The East Village Inky #44

The East Village Inky #44

via Blackguard on 7/5/10

[40 pages, half digest, $3.00 from Ayun Halliday, PO Box 22754, Brooklyn NY 11202, USA +++ ayun (at) AyunHalliday.com +++ www.AyunHalliday.com ]
A real neat little zine this one, all hand written (and readable!) with loads of cool comic-y illustrations throughout.
The zine opens with a long piece, 'How To Become A Writer Without Sticking Your Head In The Oven, Drinking Yourself Through Your Bank Account/Liver And/Or Bludgeoning Your Significant Other To Death With His Own Award-Statuette 101' (which has gotta be a contender for longest zine article title). Ayun is working on a Zinester's Guide To New York City, and she makes some amusing comments about the Zinester's Guide To Portland - Portland culture being all about dumpster diving, bike power, solar, communalism, Generation Z, protest marching, and vegan street cred. She freaks out that she will write a positive review of a NYC restaurant that has meat on the menu and will be branded a big, old, cud-chewing, slack-uddered symbol of mainstream oppression.
In 'A Mother Goes To The Movies', Ayun writes about seeing the documentary Babies. She excerpts a couple of snarky reviews of this doco from The Onion and Time Out. These reviewers have the theory that one only need watch a few short YouTube videos of babies and that's sufficient, baby-wise. Kyle Smith, a reviewer from the New York Post comes in for special treatment, Ayun has one of the (African) mothers from the doco review Kyle Smith. Pretty funny.
There's a piece on Little Women, the novel by Louisa Marie Alcott. I haven't read this book myself, the only thing I know about it is Moe (owner of Moe's Tavern from The Simpsons) likes to read it to hospital patients as part of his volunteer work, and he gets very emotional. Ayun surveyed a large group of women she knows and got their favourite character from Little Women (most of them like Jo). The funniest response was from Little MoMo, actor: "I never read that fuckin' book." Also Jenn F., librarian: "I found them all annoying. I tried to re-read it recently and couldn't get even a few pages in."
Finally, Greg (Ayun's 'significant other') exposes the pilates scandal and why women can do it and men can't. That one was pretty damn funny too.
I also have to say it's pretty amazing Ayun has put out 44 of these. Pretty damn cool. Ayun, you rock.

[Send your comix or zine for review! >>> Stratu/Blackguard, PO Box 93, Paddington NSW 2021, AUSTRALIA]

P.S. Ayun also gets big points for her cool envelope with real postage stamps (The Simpsons! American Clock!). And rubber stamps! >>>