2011: THE REVENGE OF PRINT

Aren't you sick of hearing folks glibly forecasting the death of print?

We are. Folks have been declaring the end of print in some form or other for longer than there's been an Atomic Books (Baltimore) or Quimby's (Chicago) (that's about twenty years).

"Books are over." "Magazines are over." "Comix are over." "Zines are over." "Newspapers are over." Bah! We're over things being over. Let's make things happen!
So we're declaring next year to be: 2011: The Revenge Of Print! (Frankly, next year was going to be 2011 with our without our declaration anyway. But that "Revenge of Print" part, that's all us.)

Here's the idea - what if everyone who ever made a zine, a mini-comic, a journal, a chapbook, a magazine or any kind of self-made publication of any kind vowed that in 2011, they'd make another? And then they did it! How awesome for us readers would that be? And if that happened, perhaps it would also make for a nice response to all those publishing doomsayers.

"Print is alive if you want it."

So the challenge is this: in 2011 do a new issue (or a new title or project - just do something new!).
Yes, we're making a point. And we've decided to use the very tools credited (this time anyway) with the demise of print to do so - the internet!

Join the Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=115370015178929&v=info

And who is this "we" that's issued this challenge to self-publishers past, present, and future? "We" are, to date:
Atomic Books - http://www.atomicbooks.com/
Quimby's - http://www.quimbys.com/
Xerography Debt - www.leekinginc.com/xeroxdebt  
Zine World http://www.undergroundpress.org/

And while we're updating our list all the time, so far, the following folks have pledged at least one more issue in 2011:

10 Things, Rhane Alexander, Already Too Much; Never Enough, Angry Violist, Annezine, Brainscan, Aaron Brassea, Caboose, Cinema Sewer, Creatrix, Crimewave, Danger!, Daybook, Heidi Eskgirl, Divine Exploitation Retrospect, Don't Tread On Me, do something!, Drop Out, Exploitation, Fish With Legs, Fluffah, Found Magazine, The Future Generation, Tyson Habein, Happyland, Have You Seen the Dog Lately?, Hoax Zine, Introvert, Kairan, La Trampa del Bulevar, Leeking Ink, Li'l Chrissy, Bt Livermore, Losers Weepers, Musea, Negative Capability, Not Your Nightmare, Paracinema, Psycho Blondes, Reptiles of the Mind, Rigor Mortis, Heather Rounds, Dave Savage, shortandqueer, Slither, Smile Hon You're In Baltimore, Sprak, Syndicate Product, Tail Spins, Teeny Tiny, Telegram Ma'am, Twilight Zone, Undestructable, Colin Upton, Worry Stone, Xerography Debt

We'll be using the Facebook group to provide addresses to publications where participants can send copies of their projects for review, and we'll also be listing addresses to real stores who will consign those very same titles so people can actually get copies the old fashioned way, by walking into a store.

Our list of participants has been growing rapidly. We're hoping you can help us spread the word!

Maynard Reviews a bunch of Zines, October 2010

Rigor Mortis #3 (Sept 2010—the Anger Management Issue)
A Zombie Panic Attack Production
half-size, 64 pages, $3.50
trades?
Davida Gypsy Breier
PO Box 11064
Baltimore, MD 21212
zombie@leekingink.com
leekinginc.com/rigormortis & livingdeadzine.blogspot.com

An intellectually stimulating foray into the zombie genre. The writing here is high-quality; almost academic, but more accessible. The art kicks ass, and there is even a mini-comic style essay about Tony Dodd. "Normal" print articles cover a range of topics, all sharing the horror flick theme. Among them are: a tribute to Z. A. Recht; the evolution of monsters in film; film series called Feast; sexiest monsters in film; Zombietime for Hitler: an expose on how Nazis are featured in horror flicks. Also has reviews of books, comics and movies.

Inner Swine, Vol 16, issue ½ Summer 2010
Jeff Somers
P.O. 3024 Hoboken, NJ 07030
ISSN: 1527-7704
Subscribe: $5 per year, $6 International, $2 a copy
Free trades
mreditor@innerswine.com

Jeff Somers churns out another one and this is filled with gems for the middle-aged among us. At least the over 40 crowd. I am rather old and freakish because I said “Fuck Yeah” aloud several times as I read this issue. Rants include the closing of a used book store and the trauma of lost browsing this invokes; discarding personal correspondence after we realize that keeping the letters doesn't stop us from growing older and losing connections with that time in our lives; and the best rant about the GAP's advertising creepiness and how it totally misses the over 40 crowd. And it should since we buy all our stuff at Sears.

Lower East Side Librarian Reading Log 2009
Jenna Freedman
$2 cash through mail or paypal
LESLZINE@gmail.com
jenna.openflows.com/reviews
521 E 5th St #1D
New York, NY 10009
Unsolicited trades only for library worker zines.

Jenna Freedman is a zine-expert-librarian. Reviews are rich, funny, and provide just enough detail to give the reader a true sense of zine essence.

Loose Lips Sink Ships, Feb 2010
Sarah May
P.O. 7084
Reno, NV 89510-7084
teerexteeth@gmail.com
thebirdsknowbees.blogspot.com
$2 US/ $2 Can/Mex / $2 World
Yes to trades
Quarter page, 24 pages.

This little zine is a list of kissing vignettes describing the physicality of a kiss and summing up the relationship in a few lines of text. It's tantalizingly personal, not quite erotic, and the combination of all the vignettes paints a tiny epic of relationships that seem to go nowhere, but the journey is truly rich.

This zine stayed with me after I read it.

Regeneration, #7
$2 US/ $3 World; US cash, stamps, paypal.
Trades ok
Ashlee Swanson
Address to change October 2010 so try email address
asregeneration@yahoo.com
36 pages.

Perzine that shows Ashlee's entanglement with alcoholism in her early 20s. She really tells it as it is, and the stark reality of what drinking does to folks is disturbing. She bares it all, and the self-knowing self-destruction is a bit hard to take, but it is well written, and the reader really wants Ashlee to triumph over adversity.

Grunted Warning, #1 August 2010
Stratu
P.O. Box 93
Paddington
NSW 2021
Australia
$1 US, Can/Mex, World
Yes to Trades
12 pages.

News of the Weird in zine format. Wonderful assortment of gruesome, bizarre stories of the macabre and the just plain strange. Some sample headlines: Dead Chef in Freezer; Eight human heads found; and my personal fave – Naked Rage at Brekkie [Breakfast]

RSS feeds can't top this! Oh wait, there are no more RSS feeds. Replaced by Twitter. Yuck.

Node Pajomo, Summer 2010
Node Pajomo
P.O. Box 2632
Bellingham, WA 98227-2632
$1 US / $2 World
nodepajomo@gmail.com (“Email for listings and questions only... keepin' in Postal”)

Zine is a listing of interesting artistic projects. Readers can submit or trade artwork, writing, anything interesting and funky through the mail. It is a totally postal project and Node has folks from all around the globe listed in this zine. Very participatory with readers connecting with readers for artistic collaboration or trade. All this through the regular mail - sticking to paper only, no Internet. Interesting concept, well worth the buck just to see what is going on around the globe.

Omitted #1; Muses and Bruises
Miss Omitted
751 Bushwick Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11221
omittedzine@gmail.com
$2 US / $3 Can/Mex / $4 World
Trades OK
¼ sheet
66 pages.

Perzine of twentysomething woman, reveals her internal struggles in knowing herself and in relating to others in the little-explored realm of how difficult it is for really smart people to find peers, have relationships, and deal with people in general.

I think people tend to gloss over how hard the 20s are, and this journal shows how some of us struggle to define ourselves and determine how to connect with others, or decide if we wish to at all.

Lou Reeder (Corina Fastwolf)
You Can't put your Arms around a Memory (Matt Monochrome)
Matt and Corina
P.O. Box 66835
Portland, OR 97290
cfastwolf@hotmail.com
$3 US plus 2 stamps
Split zine. Lou Reeder covers the huge influence this rocker had on Corina. Matt's zine is mostly about the punk rock scene, as it is today, looking back on the 80s and early 90s. Includes some brutally honest live show reviews of artists like Welfare State, Michael Gira, Dirty Mittens, Meat Puppets....

My favorite part of the zine is the crossword puzzle based on lyrics and song titles from the first decade of Violent Femmes.

Watch the closing doors #52
Fred Argoff
Penthouse L
1170 Ocean Pkwy
Brooklyn, NY 11230
$10 for 4 quarterly issues, cash only
12 pages.

Mass transit from all over the world explored with essays, anecdotes and photos. Trains are so universal, and I enjoy looking at how the trains look mostly the same, but the stations are all so unique to the places they are built in. And we all look the same when we wait for a train, no matter what country we happen to be in.

Favorite pic: bride and groom kissing on an LA subway platform as a train blurs by in the background. How neat to get married on mass transit! That idea trumps the Star Trek theme wedding.

Xtratuf, the greenhorn issue #6, 2010
Moe Bowstern
P.O. Box 6834
Portland, OR 97228
www.moebowstern.com
$10 US / $12 Can/Mex / $13 (Lucky) World
Trades OK
Free to commercial fishing women – must prove with original salty tale. Free to prisoners, no pornographic requests.
7” X 8.5”
160 pages.

Beautiful zine that is really a paperback book of anthologies from over 20 commercial fishing women. Includes salty tales, poems (very few for poetry dislikers), art. Great armchair travel and adventure reading and for the generally curious among us. If you are fan of Linda Greenlaw's Hungry Ocean, this zine is perfection.

The Girls are Mighty Fine, July 2010
Amy Martin
119 Haight St. #5
San Francisco, CA 94102
amymartincomics@gmail.com
$7 US
Maybe trade.
8” X 7”
40 pages.
www.amymartincomics.com

Mini comics featuring a modern Cathy with the f-word and a lot of attitude. Humorous and poignant moments from a single woman's life. Also has autobiographical stores about “Lil' Amy” as a child.