zine, [zeen] noun. 1. abbr. of fanzine; 2. any amateurly-published periodical. Oxford Reference

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Friday, July 11, 2008

Night of the Locust zine Issue 4 is out now.



 
 

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via Thumped - Home Publishing by Grenouille on 7/9/08

Night of the Locust zine Issue 4 is out now.

This issue houses interviews with Frigits and Class Destruction, articles by Dirtbag, Note Vole, Sarah Usher and Trev Meehan, a short story by Kieran Griffin as well as reviews and a piece on busting wheel clamps.

It costs one euro from : Kollin, No. 3 Shanakiel Place, Sundays Well Road, Cork. E-mail : neverinamillion@gmail.com

I'll keep ye posted on who has it in Galway and beyond.

If anybody wants to take some to sell, get in touch.

I'll happily trade for other zines, demos or mixtapes.

 
 

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I do not want you to leave

Indy Media Reviews - June 2008

Zine Review - I do not want you to leave

June 27th 2008 22:38


I do not want you to leave, By Jacinta Bunnell: I do not want you to leave is a high-production value litzine with several well-told short stories. These aren't the sort of stories you and just blow through and zip, you're done, these are stories where it's clear the author has taken a bit of thought and has a bit of practice in writing, which is always refreshing to see in a litzine. Jacinta's introduction explains the title's name, odd as it is. The interior pages are well laid out, and the binding is hand down with embroidery thread of various colours. Of the stories therein, I personally was drawn to "Coke Tricks" which, while initially is a story about the properties of Coke on automotive paint is actually a deeper discussion about the priorities of friendships and gender issues. I also enjoyed, "Fruit Stripes" having consumed many sticks of the gum in question as a youth. It ends with an interesting, albiet surreal story entitled, "Scratch". I liked the variety of stories in this zine, and would like to see an even greater diversity in future. 24 pages, Black and White, photocopies, Digest sized $2.00

Paradox, #12, Spring 2008

Paradox, #12, Spring 2008

Paradox, #12, Spring 2008


There are fewer stories in issue #12 of Paradox due to the presence of the longest piece the 'zine has published yet, a novelette by David Erik Nelson. All these stories have to do with war, either between cultures or nations. Though there are a couple of settings that have become very familiar to longtime readers of Alternate History, the handling is fresh and interesting. In short, this is a strong issue, the stories well written and complex.


The first two stories take place in the most familiar settings. The first, A.C. Wise's "Strange Fruit," is set in the South during the time of slavery. Stories set in this time period tend heavily toward retro-justice. This one begins when Ceri, a young slave, returns home bleeding horribly. Seems that Master Charlie, the plantation owner, had taken advantage of her, and she got rid of the result…at the cost of her own life. But not before she has something to say to him. At that point, the story veers off into the seriously weird. Master Charlie is married, with a daughter who isn't quite all there. His wife has issues with that, and with her life in general. Master Charlie cared about the slave girl, he cares about everyone, but does he see them as people or as objects? Speaking of objects, what is he going to do about the horrible things now hanging from the plantation's trees? It's easy to reduce plantation owners to cardboard cutouts of Snidely Whiplash, but Wise avoids that, delivering a creepy story in which the bizarre and fantastic elements serve to highlight realistic moral and emotional issues.


Shakespearian England has long been a staple setting for Alternate History, with or without elements of the fantastic. During the recent fin-de-siècle, John Dee popped up in most of the stories I saw—though he's far less interesting a historical character than Agrippa, Melancthon, or Paracelsus, to name a few of his contemporaries on the continent. Since the turn of the millennium, he seems to have been replaced by that slashy bad boy, Christopher Marlowe.


Marie Brennan's contribution to the iconography of Kit in her "The Deaths of Christopher Marlowe" is confined to observing Marlowe's "fine-boned face" and his "long-fingered hands." Brennan delivers a taut, lapidary triptych depicting what might have happened that 30th of May, 1593. Her scholarship is sure, her sense of pace impeccable. The story weaves in actual testimony, reflecting the many faces truth wore during the Age of Astraea.

It seemed singular to him, then, that the war as he experienced it should be notable chiefly for its awful silences.

That sentence occurs near the beginning of Nick Wolven's "Señor Hedor," a dark, beautifully written story set at the end of the Spanish Civil War—a war which the Germans won, aided by their ally Franco.

Alfonso is in charge of three men as they poke about what appears to be an empty cloister. They are starving, looking for food, when a machine gun opens fire on them and wounds one of the men. They retreat into a room where they find a dead German soldier—who becomes Señor Hedor, the word meaning "stink" or "stench." Sounds and silences are the tools Wolven uses as he spins his tale of four—no, five—men, examining meaning and the splintering of custom, culture, and civilization by the brutal hammer of war.


Set in China during 1450 B.C., "Plastromancer" by David Sakmyster is another very dark look at the effects of war. Down the left side, the illustration depicts Chinese oracle bone script. A plastromancer divines the future from the cracks in turtles' shells—made while the creatures are systematically burned alive. Xian Li used to be the village's Diviner until her region was conquered by the Shang. She's been replaced by Zhai Tong, who is desperate to find the future that the Shang overlords want. Though they have their own form of divination, the Shang fear a last reading done by the locals, which predicted their downfall through someone born in the village. Though they took savage steps to make certain that future would not come to pass, they are still uneasy. Like many people made desperate by circumstance, Xian Li has made the shift from civilized behavior to survival; what she does, and why, forms the rest of this painful and powerfully absorbing story.


That brings the reader to the story mentioned above, David Erik Nelson's "Tucker Teaches the Clockies to Copulate." Set in Lost Creek, Utah, after the Long War that defeated the Confederacy (after Sherman marched on Atlanta with his mechanized Chinese mechanomen), this concerns the period after the slaves were freed. The same pen stroke that accomplished the end of slavery also set the mechanical beings free. The ones that settled near Lost Creek found space out on a mesa and built a second generation, a little more human looking.


The narrator is a displaced man of Japanese descent, known locally as Doctor Kansas, a veterinarian. There is mystery hinted at in his past—he must at one point have been a physician—but now he only does private types of procedures, of which the locals are ashamed. He's unacceptable socially, being Asian, but unmolested as he cruises around town observing people, especially Dickie Tucker, a veteran of the war who is a drunk, a hashish smoker, and who had lots of personal experience with the mechanomen, or "Clockies," during the war. Drunken Dickie tries to teach the Clockies human activities, which is largely ignored by the locals until he tries to teach them sex. When the locals realize that the Clockies have taken their mimicry a step further, a massive lynch mob is organized.


The story is poignant, sad and funny, bitter and hopeful, and altogether amazing in its examination of exactly what it means to be human—and to live among humans. It makes a terrific end to a good issue.


The Fix - http://thefix-online.com

What It Is by Lynda Barry



 
 

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via The Daily Cross Hatch by farfalla1278 on 6/17/08


What It Is
By Lynda Barry
Drawn and Quarterly

What It Is is many things. Part autobiographical comic, part watercolor and collage, part instructional manual, and part workbook, the book is that rare breed that tries to be many thing at once and succeeds in its own grand ambitions, transitioning from one section to the next rather gracefully. Author Lynda Barry successfully arranges the different parts of the book so that they compliment each other nicely, giving each other value and depth that they wouldn't necessarily have on their own.

What It Is would be far less interesting as a straight autobiography. Or just collage. Or a book about how to write. Barry's collage pages, which reveal some of the inner workings of her mind with their clever and thoughtful essay questions—"When images come to us, where do they come from?"—resonate with her autobiographical comics because of the thematic links she creates. The comics depicting Barry's personal struggle to find her own creativity and maintain it make the writing instruction section much less pedantic and much more exciting, because we know that she's struggled as we have. The existence of the book itself gives the how-to section credibility as well, because knowing that Barry has created such a fantastic work using the methods she teaches means there's gotta be something to it.

Granted, I am a writer who is a sucker for books that encourage and try to teach you how to write. But even if that's not your interest, What It Is is still worth a look, because Barry's amazing abilities as an artist and her great sense of humor shine throughout. The collage "essay question" pages, as she introduces them at the beginning of the book, are dense and take a while to appreciate. She spares us nothing, throwing in book and newspaper clippings, handwritten notes, painted and drawn pictures, and difficult questions at us all at once. But somewhere in the midst of them, you realize how impressive they are, in addition to which, alongside her comics, they prove her incredible artistic range. They translate the philosophical, thoughtful sensibility that has always pervaded her comics into much more complex, mature collage format.

The comics hold their own, though, and as always, Barry's caricature of her young self is fabulous for its unabashed awkwardness and complete lack of romanticization. Reenactments of young Lynda talking to herself as she pours over the paper on which she draws—"The lady goes to the volcano. It's exploding with lava. She is not afraid! She waves at her people and—Ahhh!"—are a welcome break from the philosophical musings of the main text. Barry's sense of humor is, at times, spot on in this book, making her comics funnier than ever.

At the very end of the book, Barry includes some of the pages from her side notebook—the pad she keeps at her side while working so that she will have a place to doodle and keep her pen moving when her mind draws a blank. These pages are the best part of What It Is. A chance to see someone else's doodles—the unaffected, spontaneous wanderings of someone else's mind—is rare, particularly someone as creative and talented as Barry. She has created a deliberately complicated book for our benefit, and the result is fantastic.

–Jillian Steinhauer


 
 

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The Hot Breath of War by Alixopolus



 
 

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via The Daily Cross Hatch by bheater on 6/16/08


The Hot Breath of War
By Alixopolus
Sparkplug

Perhaps it speaks strongly about our own habits as readers, but these days we seem to expect comics to fall squarely into one of two categories, the cohesive linear narrative and the non-story centric art books, the graphic equivalent to literature's sometimes arbitrary distinction between prose and poesy. And while in comics too the dividing line is fairly artificial, it's regularly enforced by the artists themselves (or, perhaps more arguably, those who publish their work), drawing concrete lines between what ought be regarded as a graphic novel and what should be considered an art book.

This distinction almost certainly plays a key role in what, at least initially, makes The Hot Breath of War such a baffling read, a matter only compounded by the lack of description on the book's back cover and an introduction that is little more than Thomas Pain quote echoing the book's ominous title by condemning those who lead nations into battle. After a few short pages, however, the reader largely abandons any reasonable hopes for the book's place as a long, cohesive narrative exploring the horrors of warfare. In its place comes another familiar question, attempting to establish Alixopulos's book as either a high-concept work or one that opts to eschew such concepts altogether.

The truth of the matter seems to lie somewhere in between. While on its surface the book seems a deliberate puzzle demanding its readers to connect its pieces toward some larger truth, a closer look reveals a book seemingly content to follow its own journey of free disassociation which takes a series of seemingly unconnected stories on and off battlefields, both literal and figurative, flitting between tales involving war orphans and ones tackling guys at bars trying really hard to get laid.

Alixopulos's oft-rough rendering of ink and paper and seemingly complete disdain for panels lend themselves well to the book's dreamlike state, painting it as, for lack of a more apt description, a sketchbook come to life. And while it is of course impossible to gleam from the stories how much time the author put into the book, there's certainly a sense here that he largely felt satisfied with the first thing he committed to paper. In true sketchbook fashion, Alixipolus makes variations on his own drawing style, story after story, some larger than others, his wars stories ranging from Beetle Bailey-like characters to more life like drawings that might have been traced directly from the pages of a history book.

Given our training as readers, the book is a challenge at first read, divorcing itself from many strongly imposed notions of narrative, instead owing more to the product of those days, some four decades ago, when comics needed be little more than a trip, in every sense of the word. To some degree, this manner of storytelling safeguards the work from notions of it as a "good" or "bad" read, instead insisting that, as long as it convinced you to come along on its ride for a reasonable amount of time, its effectively done its job.

By that standard, The Hot Breath of War is certainly a success, demanding its readers visit its pages again and again, in search of some lost connection. The jury is still out on whether it was even there to begin with. Such intent is unimportant, however, because for all of its flaws, The Hot Breath of War is a book that demands to be experienced, and by the second or third read, its certainly achieved that, whether or not its more lofty goals have been met.

–Brian Heater


 
 

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Razorcake #11



 
 

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via NeuFutur Magazine by admin on 6/15/08

$3/ No Trade / Full Size / 100 Pages/ www.razorcake.com / sean@razorcake.com Razorcake, PO Box 42129, Los Angeles, CA 90042 Razorcake #11 – For a zine that seems to be one that fits into the Maximumrocknroll/Flipside mold, Razorcake has content that will let you read and read without getting tired. [...]

 
 

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One Month to Go



 
 

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via Simon Gray's Web Candy on 6/14/08

Hi there,

Just a reminder about the zine fair that's getting closer.
In Pt. Augusta on Sunday July 13th. It's about 3 or 4 hours drive out of
Adelaide.
Naturally we'd love to have you get involved & below is a list of involvement options, numbered according to our preference:

1. Book a table (it's free), haul a pile of zines to
The Barracks on Beachamps Lane in Port Augusta.

2. Just come to say hello & buy some zines.

If you're thinking about either of these two, we can help with transport info & accommodation info (if the one day round trip seems too exhausting), & we've spoken to a few people petrol-high with generosity who proposed driving a car pool so get in touch @ yummylychees at spin dot net dor au or just call 0410391013 (these are for me Simon Gray).

3. Send us your zeens to sell & trade for you & we'll send you back your money + trades + leftovers. Zine Fair c/o PO Box 398 Port Augusta SA 5700

4. You've got no zines & no way to make it to Pt. Augusta in July. Forward this e-mail on to somebody who might, this goes especially for yoou if you've got a zine relevant mailing list of your own (with advance apologies to anyone receiving this twice).

We're also planning a basic zine workshop you can put your hand up to attend on the day, although this is targeted toward the folks from the local schools.

I'll look forward to seeing you in July!
& Thank You to those who've already expressed an interest, booked a table etc.

 
 

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Zeen Review: Hot Rock Axion Vol. 2 #1



 
 

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via Simon Gray's Web Candy on 6/14/08


HOT ROCK AXION Vol. 2 #1 by Anonymous

This A6 portrait format zeen w/ coloured card & texta written cover is only printed on one side of its pages. This is a crap feature for any zeen, but this zeen seems to know it's crap & flaunts it for humourous effect. It's a very short zeen made of pictures of musicians & who knows who else with little speech bubbles added., It's funny, it's short & I wish I'd picked up the other one they had @ the zeen stall. It's flying the flagship for more zeens to come out of Mt. Gambier too. Contact: PO Box 1053 Mount Gambier, South Australia, 5290.


 
 

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Raw



 
 

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via NeuFutur Magazine by admin on 6/14/08

Raw / Half / 18 Pages / Half Size / $1 / Vermicious Knid / Lupine Ladies Press, PO Box 543, Accokeek MD 20607. This is another zine done by Vermicious Knid, where ey talks about a very personal experience in being raped; the writing, not quite prose nor poetry, really embodies [...]

 
 

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Rated Rookie Vol 2 #4



 
 

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via NeuFutur Magazine by admin on 6/13/08

Rated Rookie (Vol.2, #4, 562 Park Place, #3, Brooklyn, NY 11238) Can you say white space? I'm sure you all can, and I especially know that the editors of Rated Rookie are very familiar with the concept. Where many zines will stick background images or textures to break up the tedium of the [...]

 
 

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Friday, July 4, 2008

http://www.flickr.com/groups/85678547@N00/discuss/72157605910826579/

STICK UM UP ZINE...ISSUE # 2 IS DONE  Pro User  says:

OK SO ITS DONE..I KNOW IT TOOK HELLA LONG..BUT ITS WORTH IT...OVER 40 PAGES..BLACK/WHITE AND COLOR...

FEATURES FLICKS FROM TONS OF ARTIST RANGING FROM SF TO NY

INTERVIEWS FROM

TOOMER "FOUNDER OF TKO"
AND MICHEAL JAGMIN "THE LEAD SINGER OF A SKYLIT DRIVE"

ALSO TONS OF STICKERS FROM ALL OF YOU ARE SCANNED IN IT...

GET IT NOW!!

7 BUCKS

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Posted at 5:04PM, 30 June 2008 PDT ( permalink )

http://community.livejournal.com/zine_scene/2312260.html

zine!
Photobucket

This is a little art zine i made, it's about 8 pages i think and it's all about the things people say (sometimes automatically) that doesn't always mean anything. Since it's so small i'm giving them out for free, (but if you want to send me something in return, like your own zine, that would be awesome! :D), just send me your address via email: exxtravagariaa@gmail.com

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Limited-edition/329562/

Limited edition

Georgina Maddox


Not all magazines want to be on the stands; in fact, word of mouth is often better

It took a while before Art India became a widely circulated art magazine. In fact, there was even talk of it shutting down, the reason being the cost to print and the circulation were not seeing eye-to-eye. Now with the art market booming, the magazine has increased its readership and although it talks to specialists in art, it's still the most widely circulated art magazine across the country. Art & Deal is new on the scene and is a more market driven magazine.

Running an underground queer 'zine' like Scripts (Rs 50), has often meant taking the hat around to get the next issue out, especially after the editorial team upped the value of production and went from hand-stapled Xeroxed papers to coloured glossy cover and professionally bound pages. "Scripts started out as something in house, as we, LABIA (Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action, then Stree Sangam), just wanted to see our lives and realities reflected in print. We did not want to compromise on what we wrote about, which is often what happens to queer alternative material when trying to market it. Now that we want to increase our out reach we have difficulty in finding stores or venues where they will allow us to display and sell our 'mamazines'," says Shalmoli Mukherjee.

In Plainspeak is another magazine to come out with a tri-monthly issue on sexuality in south and South-East Asia, this magazine showcases art by the likes of Tejal Shah, carries film reviews on queer themed films, poetry and scholastic articles on sexuality and gender. The publication is supported by TARSHI (Talking about Reproductive and Sexual Health Issues) a Delhi based NGO. "In Plainspeak reaches out to queer people in India, Thailand, the Philippines, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, creating a platform for people to speak about issues of sexuality, sexual health and wellbeing," says Radhika Chandiramani, its editor.

Mindfields (Rs 50 per copy), a magazine that approaches ideas and concepts from the World of Education (seen as boring, or complex and esoteric by most), breaks down the jargon and presents matter in a way that is irreverent, approachable, and informed. Marketing the magazine is done through word of mouth, Facebook and a homepage on the Internet. The magazine is jointly edited by Luke Haokip and Amruta Patil, whose graphic novel Kari is currently hot property on the stands. 'Umbilical' is the art and graphic section of Mindfields that takes care of illustrations, layout and even a comic strip, started by Patil that deals with issues of education and environment. "The magazine is unadulterated joy and a labour of love," says Patil of the five issue-old magazine.

She's right, these indie magazines are kept alive by a result of active passion and a handful of interested, curious readers, making room for more publications.

http://arisari-crimson.livejournal.com/114875.html

new zine

hot off the presses! 24 b&w pages of drawings collages and poems.

15 copies for sale, $3 each plus .

50 s&h
each comes with a random vintage photograph inside.
buy a copy please!

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Move Along People Nothing to Feel Here

Move Along People Nothing to Feel Here (5 pages from my new zine)

(If you like the five images posted here, you'll love my new 22-page zine, entitled Move Along People Nothing to Feel Here. Contact me to find out how to obtain a copy!)






http://www.flickr.com/photos/comfits/2628610286/

comfits coloring book zine page 3 & 4

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