Turbo Supermax #3

40 pages, 8.5 x 6", $5.00, Ryan Vella, Lot 18 Homebush Road, Walkerston QLD 4751, AUSTRALIA Turbo Supermax is back, and out for vengeance. The White Triangle Club (a multi-team Christian supersquad) has killed his little pal Moss, and it's payback time. But before he can get to WTC leader Halohawk, he's gotta get past the shitbombing powers of Mr Scat; the teeth-spitting Muzzle; Spasmo and his epileptic berzerker rage seizure attack; the gorgeous but deadly Beehive (she attacks with swarms of bees that appear from her beehive hairdo, of course!); and many others that I will leave for you to discover. Ryan's imagination for creating supervillains doesn't look like slowing down any time soon, since yet again there's just about a new superbaddie introduced on every page (and in Rebekah Bell's TV news reports that bookend each issue, often three per page). There's also a two-page Turbo strip at the end of this issue - written by Ryan and drawn by fellow Bananalander Shaun Craike.

Last Night at the Casino #4

52 pages, 5.5" x 4", $3.00, trades OK, Billy Roberts, iknowbilly [at] gmail [dot] com + bunnyears.bandcamp.com [Note: Billy is in the middle of moving right now so asked me to sit tight and not send anything to his old Bernalillo NM address] This was one of those zines that I'd read reviews of, it sounded really great, so I had it on my list to write/trade for. Well, I procrastinated until, what do you know, one day a couple of weeks ago I got one of Billy's Last Night at the Casino zines in the mail! The Cosmic Forces meant for us to trade zines. These are powerful forces indeed that the evils of procrastination don't stand a chance against. Anyway, the title gives a pretty big hint what you're getting here - Billy works at a casino and this zine is full of stories about his experiences with punters and fellow casino workers, and the different games he has worked at (craps, roulette, blackjack, etc). I think that if I had to come up with a list of ten work zines I'd wanna read, a casino zine would definitely be in there. Billy includes so many great anecdotes and inside stories about this mysterious world, this is the kind of zine I just plow through and I'm at the end before I know it. One of my favourite pieces in here is 'A Broad Generalization of Standard Casino Personality Types'. There's The Neurotic Number Cruncher, The Super Cute Girl Who is Super Addicted to Gambling, The Big Titty Floozies, The Lucky Drunk-Ass, The Gentle Elderly Man, and The Tourist on Vacation. The Number Cruncher is the funniest to me - "Each time he loses and his system fails, he curses under his breath, writes down what happened, and then realizes that the cycle of the "system" must be larger than he thought." Last Night at the Casino isn't just a great work zine, it's a great zine zine. Get get.

The Kobb Log #6

36 pages, 11 x 8.5", selected trades I'd say - mainly for other B-movie zines, Dr. Bill, Kobb Labs, PO Box 30231, Pensacola FL 32503, USA The monkeys at the lab have run amok, so Dr. Bill has handed the bulk of this issue's content to Jim Ivers, who does an excellent job, starting with his Aliens Invade Hollywood: A Brief History (Part 3), a terrific 7-page look at alien-focused movies from the '70s to the present day (that is, movies such as Super 8, Prometheus, and Battleship). The other excellent Ivers piece is his The Lost World of Prehistoric Women That Time Forgot, covering cavegirl movies from the '50s to the present. This was a real joy to read, with Jim's witty and hilarious comments coming thick and fast. Here's an example from his review of Italian gem 'When Women Had Tails' [1970]: "...since spy films were becoming passe, the nation that gave us Fascism and Roberto Benigni returned to its old stock-in-trade: unfunny sex comedies. The story was co-written by the eccentric whack-job Lina Wertmuller." Dr. Bill himself kicks the issue off with a great introduction followed by Mailing Comments relating to the long-running Southern Fandom Press Alliance #292. [The Log is in fact part of this, but obviously Dr. Bill makes it available as a stand-alone zine.] This is an easy recommendation for anybody into B-grade, genre, or exploitation movies. Really great stuff. It made my bus rides to and from work pass much too quickly.