universe is going to fulfill that promise:
- I got two bizarre letters. One is just a listing of medals won at the 1936 Olympics. Thta's it. No note, no insert, just that and an address. The other is a handwritten plea to protest Sirius/XM radio's elimination of the Punk channel. The Punk Channel on Satellite radio? Punks pay $$$ every month to listen to the radio? This is strange to me. But then my sense of all things punk is still pretty 1985, I suspect.
- Maximumrocknroll (PO Box 460760, San Francisco, CA 94146-0760; www.maximumrocknroll.com): Another day, another MMR with a review of TIS. Not a bad review, thoguh the reviewer does think the issue was a bit more filled with padding and less inspired than usual.
- Underworld Crawl #6 ($2, R. Lee, POB 1421, Oshkosh, WI 54903). Mistah Lee writes in the beginning that he "fell off the wagon" for a while and stopped making or reading zines, then picked one up at random and got all charged up about it again, and thus a new UC. Thank goodness. Digest-sized and filled with words, my favorite.
- A magazine and some trinkets from Antigua, plus a poem, courtesy of Asha Anderson, who I haven't heard from in quite a while. You can check her at http://www.ashabot.com/.
- .ZAP! Spring 09, of which I am part. WE ROCK.
- A whole bunch of zines from Dan Swank, who, in search of humorous zines, heard about me from Eric Lyden, apparently. I will now creully disappoint Dan with issues of my own zine. He sent me Cranky Buddha #6 and #7 ($2, no address listed, www.crankybuddha.com), Tales from the Bus, and Manuscripts Don't Burn #6. All are digest-sized with cardstock covers and look neat. Go complain that he doesn't have contact info on his actual zines, okay?
And that was it. No go forth and make more zines for me. GO!
- I got two bizarre letters. One is just a listing of medals won at the 1936 Olympics. Thta's it. No note, no insert, just that and an address. The other is a handwritten plea to protest Sirius/XM radio's elimination of the Punk channel. The Punk Channel on Satellite radio? Punks pay $$$ every month to listen to the radio? This is strange to me. But then my sense of all things punk is still pretty 1985, I suspect.
- Maximumrocknroll (PO Box 460760, San Francisco, CA 94146-0760; www.maximumrocknroll.com): Another day, another MMR with a review of TIS. Not a bad review, thoguh the reviewer does think the issue was a bit more filled with padding and less inspired than usual.
- Underworld Crawl #6 ($2, R. Lee, POB 1421, Oshkosh, WI 54903). Mistah Lee writes in the beginning that he "fell off the wagon" for a while and stopped making or reading zines, then picked one up at random and got all charged up about it again, and thus a new UC. Thank goodness. Digest-sized and filled with words, my favorite.
- A magazine and some trinkets from Antigua, plus a poem, courtesy of Asha Anderson, who I haven't heard from in quite a while. You can check her at http://www.ashabot.com/.
- .ZAP! Spring 09, of which I am part. WE ROCK.
- A whole bunch of zines from Dan Swank, who, in search of humorous zines, heard about me from Eric Lyden, apparently. I will now creully disappoint Dan with issues of my own zine. He sent me Cranky Buddha #6 and #7 ($2, no address listed, www.crankybuddha.com), Tales from the Bus, and Manuscripts Don't Burn #6. All are digest-sized with cardstock covers and look neat. Go complain that he doesn't have contact info on his actual zines, okay?
And that was it. No go forth and make more zines for me. GO!
Review from Davida: AS THE WORLD BURNS: 50 SIMPLE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO STAY IN DENIAL
AS THE WORLD BURNS: 50 SIMPLE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO STAY IN DENIAL
By Derrick Jensen (Author) and Stephanie McMillan (Illustrator)
A friend sent me AS THE WORLD BURNS: 50 SIMPLE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO STAY IN DENIAL without preamble. Reading it reminded me of the experience (not the content) of going to see “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover.” I went to see the movie knowing nothing about it and worse yet somehow assuming that it would along the lines of “A Room with a View.” It was like getting visually smacked with viscera. Similarly, I started ATWB with innocence. That shatters after the first few pages and one would have to be an eco-saint not to see one’s own hypocrisy reflected the characters. Jensen and McMillan use fact and humor to explain the world is fucked and we are all responsible. It skewers the myth that changing lightbulbs and recycling are enough. Greedy politicians, ineffectual do-gooders, and aliens are slammed and bunnies are terrorists. A call to arms and arming bears. Highly recommended.
$14.95
224 pages , paperback
Seven Stories Press
ISBN-13: 978-1583227770
By Derrick Jensen (Author) and Stephanie McMillan (Illustrator)
A friend sent me AS THE WORLD BURNS: 50 SIMPLE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO STAY IN DENIAL without preamble. Reading it reminded me of the experience (not the content) of going to see “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover.” I went to see the movie knowing nothing about it and worse yet somehow assuming that it would along the lines of “A Room with a View.” It was like getting visually smacked with viscera. Similarly, I started ATWB with innocence. That shatters after the first few pages and one would have to be an eco-saint not to see one’s own hypocrisy reflected the characters. Jensen and McMillan use fact and humor to explain the world is fucked and we are all responsible. It skewers the myth that changing lightbulbs and recycling are enough. Greedy politicians, ineffectual do-gooders, and aliens are slammed and bunnies are terrorists. A call to arms and arming bears. Highly recommended.
$14.95
224 pages , paperback
Seven Stories Press
ISBN-13: 978-1583227770
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Reviews from Delaine Derry Green: Hero Land, Falling Can be Deadly, Scrappy J, Invincible Summer,
Delaine here - making my first-ever appearance as a reviewer for XD. Thank you, Davida, for inviting me to play! I’ll try to briefly introduce myself now… I became enamored with zines back in 1993. That’s when I started contributing to other people’s zines. It didn’t take long before I KNEW I had to do my own zine! So I put out ‘My Small Diary’, a collection of my autobio comics, quickly followed by ‘Not My Small Diary’ (other people’s autobio comics – get it?) and I continue to this day. My next NMSD is going to have a ‘Brushes with Celebrity’ theme (fun!). I have been saving every zine I’ve received over the years and the piles are large, let me tell you. I will now try to share my ziney opinions with you. Enjoy!
delangel3@hotmail.com; www.mysmallwebpage.com; yes, I’m on Facebook
HERO LAND
by Esther Pearl Watson
32 pages, $5
5 1/2 x 6 1/2
Funchicken.com
The focus of this mini rests squarely on the biggest names in superhero land, but it’s done with a twist. Superman, Wonderwoman, Captain America and others find themselves in hilarious situations in single or 2-3 page strips. For example, a spider bites Batman causing his middle finger to become stuck in an unfortunate position. He wonders aloud… “Oh! I hope I don’t offend anyone.” Superman and Wonderwoman have the type of arguments typical of normal couples. Captain America mourns his youth while pulling at his worn-out costume’s crotch. Each super-snippet is illustrated in Esther’s signature funky style that you’ve come to love with her Unlovable comics. The cover is a fabulous red and blue screenprinting job that’ll make you want to show it off on the coffee table. I don’t love superheroes but I love this mini comic!
FALLING CAN BE DEADLY
Ten Foot Rule, Shawn Granton
$2
TFR Industries, PO Box 14185, Portland, OR 97293-0185
Shawn presents his life in a mini comic with polished artwork, detailed stories, moments others might forget and even a fold-out center section focusing on his introspective new year’s resolutions for ‘08. Did he follow his own advice now that it’s a year later? I hope to find out with more comics detailing grand bicycle adventures, self evaluation, brushes with other comic artists and glorious nature! I truly admire Shawn’s body of work.
SCRAPPY J – A STORY ABOUT FIGHTING
Cassie J. Sneider
PO Box 4156, Austin, TX 78765
Cassie recently made a long drive from Austin to Birmingham for our fair city’s first real zine show. Hearing her read from her zines was truly magic. This girl is hilarious and presents her life in the most interesting way possible. Her zines have pages of hand-written stories, funny scribbled drawings and best of all – moxie! This issue takes a look at Cassie’s view of fighting - from a high-schooler wary of her ‘permanent record’ to a present day bar brawl - all told in a chatty/witty style. Cassie also read from another issue of her zine dealing with an odd job she picked up writing first-hand (ha!) reviews of sex toys.
INVINCIBLE SUMMER
Volume II: Issues 9-14, $12
Nicole J. Georges; www.microcosmpublishing.com
Microcosm Publishing, 222 S. Rogers St., Bloomington, IN 47404
Nicole does it again… diary comics filled with the love of animals, band antics, dating, everyday occurrences, minor traumas and some of my favorite drawings ever. It’s not all straight diary comics… Nicole throws in “Advice for Fat Girls who Thrift Shop’, an ‘Ask Nicole’ sassy advice column, a recipe for pumpkin cheesecake, a description of ‘The Points Game’ and more fun than you can shake a stick at. By the end of this pretty pink-covered book you will be bowing down to the gal with the finest beehive hairdo around.
delangel3@hotmail.com; www.mysmallwebpage.com; yes, I’m on Facebook
HERO LAND
by Esther Pearl Watson
32 pages, $5
5 1/2 x 6 1/2
Funchicken.com
The focus of this mini rests squarely on the biggest names in superhero land, but it’s done with a twist. Superman, Wonderwoman, Captain America and others find themselves in hilarious situations in single or 2-3 page strips. For example, a spider bites Batman causing his middle finger to become stuck in an unfortunate position. He wonders aloud… “Oh! I hope I don’t offend anyone.” Superman and Wonderwoman have the type of arguments typical of normal couples. Captain America mourns his youth while pulling at his worn-out costume’s crotch. Each super-snippet is illustrated in Esther’s signature funky style that you’ve come to love with her Unlovable comics. The cover is a fabulous red and blue screenprinting job that’ll make you want to show it off on the coffee table. I don’t love superheroes but I love this mini comic!
FALLING CAN BE DEADLY
Ten Foot Rule, Shawn Granton
$2
TFR Industries, PO Box 14185, Portland, OR 97293-0185
Shawn presents his life in a mini comic with polished artwork, detailed stories, moments others might forget and even a fold-out center section focusing on his introspective new year’s resolutions for ‘08. Did he follow his own advice now that it’s a year later? I hope to find out with more comics detailing grand bicycle adventures, self evaluation, brushes with other comic artists and glorious nature! I truly admire Shawn’s body of work.
SCRAPPY J – A STORY ABOUT FIGHTING
Cassie J. Sneider
PO Box 4156, Austin, TX 78765
Cassie recently made a long drive from Austin to Birmingham for our fair city’s first real zine show. Hearing her read from her zines was truly magic. This girl is hilarious and presents her life in the most interesting way possible. Her zines have pages of hand-written stories, funny scribbled drawings and best of all – moxie! This issue takes a look at Cassie’s view of fighting - from a high-schooler wary of her ‘permanent record’ to a present day bar brawl - all told in a chatty/witty style. Cassie also read from another issue of her zine dealing with an odd job she picked up writing first-hand (ha!) reviews of sex toys.
INVINCIBLE SUMMER
Volume II: Issues 9-14, $12
Nicole J. Georges; www.microcosmpublishing.com
Microcosm Publishing, 222 S. Rogers St., Bloomington, IN 47404
Nicole does it again… diary comics filled with the love of animals, band antics, dating, everyday occurrences, minor traumas and some of my favorite drawings ever. It’s not all straight diary comics… Nicole throws in “Advice for Fat Girls who Thrift Shop’, an ‘Ask Nicole’ sassy advice column, a recipe for pumpkin cheesecake, a description of ‘The Points Game’ and more fun than you can shake a stick at. By the end of this pretty pink-covered book you will be bowing down to the gal with the finest beehive hairdo around.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Maynard goes Zombie with Rigor Mortis
Rigor Mortis Vol 1, Issue 1
$3 cash/check or 1 M.R.E.
Davida Gypsy Breier
P.O. Box 11064
Baltimore, MD 21212
zombie@leekinginc.com
Mmmmm, brains.... This zine fills me with nostalgia for the Pre-Internet days, before cable, when Saturday afternoons were filled with awful Sci-Fi and horror – including zombie – flicks on Channel 20.
And we need zombies like never before to help us cope with modern living: crashing markets, rising unemployment, interest rates at freakin' ZERO percent. These are scary times.
And zombies are great foes. They are purely dead, only want to kill us, and cannot be reasoned with, only stopped with a bullet to the brain. There is no room for compassion or ethical worries with killing them. They are as dead as dead can be; not like a little boy with a bomb strapped to his malnourished body.
Although they tend to win through overwhelming numbers....
But wait, there's more! Not only do you get to ponder zombies with this zine, you'll get high-quality editorializing and excellent reviews of classic and esoteric zombie flicks to add to your queue of viewing pleasure.
The love the writers have for the topic drips off the page, like rotting flesh and congealed blood, in great gobs of well wrought-and-thought writing, which is in darn short supply on that thar “Internet.”
A joy to read.
$3 cash/check or 1 M.R.E.
Davida Gypsy Breier
P.O. Box 11064
Baltimore, MD 21212
zombie@leekinginc.com
Mmmmm, brains.... This zine fills me with nostalgia for the Pre-Internet days, before cable, when Saturday afternoons were filled with awful Sci-Fi and horror – including zombie – flicks on Channel 20.
And we need zombies like never before to help us cope with modern living: crashing markets, rising unemployment, interest rates at freakin' ZERO percent. These are scary times.
And zombies are great foes. They are purely dead, only want to kill us, and cannot be reasoned with, only stopped with a bullet to the brain. There is no room for compassion or ethical worries with killing them. They are as dead as dead can be; not like a little boy with a bomb strapped to his malnourished body.
Although they tend to win through overwhelming numbers....
But wait, there's more! Not only do you get to ponder zombies with this zine, you'll get high-quality editorializing and excellent reviews of classic and esoteric zombie flicks to add to your queue of viewing pleasure.
The love the writers have for the topic drips off the page, like rotting flesh and congealed blood, in great gobs of well wrought-and-thought writing, which is in darn short supply on that thar “Internet.”
A joy to read.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Reviews from Eric: Walking Man, Juichy Ya Ya
WALKING MAN by Tim W. Brown
I got a postcard promoting this book a while back and it sounded interesting, but I wasn't about to pay $15 for it. I'm starting to come around to the POV Jeff Somers has espoused in INNER SWINE from time to time- paying full price for any book is foolish and buying new books when used books are just as readable and much cheaper is a waste. So I was happy to get sent this book for review because the odds of me buying it were slim. However if you're interested in zines and aren't against paying full price for books you can do much worse than this one. WALKING MAN tells the story of one Brian Walker, publisher of the zine Walking Man who through circumstances beyond his control becomes the most famous zinester in the world. There's a lot of semi inside zine humor (such as the holier than thou clique that declare Brian to be a sell out because he dares to try and get his zine good distribution. It's funny, but we've all stumbled across folks like this in real life.)It's a satire, but it's an affectionate one with a lot of mostly good-natured jabs, but most importantly it's a good, well-written story that by the end will have you really caring about the characters. 184 pages . Published by Bronx River Press. Available from bronxriverpress.com, amazon.com, spdbooks.org or bookstores
JUICHY YA YA
I always kind of like these kinds of zines. Just kind of a random hodge-podge of stuff. One issue features an anti-Facebook article, and piece arguing for a naturalistic approach to Scrabble, a one page comic and a review of King Cat. A quick read, not exactly in depth, but pretty enjoyable. 8 pages 5.5 x 8.5 no price listed PO Box 99 Chewton, Vic., Australia 3451 adamford@labyrinth.net.au www.labyrinth.net.au/~adamford
I got a postcard promoting this book a while back and it sounded interesting, but I wasn't about to pay $15 for it. I'm starting to come around to the POV Jeff Somers has espoused in INNER SWINE from time to time- paying full price for any book is foolish and buying new books when used books are just as readable and much cheaper is a waste. So I was happy to get sent this book for review because the odds of me buying it were slim. However if you're interested in zines and aren't against paying full price for books you can do much worse than this one. WALKING MAN tells the story of one Brian Walker, publisher of the zine Walking Man who through circumstances beyond his control becomes the most famous zinester in the world. There's a lot of semi inside zine humor (such as the holier than thou clique that declare Brian to be a sell out because he dares to try and get his zine good distribution. It's funny, but we've all stumbled across folks like this in real life.)It's a satire, but it's an affectionate one with a lot of mostly good-natured jabs, but most importantly it's a good, well-written story that by the end will have you really caring about the characters. 184 pages . Published by Bronx River Press. Available from bronxriverpress.com, amazon.com, spdbooks.org or bookstores
JUICHY YA YA
I always kind of like these kinds of zines. Just kind of a random hodge-podge of stuff. One issue features an anti-Facebook article, and piece arguing for a naturalistic approach to Scrabble, a one page comic and a review of King Cat. A quick read, not exactly in depth, but pretty enjoyable. 8 pages 5.5 x 8.5 no price listed PO Box 99 Chewton, Vic., Australia 3451 adamford@labyrinth.net.au www.labyrinth.net.au/~adamford
Friday, January 23, 2009
In My Mailbox 1-23-09
Hola,
Hoboken is melting; it's 44 degrees out there, so all the ice and snow built up over the last few weeks of snow and cold are melting and flooding. Which means the whole damn city will be a death rink of ice later on tonight. I'll have to break out the mountain-climbing gear just to get around town.
Amidst the various and sundry things found in my PO Box this week, I got the following two interesting pubs:
- The Ken Chronicles #10 ($2/trade, Ken Bausert, 2140 Erma Drive, East Meadow, NY 11554-1120; passscribe@aol.com). Another issue of the pleasant little perzine Ken is putting out post-Passions. Always a nice find in the box.
- Rigor Mortis #1 ($3, Davida Gypsy Breier, PO Box 11064, Baltimore, MD 21212; www.leekinginc.com). THIS IS A ZINE ABOUT ZOMBIES it screams on the back cover, and about damn time. That's just a fucking great idea for a zine, you ask me. Plus, it's got an interview with Tom Savini – what's not to love?
- Maximumrocknroll (PO Box 460760, San Francisco, CA 94146-0760; www.maximumrocknroll.com) where we seem to be reviewed in just about every issue. Long live MMR.
I got other things, including the world's greatest letter from a prisoner (to be reprinted in TIS, natch). God, I love that PO Box.
L
J
Hoboken is melting; it's 44 degrees out there, so all the ice and snow built up over the last few weeks of snow and cold are melting and flooding. Which means the whole damn city will be a death rink of ice later on tonight. I'll have to break out the mountain-climbing gear just to get around town.
Amidst the various and sundry things found in my PO Box this week, I got the following two interesting pubs:
- The Ken Chronicles #10 ($2/trade, Ken Bausert, 2140 Erma Drive, East Meadow, NY 11554-1120; passscribe@aol.com). Another issue of the pleasant little perzine Ken is putting out post-Passions. Always a nice find in the box.
- Rigor Mortis #1 ($3, Davida Gypsy Breier, PO Box 11064, Baltimore, MD 21212; www.leekinginc.com). THIS IS A ZINE ABOUT ZOMBIES it screams on the back cover, and about damn time. That's just a fucking great idea for a zine, you ask me. Plus, it's got an interview with Tom Savini – what's not to love?
- Maximumrocknroll (PO Box 460760, San Francisco, CA 94146-0760; www.maximumrocknroll.com) where we seem to be reviewed in just about every issue. Long live MMR.
I got other things, including the world's greatest letter from a prisoner (to be reprinted in TIS, natch). God, I love that PO Box.
L
J
Saturday, January 10, 2009
In My Mailbox 1-9-09
Well, I'm drunk as a skunk. Went to dinner with my brother at a place well-known for its beer taps, then back home for a few snorts of whiskey before shuffling off. So I thought, what better time to post about things in my PO Box?
-- MAXIMUMROCKNROLL #308 ($4, PO Box 460760, San Francisco, CA 94146-0760; www.maximumrocknroll.com) As heath said in another post: Thank god for MMR. This issue contains a review of TIS that is best described as "mystified". I'm not very much of a punk, but I love MMR and hope it continues.
-- Tenebrous Thaumaturgy (trade, Andrew Conde, GCDC, 2120 East B Street, Torrington WY 82240). An interesting full-size photocopied zine. I first encountered the term "Thaumaturgy" years ago in the fantasy novel "Master of the Five Magics" by Lyndon Hardy. I still have a real soft spot for that book (and its sequels), so the title to this really grabbed me. Andrew's a prisoner, so if you've got extra copies of something lying around, send 'em to him, why not?
L
J
-- MAXIMUMROCKNROLL #308 ($4, PO Box 460760, San Francisco, CA 94146-0760; www.maximumrocknroll.com) As heath said in another post: Thank god for MMR. This issue contains a review of TIS that is best described as "mystified". I'm not very much of a punk, but I love MMR and hope it continues.
-- Tenebrous Thaumaturgy (trade, Andrew Conde, GCDC, 2120 East B Street, Torrington WY 82240). An interesting full-size photocopied zine. I first encountered the term "Thaumaturgy" years ago in the fantasy novel "Master of the Five Magics" by Lyndon Hardy. I still have a real soft spot for that book (and its sequels), so the title to this really grabbed me. Andrew's a prisoner, so if you've got extra copies of something lying around, send 'em to him, why not?
L
J
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Self-Serving Post
The Leeking Inc website has been revamped for the first time in 3-4 years. The reasons are thus:
1) Xerography Debt will remain in print and is partnering with Microcosm Publishing for distribution! #25 will be out in the spring.
2) I have started a new zine devoted to zombies, Rigor Mortis.
3) I had a bunch of debris on the site that simply needed to be cleaned up.
1) Xerography Debt will remain in print and is partnering with Microcosm Publishing for distribution! #25 will be out in the spring.
2) I have started a new zine devoted to zombies, Rigor Mortis.
3) I had a bunch of debris on the site that simply needed to be cleaned up.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Maynard Reviews some Zines (December 2008)
Opuntia 65.5, August, 2008 – Letters to the Editor
Sixteen pages, halfsheet.
Dale Spiers
Box 6830
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 2E7
$3 Cash, trade for letter, zine, letter of comment
No stamps or checks.
Dear Reader, at last, I can provide some insights into the enigma that is Dale Spiers. This dude is an ecclectic, amazing intellect, but I often wondered what he did for a living. How could his enormous reading habit be supported in both his professional and personal lives in modern times?
Apparently, he is a hybrid of Kerouac and MacGyver who works for the Calgary Parks Department as a Trouble Calls Supervisor. How cool is that? A man who is literate in economics, history and popular mechanics, who drives an enormous truck, helping those in distress! A modern Superhero! Okay, enough editorializing and onto an actual review....
Topics in this edition of Opuntia, Letters to the Editor, issue are split between the price and future of oil and Dale's highly entertaining job.
The oil discussion is lively, although out of date; oil has dropped through the floor. Gloat no more, Ye Northern Sheiks.
Dale describes his job in scenarios. At the conclusion of each troubleshooting scene, he punctuates with a great catch phrase: no further action required. I think I'll end as many emails, in my professional life, this way as possible.
It's Fuchi, No?
Author of this hilarious thing, please contact Leeking Inc with price and contact info and we'll gladly amend this review.
This is everything I wish for in a zine – a totally bizarre experience that is somewhat crude and very funny. In my envelope of delights containing It's Fuchi, No? there is a 2008 calendar, which features a creature-a-month, pleasantly mooning the reader. The drawings are so hilarious in their expressivness and artful crappiness. In fact, crap makes an appearance in August!
Also included were Kappa cards (sized and styled sort of like Tarot Cards): amusing factoids and illustrations, describing a mythical, child-eating, sometimes charming, but mostly murderous creature. Here is a sample:
“Kappas are mischievous. Sometimes they like to engage in harmless pranks like loudly breaking wind (There's a Japanese phrase, Kappa no he, which means 'just a kappa fart'. It means much ado about nothing.) or looking up ladies' kimonos. But don't be fooled into thinking that Kappa's just one of the guys. He will kill you given the chance. He prefers to eat children, but he will eat an adult.”
On the verso of the card is a great and crude drawing of a farting, turtle-like creature with a wild, monk-like hairdo.
The third goody in the envelope of delights is a small zine collection of cartoons aimed at being less funny than Ziggy. The author admits it was an ambitious, but self-proclaimed failure. I agree, for as un-funny as some of the cartoons aim to be, they are still damn funny. Much funnier than Ziggy. The author sums it up best, “...I think I failed. I think my comics are actually funnier. That's not to say they're funny: they're not. They're just no Ziggy.”
The Divine and Breaking Wind has touched the author of It's Fuchi, No? and I rejoice.
The final item is a collection of chinese cookie fortunes, stapled together. The fortunes caused me to guffaw aloud. Here are a few:
“You will be engulfed in thighs.”
“Don't shave, it'll make your head look small.”
“Must you constantly deal in chicanery?”
“Your friends value your loyalty and your manipulability.”
The Juniper #10.5 – Summer of Slow
Dan Murphy
P.O. Box 3154
Moscow, ID 83843
juniperjournal@hotmail.com
www.juniperbug.blogspot.com
Send a stamp, first class mail.
Likes letters to the editor, needs help with distribution.
A delicious Black and White minizine: photos of Dan Murphy's gorgeous garden, even in B&W, you can smell the Earth, and taste the sweet, soft summer air as it caresses the vegetation.
It's cold out where I am, and there is a dusting of snow, now getting to be more than just dust. I am feeling sorry for myself so even this scrap of summer provides succor to a suffering soul.
Carrots and Condoms, Winter 2008
Coco Negro
P.O. Box 163327
Sacramento, CA 95816
quotethecat@riseup.net
$3 well-concealed cash
On a personal note, this zine struck a chord of memory with me: that feeling I had just after college, where the working world was so repugnant, so horrible, it drove me mad with despair.
I didn't discover the desire to farm or to somehow create a Portland, OR where I was; I went down in flames of defeat.
So, to you, Coco, you go girl! Keep the passion alive and change the world because NOW is the time. Korporate Amerika is on the run; we are going to have to re-invent the American dream; and you, my dear, young soul, are just where you need to be.
This zine, to me, examines our connection to Nature, and what we can do to heal the dysfunctional relationship that agribusiness and modern life have caused us. As a species, we suffer from a gross separation from the Earth.
Coco describes the Permaculture movement and relates her excellent time spent with this new wave of hippies and Kerouac-inspired hobos.
What Permaculture aims to do is to create a lifestyle that has as close to zero impact on the environment. Recycling on steroids. Think composting, sod huts, heirloom seeds, companion planting, any sort of technique to allow us the bounty of Nature without causing her pain.
The zine itself is a great resource for learning more about Permaculture and organic farms that employ work-traders (highly-educated-itinerant farmers). Two organizations, of the many listed, are Mountain Homestead Community in Oregon and Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri.
The zine has an exhaustive listing of organizations and is chock full of ideas for those who would like to participate in the Permaculture movement.
Sixteen pages, halfsheet.
Dale Spiers
Box 6830
Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2P 2E7
$3 Cash, trade for letter, zine, letter of comment
No stamps or checks.
Dear Reader, at last, I can provide some insights into the enigma that is Dale Spiers. This dude is an ecclectic, amazing intellect, but I often wondered what he did for a living. How could his enormous reading habit be supported in both his professional and personal lives in modern times?
Apparently, he is a hybrid of Kerouac and MacGyver who works for the Calgary Parks Department as a Trouble Calls Supervisor. How cool is that? A man who is literate in economics, history and popular mechanics, who drives an enormous truck, helping those in distress! A modern Superhero! Okay, enough editorializing and onto an actual review....
Topics in this edition of Opuntia, Letters to the Editor, issue are split between the price and future of oil and Dale's highly entertaining job.
The oil discussion is lively, although out of date; oil has dropped through the floor. Gloat no more, Ye Northern Sheiks.
Dale describes his job in scenarios. At the conclusion of each troubleshooting scene, he punctuates with a great catch phrase: no further action required. I think I'll end as many emails, in my professional life, this way as possible.
It's Fuchi, No?
Author of this hilarious thing, please contact Leeking Inc with price and contact info and we'll gladly amend this review.
This is everything I wish for in a zine – a totally bizarre experience that is somewhat crude and very funny. In my envelope of delights containing It's Fuchi, No? there is a 2008 calendar, which features a creature-a-month, pleasantly mooning the reader. The drawings are so hilarious in their expressivness and artful crappiness. In fact, crap makes an appearance in August!
Also included were Kappa cards (sized and styled sort of like Tarot Cards): amusing factoids and illustrations, describing a mythical, child-eating, sometimes charming, but mostly murderous creature. Here is a sample:
“Kappas are mischievous. Sometimes they like to engage in harmless pranks like loudly breaking wind (There's a Japanese phrase, Kappa no he, which means 'just a kappa fart'. It means much ado about nothing.) or looking up ladies' kimonos. But don't be fooled into thinking that Kappa's just one of the guys. He will kill you given the chance. He prefers to eat children, but he will eat an adult.”
On the verso of the card is a great and crude drawing of a farting, turtle-like creature with a wild, monk-like hairdo.
The third goody in the envelope of delights is a small zine collection of cartoons aimed at being less funny than Ziggy. The author admits it was an ambitious, but self-proclaimed failure. I agree, for as un-funny as some of the cartoons aim to be, they are still damn funny. Much funnier than Ziggy. The author sums it up best, “...I think I failed. I think my comics are actually funnier. That's not to say they're funny: they're not. They're just no Ziggy.”
The Divine and Breaking Wind has touched the author of It's Fuchi, No? and I rejoice.
The final item is a collection of chinese cookie fortunes, stapled together. The fortunes caused me to guffaw aloud. Here are a few:
“You will be engulfed in thighs.”
“Don't shave, it'll make your head look small.”
“Must you constantly deal in chicanery?”
“Your friends value your loyalty and your manipulability.”
The Juniper #10.5 – Summer of Slow
Dan Murphy
P.O. Box 3154
Moscow, ID 83843
juniperjournal@hotmail.com
www.juniperbug.blogspot.com
Send a stamp, first class mail.
Likes letters to the editor, needs help with distribution.
A delicious Black and White minizine: photos of Dan Murphy's gorgeous garden, even in B&W, you can smell the Earth, and taste the sweet, soft summer air as it caresses the vegetation.
It's cold out where I am, and there is a dusting of snow, now getting to be more than just dust. I am feeling sorry for myself so even this scrap of summer provides succor to a suffering soul.
Carrots and Condoms, Winter 2008
Coco Negro
P.O. Box 163327
Sacramento, CA 95816
quotethecat@riseup.net
$3 well-concealed cash
On a personal note, this zine struck a chord of memory with me: that feeling I had just after college, where the working world was so repugnant, so horrible, it drove me mad with despair.
I didn't discover the desire to farm or to somehow create a Portland, OR where I was; I went down in flames of defeat.
So, to you, Coco, you go girl! Keep the passion alive and change the world because NOW is the time. Korporate Amerika is on the run; we are going to have to re-invent the American dream; and you, my dear, young soul, are just where you need to be.
This zine, to me, examines our connection to Nature, and what we can do to heal the dysfunctional relationship that agribusiness and modern life have caused us. As a species, we suffer from a gross separation from the Earth.
Coco describes the Permaculture movement and relates her excellent time spent with this new wave of hippies and Kerouac-inspired hobos.
What Permaculture aims to do is to create a lifestyle that has as close to zero impact on the environment. Recycling on steroids. Think composting, sod huts, heirloom seeds, companion planting, any sort of technique to allow us the bounty of Nature without causing her pain.
The zine itself is a great resource for learning more about Permaculture and organic farms that employ work-traders (highly-educated-itinerant farmers). Two organizations, of the many listed, are Mountain Homestead Community in Oregon and Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage in Missouri.
The zine has an exhaustive listing of organizations and is chock full of ideas for those who would like to participate in the Permaculture movement.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Call for Submissions: a tribute to sound idea records and bob suren
Bacontowne's next issue is a tribute to sound idea records and bob suren. the record store closed last month after 13 and a half years. it was the best diy record store in florida and people traveled from all over to visit. we are looking for sound idea related columns, stories about bob and the store and also, we would like to hear from touring bands that have played there. we can also use art, photos and old ads related to the store. anything sound idea related. deadline is december 19, 2008. the zine will be in print and formally released on january 21, 2009. this is coincidentally heather bacontowne's 30th birthday!
marck and heather bacontowne
bacontowne records///sinkhole zine
po box 1063
tallevast, fl 34270
myspace/bacontownerecords
bacontowne@yahoo.com
marck and heather bacontowne
bacontowne records///sinkhole zine
po box 1063
tallevast, fl 34270
myspace/bacontownerecords
bacontowne@yahoo.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)