Me Likes You Very Much

Me Likes You Very Much
6" x 9" perfect bound, 192 pages, $14 ($8 wholesale)
If you've been following Lauren's blog for the past few years, then you already know how great this book is. But if you have yet to be introduced to Lauren's genius, no worries, this book (published by Hic & Hoc Publications) will get you all caught up. Lauren Barnett creates short and simple comics (each one getting its own page) involving quirky, sometimes crude, yet lovable characters making witty, sometimes vulgar, but also endearing comments. The characters are either animals (birds seem to be a favorite) or some inanimate object, such as a fruit or vegetable or some other food or non-food related item. The art is very simple and unrefined, but it is the minimalist approach that gives Lauren's comics their character and originality. This is laugh out loud, catch you off gaurd kind of stuff, with a mix of some cute and endearing pieces presented in a very approachable manner. Visit Lauren's blog for examples, and once you're hooked - which won't take long - get your hands on a copy of this book.
Hic & Hoc Publications
matt.ame@gmail.com
www.hicandhoc.tumblr.com

All You Can Read : Collected [#1 & #2]

from Blackguard

48 pages, digest, by Shaun Craike, email for price/trades >>> scraike81 [at] hotmail.com + www.shaunc.deviantart.com "Stop! This is not a new All You Can Read issue!!!" writes Shaun in his intro. What it is, is a reprint of AYCR#1 [2004] and AYCR#2 [2008] since those issues are almost gone, plus he wanted to make a new cover - "A much better version of the second issue, which I copped a lot of crap over." (So it wasn't just me? Heh heh.) The new cover makes it look like a music zine, and although Shaun is heavily into music (favourite band: Fear Factory), and plays in bands, and most of the contents are band/music-related, it's all comix here. Starting off with confessions and criticism of where he spent most of his life so far (Mackay, far north Queensland), including inhabitants thereof (like Josh the chronic masturbator), and fuckwits at local cover band gigs (the drunken douchebag who falls over then says to the barmaid, "Hey gimme a VB!" She replies, "No way, pal." To which this well-mannered young charmer says, "Gimme another beer, slut, or I'll smack ya!" A road trip with his friend Al to Townsville descends into boredom so they play Count The Roadkill (total: 127). A story about Shaun's band El Honeyflood and one member who turns out to be a junkie, and the subsequent trickiness of telling him he's outta the band, and the fallout from that. Pretty dramatic! There's also a cool strip about going to Brisbane to see Fear Factory. During their set they stopped and Christian held up a sign, 'Weed Please', and the stage was showered with pot bags. There's also a few gig flyers Shaun drew for their band. Shaun's comix are really great. Get some.

Death Box #10

Zine Library Bicycle

Snacks

University of Delaware Library announces exhibition highlighting 'Zines'

Zine Reviews: July 2012

Zine Reviews: July '12

from Spill The Zines! by noreply@blogger.com (Cath)

Rum Lad #5

Steve Larder, Lincolnshire – www.stevelarder.co.uk

Rum Lad has to be one of my favourite comic zines – every issue features interesting handwritten stories, surrounded by Steve’s charming and rich illustrations.  This issue features a visual diary detailing the “organised chaos” of his band’s tour around America – travelling for over 10 hours at a time in their tour van, playing at pubs and house parties, sofa surfing, and exploring the American towns they visited.  The illustrations of the band members, the venues, the interesting personalities they meet along the way, and the American scenery, are all so full of character that they really draw you in to Steve’s story.  I liked the choice of topic too; it was fascinating to see the details of what goes on during a cross-country tour.  Rum Lad never disappoints – get your paws on this issue now!

Buy Her Candy #2

Bettie, Carlisle – http://manufacturinghearts.blogspot.com

Another cracking zine by Bettie, which opens with a list of things she has been up to since the last issue, including planning a riot grrrl night, and watching Star Trek TNG.  We read about Bettie’s concerns surrounding privacy in her zines, a little guide to her favourite parts of Chorlton, her feelings as she approaches the end of her nursing degree, and her future plans for when she qualifies as a nurse.  The layouts are as pretty as ever, with handwritten and typewritten sections, and lots of cool pictures and patterns pasted in.  However, my favourite thing has to be the cover – a cartoon of Cinderella and Snow White sharing a passionate kiss, printed on lilac paper!  Gorgeous.

Sad Songs About Failed Relationships

Kirsten, London – www.website-schmebsite.blogspot.com

This zine is very difficult to describe.  From the title and gorgeous cover, I expected some sort of dissection of classic break-up songs alongside a story about a break-up.  Instead, Kirsten briefly outlines the dissolution of a relationship with sparse words, cartoons of typical relationship anxieties (e.g. how many kisses to include in a text), and symbolic drawings.  On the last page, Kirsten provides a link to the “soundtrack” of the zine, which features some great songs about failed relationships, including Leonard Cohen’s ‘Take This Longing’, The Dresden Dolls’ ‘Delilah’, and Gloria Gaynor’s ‘I Will Survive’.  This was a nice touch, though I would’ve loved to read a discussion as to why those particular songs were chosen!  I like the fact that it’s not your typical break-up zine, and it’s been put together carefully and creatively.  Having said that, I love me some dense, wordy zines, and the lack of text just didn’t sustain my interest.   A very interesting concept though, definitely worth a flick.   Buy your copy for a mere 45p (I love cheap zines!) – this zine has a limited print run, so grab hold of one asap!

Nancy #1

Alex Creep, London – www.creepclub.co.uk/nancy

An intelligent queer zine written by effeminate queer Alex, which discusses in detail the concept of a nancy boy (a femme gay man), the way mainstream gay culture marginalizes effeminate queers and the pressure gay men face to “act straight”.  Tied in with this larger discussion Alex brings in ideas about the concept of “camp”, the idolization of strong women like Lady Gaga by gay men as examples of “strong femininity”, the oversexualization of gay culture, and effeminate boys in anime and goth culture.  We also read Alex’s own story of coming to terms with his effeminacy, and a list of his favourite femme gays of TV and film, including Kurt of Glee and Lafayette Reynolds of True Blood.  The layout is functional – mostly black text on white background, with hand drawings of a few of the aforementioned queers scattered throughout.  Having never really considered the idea of “sissyphobia”, this zine was an illuminating read.  Alex did a good job of discussing a murky issue with clarity and good humour, peppered with stories of his own experiences.  Highly recommended!

Bloomurder #1

Laura, Bristol - bloomurderATgmail.com

This little perzine features the kind of topics you’d expect from a first issue - bicycles, gigs (Adelaide Fringe Festival 2011), travelling stories, thoughts about femininity, and nostalgia.  In the middle there’s a very interesting little piece on Laura’s love of violent/horrific art (including Medusa by Caravaggio), which was my favourite part of the zine.  Bloomurder has a nice upbeat tone, laid out with cut and paste imagery and charming scratchy handwriting. 

Born to Kill Cheese Bike #5

Zine Review: Born to Kill Cheese Bike #5

from One Minute Zine Reviews by DJ Frederick

The cool thing about zines is that any subject can be intriguing if it is given a creative presentation. Born to Kill – Cheese Bike #5 proves my assertion. The creator of this zine chronicles his work selling grilled cheese sandwiches cheap in New York City from the back of his motorbike. At the beginning of issue #5 there is a traffic mishap and the bike needs an overhaul. The writer details the repairs and changes he makes to menu and equipment. 

At first I wondered if this had something to do with The Journey, in which filmmaker Eric Saperston sets out on a quest to find America by selling grilled cheese sandwiches (subtitled: sexy kind) for a buck out of his VW camper. But I didn’t find any connection between these two similar but apparently unrelated projects. No matter – this zine is unique in it’s approach to the material, recording the process with photographs and even a daily accounting of how much the author made from his enterprise and where.

Born to Kill – Cheese Bike #5 is available from Microcosm.

Grunted Warning #14

Zine Review: Grunted Warning #14

from One Minute Zine Reviews by DJ Frederick

Grunted Warning #14

from Stuart Stratu

PO Box 35

Marrickville NSW 2204

Australia

$1 / trade / friendly letter

This zine is a lot of fun – full of news clippings ranging from the quirky to the bizarre.We live in a world where anything can happen – and does. Like playing Russian roulette with a sleeping friend (guess who loses). Aliens are kept in the fridge, Zombies fall from scaffolding, Grandmothers harass the neighbors. It’s all here in glorious … black & white, presented for your reading horror, or, in my case - pleasure.

Turbo Supermax

from Blackguard

56 pages, digest, $5.00, Ryan Vella, Lot 18 Homebush Rd, Walkerston QLD 4751, AUSTRALIA Going back to the mid '90s when I started publishing a comix anthology [Sick Puppy Comix] Ryan Vella was one of the dudes whose comix art really made your eyes pop, and he's only gotten better. Also, reading Turbo Supermax, it occurred to me that Ryan was probably one of the kids who, growing up on superhero comics, identified more with the supervillains. Heh heh. TS gets off to a very funny start, with a newsreader telling a crew member off-camera about "some dumb slut..." before realising she's live to air. Her report introduces the world - it's fifteen years since a chemical plant disaster that devastated the city with a thick toxic cloud. Inhabitants who survived mutated, gaining super powers and abilities. OK, you maybe thinking, ho hum, another superhero origin blah blah... but this is anything but ho hum. Like I mentioned earlier, Ryan's art is awesome, loaded with detail (it's always fun to read the stuff he inserts on walls and other backgrounds), and here almost every page sees a new supermutant. Examples: The McRapist, The Homoerotic Anarchists, The Paul Stanley All-Stars, Kid Death, DIAD (Dude In A Dress), The White Triangle Club, and about 23 dozen more. The banter is also hilarious: "Get off me, bitch!" "Eat my heel ya limp-dicked sloth cock! Die! Die! Die!" Wonderfully bizarre characters appear, fight, swear, kill or die, and the scenarios keep your brain fizzing. "The pimp called Hookmouse was murdered recently by the haunted Voltswagen assassin, Hellbeetle. A rival pimp is most likely to have arranged the hit." Did I mention these comix are not for kids? Well, they're not for kids, man. Violence, profanity, nudity, all the good stuff, Turbo Supermax constantly bombards the reader with it, you lucky devils. This comic is so great, so awesome, one of those rare ones I read slowly, savour each page, don't want to get to the end. But I did, and it really sucked! Good news though! Since this is numbered "Issue One" presumably there will be an Issue Two. Meanwhile, I'm off to re-read this. It's that damned good. Superbadass.

Handmade & Bound Call for Zines

August 07, 2012

calls for submissions

zine exhibits

Jenna Freedman

 

Handmade & Bound Nashville is a celebration of Artists' books & zines that involves demos, a juried show and a day-long festival on October 6, 2012. This is our second year and we are very excited to feature a massive zine exhibition as part of our events. The exhibit will be in the library and will be up through the month of October. Last year, H&B vol. 1, our gallery exhibit was very artists' book centered although we had many zine vendors and distros set up during our festival, including Microcosm and Spit and a Half.  This year we'd like to educate and appreciate zines in all formats and all subjects, from perzines, cookzines, artzines and music zines from all regions (particularly Nashville) to minizines, cut and paste zines and comics. We'd love to display your zine whether it's stapled or tied, screen printed or simply xeroxed in this great exhibit.

If you're interested send your zine by September 15th to Lisa Williams, library director, Watkins College of Art, Design & Film library, 2298 Rosa Parks Blvd. Nashville, TN 37228. We'll ship them back to you or happily add them to our library's collection after the show.

We still have room for vendors (deadline Sept. 15th). Come sell your zines in our bazaar.

Zine Collection Opens At Brooklyn College Library

Zine Collection Opens At Brooklyn College Library

Miasma

http://www.etsy.com/listing/106559486/miasma-art-zine?ref=cat1_gallery_22

LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET ZINE

LOST IN THE SUPERMARKET ZINE

$5.00

A zine devoted to celebrating food and grocery shopping in the context of memories and stories. Features interviews and anecdotes on food habits from teenage girls around the globe and original collage created from vintage cookbooks.
14 pages. Full color. 8.5 X 5.5 in.

LET'S SMASH THE PASTRY-ARCHY.

Art Dummy #1

from Blackguard

28 pages, 8.5" x 6", $5.00, by Pteri Dacht-Ullman >>> pterodactylman [at] yahoo.com A weird and wonderful collection of Pteri's drawings, comix, fake superheroes (and superheroines), 'Bad Taste Toys' (for example, Burns Unit Barbie and Crash Test Princess), Coffin Joe Funnies, and other cool stuff. Plus! It comes with a Free Gift! Celebrites de la Rue is a 20 page booklet (first printed in 1863) featuring illustrations of remarkable and singular French personages, like Le Persan, "Official heckler to the French Royal Family, Le Persan ('Leper San' as he was derisively called around the Japanese kabuki circuit) always kept a small toy albino pterodactyl perched atop his furry mega-fez as it seemed to attract young lady fans."

New Zines @ Doris

new zines

from doris zine blog by noreply@blogger.com (doriszine)

Telegram #24
Miranda changes the name of their long-running zine Telegram Ma'am, to more clearly reflect their genderless identity. This issue discusses pronouns, getting tired and frustrated with having to constantly talk the basics - Queer 101, Disability 101, etc. It also has a great article about mental health and supporting friends in daily life and also when they're in the hospital. Plus self care ideas and a piece on sobriety.

Telegram #25
Miranda says "I wanted to make a zine about creating magical, artistic, creative, meaningful daily lives, so this is it." Which really says it all! Excellent and inspiring!

Neither Butch Nor Femme #3 / Curioddity #4
Split zine. Both sides addressing the 7 Deadly Sins: Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, Pride. Lynne address each topic in their refreshing, straightforward way. Curioser Jane writes her side in her powerful storytelling way.

Deafula #3
Another excellent issue of this zine! This issue talks about not wanting to be a "spokesperson" for deafness, identity politics within deaf communities, questions and reaction people have, tips for people who work in customer service about how to accept relay calls (where the operator acts as a go between for you); a piece about "Blind Rage: An Open Letter to Helen Keller" where she talks about daily annoyances, the problems with being a spokesperson - "graciously disabled" - and the rage and the ways spokespersonness takes away your full humanity because people only pay attention to what you have to say about your disability and think you have no other contribution to make. Also: Top 5 things that you don't realize are super annoying for peeps with hearing loss, and 5 top things you are mission out on by being hearing.

Piltdown Lad #4

Zine Review: Piltdown Lad #4

from One Minute Zine Reviews by DJ Frederick

Piltdown Lad #4

The Nasty Oh-Dear

40 pages

Kelly Dessaint

PO Box 86714

LosAngeles CA 90086

There are a handful of zines that, when I’ve turned the final page, make me think: I want to read more of that. Big Hands & Burn Collector are two such zines, and now I have to add Piltdown Lad to the list. Piltdown Lad #4 opens with Kelly Dessaint discussing his zine creations past & present, segueing into what feels like an incomplete autobiographical piece called “The Nasty Oh-Dear” which left me with so many questions about the writer & his brother & their survival through adolescence. Kelly continues with an account of the LA Zine Fest, a generous helping of zine reviews, and the origins of his zine’s name.  Piltdown Lad #4 has the right mix of variety and content – an absolute must read.

Opuntia 251

16 pages, Dale Speirs, Box 6830, Calgary, Alberta, T2P 2E7, CANADA. Available for $3 cash for a one-time sample copy, trade for your zine, or letter of comment. Coolest Opuntia cover I've ever seen. That Cthulu stamp (artistamp?) is badass (and there's another one on page 2). These accompany a thorough review of a Cthulu Mythos anthology, Cthulu's Reign [2010, edited by Darrell Schweitzer]. Then some history of oats (Dale has a B.Sc in Horticulture) with a funny anecdote about Samuel Johnson's dictionary, in which he "...pokes fun at the Scots by defining oats as a grain that in most parts of the world is used as livestock feed but in Scotland is used to sustain humans." Then some book reviews (The Isotope Man by Charles Eric Maine [1957] and Skyship by John Brosnan [1981]. Mailing comments for FAPA #299, another book review, and some Sherlockiana.