Double Think #8

By Matt Aucoin

I don't get doodle zines/minicomics. I mean, if you're going to go to the effort of photocopying, folding, and stapling something, why do it for something you've just drawn really quickly? I mean, I know I read Cat and Meringue, Snake Pit, and other similar comics. But as short strips they function in a different way. If produced as a minicomic you're going to get several complete strips per page. Amazing!

In contrast this comic sometimes has only one panel vaguely floating in the middle of a page as part of a multi page story. Like, maybe that anecdote's funny, but the way it's told just seems weird.

I'm not saying that Aucoin is a bad artist, but I'm saying that the art represented here clearly isn't using his full skills. It mostly just seems like notebook doodlings, which isn't really my sort of thing.

(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

025.431

By Ella Dawson, Zoe Forster, Caitlin Verney, and Ruth Collingwood

This is a group zine featuring a pretty wide variety of content. The first piece is half photos and half text and is about interesting/important graveyards that Dawson has been to. It's pretty cool, but the photos suffer from being reproduced by photocopier and having text pasted over them. Graveyards are rad!

The next piece is on big cats, and features a number of drawings of roaring cats, as well as a review/plot summary of a movie about one of those weird celebrity big cat performance people from the USA. Animal performances always make me kind of sad.

The longest text piece was a story about the trials and tribulations a woman went through in order to get a pet cat. It made me miss the cat I had back when my family lived in Canada. Biscuit, you were awesome.

There's also some found objects, collages, and other stuff. The whole thing seems sort of like a collection of found objects, and the library numbering of its subjects makes it seem like you're just wandering around a library reference section reading things at almost-random.

(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

Trixie Biker: Right Hand Down

By Matthew Craig
thematthewcraig.com

Since I last reviewed one of Craig's comics he apparently hurt his dominant hand rather badly. He hasn't let that stop him drawing comics though, as he drew this one entirely using his left (non-dominant) hand. Holy crap!

This is pretty much just a super-hero comic. The main character fights a supervillain, and has a secret identity, a magic motorcycle, and pixie sidekicks. There's nothing particularly special about any of that, but I do enjoy reading stories where the answer to all (or at least most) of life's problems can be solved by hitting them hard enough. (I just got a stack of more than likely terrible superhero comics out of the library. Woo! You should all go use your libraries too. Some of them even have zines!)

Last time I saw him I talked to Craig about the use of violence in superhero comics, and the way that Alan Moore subverted many of those ideas in Tom Strong. So I enjoyed how one of the pixies defeated a bad guy in a non-violent way. Hurray!

I do find it weird that Craig choose to name his villian Kropotkin, because I can't read that name and not think about Pyotr Kropotkin, well known anarchist philosopher. I mean, it'd be killer if it was a giant, purple monster based upon him, but instead it's just some random scientist who robs a castle. A missed opportunity for sure.

I was impressed with Craig's art here considering how it was drawn. I think it's better than anything I could draw with my right hand! Though part of the appeal could be that there are robo-skeletons that attack Trixie. Robo-skeletons make everything better.

(This review is disjointed.)

One thing I found somewhat weird about the whole comic was the style in which it was lettered. Craig has taken the somewhat unusual route of putting all the text inside of narration boxes. So thoughts, speech, actual scene-setting narration, background information, and everything else appears in the same rectangular boxes. There are different fonts used for different characters, but its still kind of confusing. Plus one bit is in Welsh for no apparent reason.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this more than the last issue of Trixie Biker, shakey artwork or not. I am left with just one question, what the hell is a "jam butty"? Is it just a sandwich with jam in it?



(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

The Legend of Johnny Rocker

By Beth Hetland

The town of Bramble is in trouble! An evil giant rock god has come to their town, and has summoned eternal rain storms with his incredible bass guitar skills. Only one man can stop him, disaffected teenager Jonathon Reader!

In many ways this comic can be seen as a love letter to the '80s. The terrible haircuts, the fashion, the guitar solos, the references to David Hasselhoff, and even the unicorns all yell "1980s!" to me. And while I love many aspects of the 1980s (mostly related to old videogames), the aspects used in this comic aren't ones I'm particularly fond of (ie. I'd rather listen to NES style chip tunes than hair metal).

However, I do like Hetland's art. The first page showing the hills that Bramble is built on is simple but somehow detailed. I also like the way she draws rain clouds, with many lines and stuff indicating their darkness. Plus it's pretty much impossible to dislike a comic where a guy fires unicorns out of his guitar.



(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

Snake Pit 2009

Snakepit 2009 by Ben Snakepit
6" x 8 1/2", 96 pages, $6.00 retail
Perfect Bound with Full-Color Cover, B&W interior
Snakepit comics have been around for a decade now, and I'm sorry to say, this is the first Snakepit book I've ever read. Sure I've read his strips in Razorcake and other places, so I've been aware of the existence of Ben Snakepit and his comics for a while, I just never got around to getting my hands on one of his books. In case you're not familiar, Snakepit comics are diary-style comics: 3 panels a day, every day, year after year after year. As you can imagine, most entries are fairly mundane: played video games, went to work, came home and watched TV. Sounds like a boring read, but enough interesting things happen throughout the year to keep your attention, plus there is something about reading the boring details of someone else's life that seems to help validate your own seemingly meaningless existence. Ben Snakepit's life consists mainly of working at a video store, playing in two punk bands, drawing comics, going to house parties and punk shows, getting drunk and stoned, playing video games, watching TV and movies, hanging out with his girlfriend, and walking his dog. Sounds like a pretty decent life from my perspective. One of my favorite things about this comic is that there is a song listed for each entry; since I'm a big music fan, those were fun to read. Also, Ben's creative artwork often turns the most mundane moment into something interesting, which is another great aspect of his comics. This is so much better than facebook and twitter status updates.
www.birdcagebottombooks.com
info@birdcagebottombooks.com

Yo! Burbalino #5

from Blackguard

28 pages, digest size, by Greg Farrell, doctormobogo(at)gmail.com + www.yoburbalino.com
One of my favourite comics, this issue begins with a modern fairytale, 'The Squirrel and the Dead Man', in which three brother squirrels each leave home to make their way in the world. To send them off, the mother squirrel bakes a loaf of nutbread and offers them a small piece with her blessing, or a large piece with her curse. Of course, two of the brothers choose the large piece, 'curses be damned!' as one says. And do you think these two greedy pigs will share their feast with the little birdies of the forest? And can they stay awake until sunrise watching over a dead body? How the hell is brother # three gonna deal with these temptations and challenges, eh? You must find out! This strip is so damn great the comic would be worth getting if it was the only thing in it.
But! There's another of Greg's terrific rap-style strips ('9:27AM'), this one dealing with public transport rage.
Greg reprints a of strip from a past issue: 'Six Year Old Me Vs. Four Year Old Black Kid' (from Y!B#4) along with another page from that same issue, a doomy trippy illustrated rap, both highlights of that issue so it didn't bother me, although made me wonder why he chose to do so.
Anyway, this issue, like past issues, comes highly recommended.

[Note: I feel like such a slack piece 'o shit asshole though - Greg sent me this issue and Y!B#6 months ago but they got submerged in my quicksand-like pile, so I only re-discovered them recently while moving house. ... Greg! A thousand apologies! Y!B#6 will be reviewed next!]

Toil #3

from Blackguard

48 pages, digest size, $2.00 or trade, Power of Paper Zines, Kimberlee Esguerra, 2901 Osage Ave SW, Albuquerque, NM 87105, USA + powerofpaper(at)gmail.com + www.myspace.com/yeswithmayo
This is the 'Travel For Work and Relocation' issue. It's got a story by The Cheeze about the time he was on a flight from Denver to Philadelphia and an elderly Indian woman dropped a steamer in the aisle on the way to the toilet (how was this possible? The Cheeze figured the lady wasn't wearing underwear beneath her sari) and the subsequent clean-up operation.
There's a short interview with professional stuntman Kurly Tlapoyawa, who also puts on an annual independent film festival with Troma's Lloyd Kaufman.
Next up, a hilarious and venomous open letter to the Fort Worth Industrial Workers of the World from Mike Baker. Is Mike Baker the new Jim Goad? (And does anybody know how to get some zines off this guy, because I've tried three times but keep getting my goddamned letters 'returned to sender'.)
Kimberlee's story, 'On Carpooling" illustrates the potential horrors of this fuel-saving activity, and made me realise why you see so many cars with only one driver driving to work: people can't stand each other.
Margrit Eichler contributes a story about when she was in a kind of glam garage band called Raven's Nest and they went on tour. Weird band politics out the wazoo, since two of three guys in the band are gay, and so are the crew, both parties of which idolise lead singer Kyle, except for straight band member Shawn, who frustrates Kyle because his manly charms don't work on him. Haw!
In the back of the zine are short bios of all the contributors, very cool to have in an anthology.
Toil totally rocks and I'm looking forward to #4!

I'm One Of An Odd Family #4

from Blackguard

12 pages, magazine size, $?, Monty Rubera, meandmyfamily(at)ymail.com
Another issue of this excellent music zine out of Melbourne.
First up, contributor Weary Indie Hannah interviews US hip hop honcho Goldz Field, a very entertaining one since GF is confidant (his forthcoming album 'Human Hallucinogen' will be "honest and unfuckwithable") and funny (about other rappers who take the easy way out and pitch-shift their voice, he notes, "...it's like a ferret with an elephant nose, you look weird." ).
Next up, editor Monty interviews 'progressive noise' artist Scissor Shock (Adam Cooley). This interview was really cool too, with discussion on genres and sub-sub genres; an extremely disturbing album he owns, Dog Pound Found Sound ("Play this while on acid and I promise it will ruin your life. ... I honestly don't advise looking for this. But eh... it's your sanity!"); Insane Clown Posse; audiences ("One time I was playing in my hometown and some guy - in a Ministry shirt, mind you - yelled, "YOU SUCK. FUCKING DRUM MACHINES SUCK." or something. I laughed and said, "You're wearing a MINISTRY shirt, you dipshit!"); and his animations and films ("...aside from 3 or 4 people. no one really cares about my movies round here.")
Both these interviews made me wanna immediately go check out these dudes' work. (Y'know, I only get that from zines these days.)
Two pages of music reviews close out the issue. I was on the bus reading these and I see I've put pencilled notes all over the place - record label No Basement Is Deep Enough (awesome name); Monty's recommendations of Suicidal Rap Orgy and Butchers Harem; his review of RaaskalBOMfukkerZ - Primitive Manifesto 7". Monty's reviews are fucking great. So is his zine.

Subject: TRIGGER #2 by Mike Bertino - by: Justin

Ghostblood #1

from Blackguard

32 pages, digest size, by Shaun Craike, scraike81(at)hotmail.com
Shaun's collected a whole bunch of his strips from various comix anthologies, like Phatsville, Blackguard, Gut Fauna, and Sick Puppy.
Mostly it's real life stuff, like seeing a neighbour run over his son's toys because he doesn't move 'em outta the way fast enough, or a mother snapping in a mall food court after her daughter repeatedly screams for a Happy Meal. Then there's a few strips about attending various metal shows. A really hilarious one where Shaun was in a line outside a venue and a dude is screaming at the door staff who won't let him in because he's too drunk; another about his disgust for violent dancing at hardcore shows.
He admits in his editorial that he's completely addicted to the online Deviant Art community and from what he writes about it, animosity and flame wars are part of the fun. One of his strips in here, 'Cyberwaste', appears to document one of these flame wars, although the text is so tiny it's hard to read, but I could make out insults like, "...fucking cock-muncher fluffer..." and "...you should start giving handjobs to keep your fingers from typing..."
This shit is raw, the way comix should be, f-bombs and c-bombs out the wazoo, sex, nudity, ugliness... But also a hot drawing of a half-naked winged anime cutie pie! What else do you need?
Shaun's stuff rocks. I say get it.

Video Zine Review #1

from The Zine Collection by Josh Jubinsky

1 person liked this

Welcome to Video Zine Review #1

This first episode features reviews of Publick Occurances #12, Beyond the Porch #1 and Burn Brandon #14.

It also has an introduction about what zines are, and important information about the Jacksonville Public Library. That’s probably stuff you already know since you are visiting the Zine Collection blog, but just in case! This premiere is a bit longer than future episodes will be for that reason. Following episodes will be 100% zine, 100% of the time. Enjoy!

Calls for Submission from Compilation Station

The Filth Zine – submission call

Objects in Mirrors – a suicide survival zine

Submission Call: Bad Roommate zine!

Subject: HOGGETOWNE RUNOFF: VOLUME 1 by Loren Knack - by: Justin

http://www.signalszine.blogspot.com/

http://www.signalszine.blogspot.com/

Yo! Burbalino #6

from Blackguard

28 pages, digest size, by Greg Farrell, doctormobogo(at)gmail.com + www.yoburbalino.com
This issue is mostly taken up with a long story that begins with Chef Don and Earl Squirrel watching TV. Their favourite show 'Captain Bionic' is on, but right in the middle of it the TV signal dies, so they play some videogame billiards, joined by flatmate Ronnie Randerhoeven. But then the TV itself breaks! Well, what else to do but hit the pool hall, where Ronnie gets shitfaced almost immediately then creates havoc at the billiard table, not least of which by knocking out some of Chef Don's teeth with a mis-aimed billiard ball, at which point it's off to the dentist for Don, while Earl Squirrel takes off to try and buy a guitar from a pawn-shop owning walrus. There's much more to this story, and the part where Don goes tripping under gas in the dentist's chair was really cool.
At the end of this issue is a two-pager, a true story flashback to Greg's childhood, playing on the floor with his toys and his mother watching TV, he believes he hears her say, "I hate you, Greg." The following panels are heartbreaking - in one, Greg's mother abandons him in a basket on a river; in another she jumps out of the car just before it goes over a cliff with Greg still inside. Snapping back into real life, he stutteringly asks what did she say. "I said I hate Hugh Grant."
For some reason this issue didn't hit me the same way Y!B#5 did, but it's cool that Greg's mixing it up. And I still absolutely recommend you get every issue he puts out.
Can't wait for #7.

ELM 50

from dangerous compassions by Laura-Marie

Erik and LM Magazine 50 is out and available for trade. It includes two interviews, reviews, poems, and an account of the East Bay Alternative Press Book Fair.

Trixie Biker: Right Hand Down

By Matthew Craig
thematthewcraig.com

Since I last reviewed one of Craig's comics he apparently hurt his dominant hand rather badly. He hasn't let that stop him drawing comics though, as he drew this one entirely using his left (non-dominant) hand. Holy crap!

This is pretty much just a super-hero comic. The main character fights a supervillain, and has a secret identity, a magic motorcycle, and pixie sidekicks. There's nothing particularly special about any of that, but I do enjoy reading stories where the answer to all (or at least most) of life's problems can be solved by hitting them hard enough. (I just got a stack of more than likely terrible superhero comics out of the library. Woo! You should all go use your libraries too. Some of them even have zines!)

Last time I saw him I talked to Craig about the use of violence in superhero comics, and the way that Alan Moore subverted many of those ideas in Tom Strong. So I enjoyed how one of the pixies defeated a bad guy in a non-violent way. Hurray!

I do find it weird that Craig choose to name his villian Kropotkin, because I can't read that name and not think about Pyotr Kropotkin, well known anarchist philosopher. I mean, it'd be killer if it was a giant, purple monster based upon him, but instead it's just some random scientist who robs a castle. A missed opportunity for sure.

I was impressed with Craig's art here considering how it was drawn. I think it's better than anything I could draw with my right hand! Though part of the appeal could be that there are robo-skeletons that attack Trixie. Robo-skeletons make everything better.

(This review is disjointed.)

One thing I found somewhat weird about the whole comic was the style in which it was lettered. Craig has taken the somewhat unusual route of putting all the text inside of narration boxes. So thoughts, speech, actual scene-setting narration, background information, and everything else appears in the same rectangular boxes. There are different fonts used for different characters, but its still kind of confusing. Plus one bit is in Welsh for no apparent reason.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this more than the last issue of Trixie Biker, shakey artwork or not. I am left with just one question, what the hell is a "jam butty"? Is it just a sandwich with jam in it?



(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

The Legend of Johnny Rocker

By Beth Hetland

The town of Bramble is in trouble! An evil giant rock god has come to their town, and has summoned eternal rain storms with his incredible bass guitar skills. Only one man can stop him, disaffected teenager Jonathon Reader!

In many ways this comic can be seen as a love letter to the '80s. The terrible haircuts, the fashion, the guitar solos, the references to David Hasselhoff, and even the unicorns all yell "1980s!" to me. And while I love many aspects of the 1980s (mostly related to old videogames), the aspects used in this comic aren't ones I'm particularly fond of (ie. I'd rather listen to NES style chip tunes than hair metal).

However, I do like Hetland's art. The first page showing the hills that Bramble is built on is simple but somehow detailed. I also like the way she draws rain clouds, with many lines and stuff indicating their darkness. Plus it's pretty much impossible to dislike a comic where a guy fires unicorns out of his guitar.



(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

Unbeknownst! Chapter One

By Bernadette Bentley
www.bernadettebentley.net

This zine came in a bag with a free badge/button and a bonus minizine! Woo! And then the minizine had a url for exclusive downloadable online content! (ie. a song). Neato, I would totally do that if I had any musical talent.

The bigger zine is a comic book that starts off fairly confusingly, with several pages of mixed up text and perhaps it's supposed to represent a dream of some sort. It doesn't seem to have much of a connection to the rest of the comic, except for perhaps a themeatic connection around the concept of being lost.

Once the actual comic kicks in it actually gets kind of interesting. It's an autobio comic about being broke and poor, yet an on the verge of becoming a successful artist. Yeah, there's a lot of those, and most of them are frequently about being poor and depressed, and yet it's sort of nice to read these things when you yourself are poor and depressed. It's seeing that you are not alone in your life, and that other people have been where you are and gone on to other things.

Being treated poorly because you are trying to follow your dreams, or even because you are just trying to make a living isn't very nice, but it happens all the time. The experiences Bently recounts here remind me of Hard Work by Polly Toynbee, a fairly interesting book about working in the shittiest low paying jobs around. Woo!

And then there's a bit about self identity and a recurring dream. The whole thing seems very much like the first chapter of a longer work, and I'm hoping that there's a plan and that Bently knows where the comic is going.



The minizine is filled with artwork and poetry. The exclusive download is a musical version of one of the poems, it's not really my sort of thing (accoustic guitar-y thing), but it seems pretty good and I think it works a lot better as a song than as a poem!



(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

Potato Maze

Written by Matthew Murray and Lux Chell.
Illustrations by Lux Chell.

Hey, hold on a minute. That's my name! I made this zine!

Inspired by my friend's candy review zine Sugar Needle and general insanity I decided to make crisp/chip review zine. I even managed to corral a friend into helping me out by reviewing some flavours and illustrating many of the reviews! Amazing!

This long and skinny zine features reviews of twelve different types of chips/crisps, hand coloured images throughout, and a fully functioning maze! (That logo took me forever to draw.)

Contact either Lux or I if you would like a copy. I'll be at Brighton Zine Fest this weekend if you'd like to get one in real life. You should go to the fest anyway, it's sure to be loads of fun.

(This post was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

Zinester Interview: Sari

from Hannah Reads Zines by noreply@blogger.com (Hannah.)

Thanks for taking part in this interview. Please start by introducing yourself with your name and location and telling us a wee bit about your current zine projects.

Hey! My name is Sari and I'm originally from Lancaster, PA but am currently located in Baltimore, MD for undergrad in Women's Studies & Sociology. Right now I have two primary zine projects: You've Got A Friend In Pennsylvania is a perzine and hoax is a radical feminist compilation zine. YGAFIP has three issues currently out and revolves around the intersection of my point of view on social issues and the innerworkings of my personal life. hoax has four issues currently out and deals with feminism in relation to a different topic each issue. I'm also currently working on starting up a compilation zine called Out Of The Box which pertains to being non-gender conforming or gender variant (genderqueer, androgynous, bigender, trans*, etc.) and how one experiences life, as well as co-editing a vegan cooking zine called Good Luck Changing The World.

Monkey Squad One, Annual #1

Monkey Squad One, Annual #1

28 pages, digest

$2.50

.

The production quality of this mini-comic is top notch; clean, crisp, with easy to read text. The content is pretty juvenile; ridiculous storyline, corny jokes, and more divergences and copious explanative sidebars than actual story. With the exception of a couple of PG-13 cuss words, this is fine for the kids. I have no reservations about giving this to my 9 yr old niece when I'm done with it.

.

Monkey Squad One is comprised primarily of a group of pre-adolescent boy super-spies. They have futuristic weapons, and a "no girls allowed" tree house, where they hide out from Monkey Squad Two, a group of scary girls who can kick their asses.

.

Monkey Squad One, Annual #1, comes with a synopsis of each of the previous six issues, which I think makes this Monkey Squad One issue #7.???

.

Doug Michel

5000 Devonshire apt A

St Louis MO 63109

banddmichel@gmail.com

Reviews from Resume of Charm

Heart Murmer #2
Requesting the Pleasure of Your Company
Letters to An Absent Father
Food Magic

no gods no mattress

My Lady

By Jen Vaughn
www.mermaidhostel.com

I read this comic by my zine BFF Jen Vaughn and was cofused. It tells a story (of which I liked the ending), but the dialogue seems almost like poetry, and a strict nine panel grid was used for no apparent reason.

And then it hit me when I saw Wally Wood listed in the special thanks. This comic was made using the 22 panels that always work! Here's a site that tells the story better than I could, but the you can understand the gist of it by the very title. Clearly this comic was an assignment that Vaughn completed for the Centre for Cartoon Studies. As such it makes far more sense! Vaughn was attempting to create a comic using as many of these panels as possible. It doesn't seem to be made solely out of them (though I could be wrong), but it does use many of them and matching them up is kind of fun.

One thing that still confused me about this comic was the massive size it was printed at! 11x17 paper folded in half. I wondered why it could possibly be printed so huge, when it really doesn't need to be. Finally I decided that it must be because it was drawn at this size, and reducing it would have made it fit onto the page weird. North American paper sizes are stupid. (Check this wikipedia article to see why the A-series of paper sizes makes wayyyy more sense.)



(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

Electric Baby

(This cover is actually NEON ORANGE in real life, but my scanner apparently hates colour.)

By Jimi Gherkin
myspace.com/jimigherkin
comicsandzines.wordpress.com

I've known Jimi Gherkin for a while, but for some reason I didn't pick up any of his zines until I was down at the Alternative Press Fair in London a few months ago. He's currently involved in planning the International Alternative Press Festival for May which sounds really fun! You should go, check out the website for more details.

I really had no idea what this zine was going to be about (I mean, look at the cover!), but it turned out to be a really fun and enthusiastic zine about loads of different things. Gherkin's apparent near constant optimsm in this zine is kind of scary to me, but it also kind of makes me jealous. Um, but enough about my mental state...

There's a guide on how to screen print at home (that's how he did the cover! It looks really good), a comicstrip showing how ideas are used in the "mainstream" and "small press" universes (which features a girl making a zine called "Vagina Party"), boundless optimism about how you are awesome and can achieve everything you want, only positive reviews of zines, encouragement to do nice things to other people, and a mirror on the inside backpage that is supposed to show you how amazing and special you are. Awwwww.

I mean, some of it is kind of lame, but at the same time I feel really horrible for writing something like that. Why should I say someone being enthusiastic and happy shouldn't be? I kind of wish I felt that way more often, and at the least Gherkin has made me smile with this zine.


(The interior pages are all NEON YELLOW, but my scanner didn't pick up that either. *sigh*)

(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)