Never mind a zine, read the book

July 17, 12:51 PM

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For Immediate Release, from the Yellow Rake:

The Yellow Rake, one of Denver's longest running, most prolific zines, is releasing its first book, The Best of the Yellow Rake. The release party will take place at the Larimer Lounge on Friday, August 28, 2009 and include local bands, The Fire Drills, Snake Rattle Rattle Snake, and Joy Subtraction.

"The Yellow Rake is kind of like what I had always hoped The Onion would be: really smart but totally hilarious with witty articles that are insightful… This is a really good read, being smart and funny, and managing not to be preachy at the same time."
—Maximum Rock 'N' Roll

The Yellow Rake began in January 2004 in a booze-soaked backroom by a group of ragtag, activist writers who lamented the impending death of the punk rock zine. In typical DIY punk fashion, the group wrote, drew, and decorated the hand-folded, hand stapled publication and distributed it themselves via their own bicycles. Seventeen issues and countless articles, comics, and reviews later, The Yellow Rake still forges ahead in its literary struggle against intolerance, pettiness, and other human stupidities.

"We basically set out to write against all the wrongs in the world," says Brian Polk, head writer and editor in chief of the zine. "And we knew we had to do it ourselves since no one else was going to publish what we wanted to write."

The Best of the Yellow Rake documents the first five years of the zine's existence with its greatest columns, interviews, comics, animations, and poems. Notable contributors include novelist/High Times writer/CNN & NPR contributor Jason Flores-Williams, The Onion A.V. Club contributor Jason Heller, DIY poet/founder of the Fast Geek book empire Charles "the City Mouse" Fasano, Westword cartoonist/founder of the Blammo comic series Noah Van Sciver, Westword cartoonist/activist illustrator Nate Stone, and novelist/founder of The Yellow Rake Brian Polk.

After five years and 17 issues, the photocopied, hand-stapled zine known to Denver cultural warriors as The Yellow Rake continues to embody all the grit, humor, and audacity of a punk culture notorious for instigating self-reliance and creative self-determination…

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For more information or to set up an interview, contact Brian Polk at 303-861-4360 or theyellowrake@gmail.com

To read Zack Kopp's review of the Best of the Yellow Rake, click HERE