Minor Leagues #7 - 'Where?' Part Two

Minor Leagues #7: 'Where?' Part Two

By Simon Moreton

120 pages, B&W, cardboard cover with French flaps. Stapled. 22.8 cm x 21cm. 

£6 (or pay what you feel you can afford) + p&p

Minor Leagues #7 is part two of a four part series of publications in which Simon excavates and sifts layers of personal and social histories. (If you missed it, you should read my review of 'Where?' Part One). 

In short, Where? is a genre bending memoir - combining text, comics, collage, historical documents, and contemporary photographs. But it's much more than the sum of those elements - it's a brave work, richly evocative, and full of honest emotion. 

If you've experienced Simon's previous work you'll need no convincing to get hold of a copy, Simon's trademark art really works in this format, adding dimension to leaps in time. And if you're new to Minor Leagues I urge you to subscribe to all issues of 'Where?' as your starting point - it is a weighty, witty work that that genuinely pushes the boundaries of the factual graphic novel.

There has been a trend in zines over the last few years for high prices, Simon takes the opposite approach - offering a lower cost price for those who can't afford the full price. (Details of his pricing can be found here).  https://smoo.bigcartel.com/faq

Order info for Minor Leagues #7 here:  https://smoo.bigcartel.com/product/minor-leagues-7-where-part-two

All four issues of Where? can be found here:  https://smoo.bigcartel.com/category/where

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Review by Nathan Penlington

Previous issues of Minor Leagues are reviewed here.

bio auto graphic #13: common senses

bio auto graphic #13: common senses

Michael C. Nicholson / ensixteen editions

A5 black & white booklets, cardboard covers, in five volumes - with printed belly band.    

12 pages per volume.

£15 for the set of five. 

In 2007 Michael was invited to Smith College, Massachusetts, to make work that reflected and considered the traditions, people, and place, that make up the institution. This five part set of bio auto graphic grew out of that visit.

While each part takes one of the five bodily senses as its focus, each part also explores 'sense' in a broader context: a sense of learning; a sense of identity; a sense of Smith; a sense of place; and a sense of self. 

Like previous issues, this set of bio auto graphic is poetic, profound, and visually arresting. Readers of other issues of bio auto graphic will already be familiar with Michael's distinctive illustrative style - his approach to line and space, the way he layers time and imagination, and allows the subject matter to be considered from unusual vantage points. 

Drawings from Michael's sketchbook adorn the inside covers - and offer a glimpse into Michael's ability to capture fragments from life, his thought process, and his approach to drafting what will become the final layouts used in this collection. I always find unfinished work fascinating, so it's an additional pleasure to be allowed that peek backstage, and thoroughly annoying to see how casually talented Michael is.  

In addition to Michael's own writing the text of common senses includes parts of interviews with students and tutors of Smith College, as well as quotes from literary and artistic figures. All of which help build a complex, multi-faceted, interrogation of topics.

There are only a limited number of common senses sets available, so all I can say is use your common sense, and get yourself a set before they sell out.

For more information visit the Ensixteen blog: ensixteeneditions.blogspot.com

Or email Michael directly: ladnicholson(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk



Review by Nathan Penlington - you can find my reviews of previous issues of bio auto graphic here. 

Don't Be Retarded #1

Don't Be Retarded #1: Autistic Pride in a Neurophobic World 

Edited by Joe Biel / Microcosm Publishing

11cm x 18cm, 64 pages

$5 USD

"Autism advocacy has focused on the rights and struggles of parents over the past 30 years, resulting in an invisible population of disordered adults who have little voice and less support for what they are going though."

Don't Be Retarded is a new zine started by Joe Biel, the founder and manager of Microcosm Publishing, as a way to help counteract that trend and to foster "a social movement for the neurodiverse". It's an important aim. Those with invisible disabilities suffer the double ignominy of the burden of explanation followed by the resultant disability stigma. 

Joe explains the inspiration for the zine's title: 

"I began polling my Autistic mentees and peers. Just like me, everyone has suffered under the word 'retarded'. But taking the word away without taking away the stigma, bias, and attitude does nothing to take away the hurt and only insults our intelligence further". 

The contributors to Don't Be Retarded have largely been diagnosed as Autistic in adulthood, and although every individual has unique experiences, there are common themes of alienation, despair, and seeking acceptance, that run throughout the pieces.  

'Things I no longer have' by Eliot Daughtry is an insightful look at the sound equipment crucial to surviving 50 years prior to a diagnosis, and how the function of behaviours can be manifold; Partly Robot relates their experiences of working the perfect job for the detail orientated; Aaron Poliwoda's comic Autism-Man V's the evil Neurotypical discusses the difficulties surrounding a lack of Autism awareness; Tammy Porter contributes a moving reflection on a life lived undiagnosed; Ricki Bransen examines the lenses our lives are viewed through; Temple Grandin looks at how to reduce stigma by getting good at something; and Joe Biel's pieces offer a thought provoking look at attitude, perception, and discrimination.

Don't Be Retarded is an essential read both for anyone who has struggled, or is struggling, as a disordered adult, and for those open to understanding.

Buy a copy direct from Microcosm: microcosmpublishing.com/catalog/zines/9412


Review by Nathan Penlington

Minor Leagues #6: 'Where?' Part One

Minor Leagues #6: 'Where?' Part One

by Simon Moreton 

108 pages, B&W, cardboard cover with French flaps. Stapled. 22.8 cm x 21cm. 

£6 (or pay what you feel you can afford) + p&p

I've been a fan of Minor Leagues since issue #1 landed on my review pile back in April 2016. Simon has the perfect eye and ear for detail, the seemingly insignificant moments of life that are the stuff of memory, coupled with a gentle humour. 

There is a clear evolution of Simon's work over the course of Minor Leagues. The early issues being collections of short stories, anecdotes, fragments that have a heartbreaking honesty that make you laugh, and that walk the line between visual and textual.

In Minor Leagues #6 emotional weight has been given dominance, and with it strength of focus - it is a work unafraid to move across history both ancient and modern. Taking the very personal - the diagnosis of cancer in Simon's dad - as a jumping off point to explore layers of social history. The cultural and social history of place is built up in much the same way Titterstone Clee - the central element in part one of 'Where?' - was built from:

'mounds of the earth's belly on top of the plant matter and silt and animals and mud and debris and shit laid down by millennia of weirdo ancient sea creatures eating each other, breeding, then dying, on repeat'.

The largest change of style between Minor Leagues #6 and previous issues is the ratio of text to image, there are less sequential graphic moments in this issue, but an increase in stand alone illustrations to accompany the text. Simon has a definite feel for the right form for the content, and there is a fluid change of pace and tone throughout.  

Some of the stories from earlier issues have been reworked into the text of 'Where?', although it really doesn't matter if you recognise them or not. The recombination of memory is a foundation of conversation, and the reuse in this context helps you feel fully enmeshed in Simon's life as told.

A trick that Simon manages to consistently pull off, where many fail, is sweetness without becoming saccharine. The 'Exploring Attitudes and Values' exercise Simon completed in school in 1994, and shares here, is one such moment. 'The most important thing in life for me is...' question was answered with 'Art, cats and my family'. Minor Leagues stands as a testament to values someone has always held as important, and that is an extremely rare, beautiful thing.

I think one of things you can't help but wonder when you come across a zine series that you've never read and that is already on issue 6 is: will it make sense to start here? In some cases it wouldn't (Läskimooses is a prime example of having to start at the beginning), but Minor Leagues #6 forms part one of a book length project, and so it makes complete sense to use this as a chance to get acquainted with Simon's work. And if you're already a fan of Minor Leagues you won't need any convincing from me to engage with Simon's first feature length project. 

Buy Minor Leagues #6 here: smoo.bigcartel.com/product/minor-leagues-6

Or visit smoo.bigcartel.com for subscription options.

Review by Nathan Penlington

Previous issues of Minor Leagues are reviewed here.

The ship'd sailed - stories about friendship and loss

The ship'd sailed - stories about friendship and loss

by Amy Ng & Weng Pixin

A5, 40 pages, coloured print. Plus contributors sheet. 

$10

Part of being human is experiencing loss of someone at some point in your life. I don't mean through death either, I mean the kind of loss that comes through the withering away of intimacy or through sudden departure. 

While loss is understood to hurt if that loss is of a romantic partner, betrayal by - or loss of - a friend is spoken about less, especially between grown-ups. But the resulting hurt and anger is no less real, and is sometimes no less all consuming, than it is when the same happens as a teenager. 

It is these raw and real experiences that Amy & Weng set about collating for this zine. What results is a set of varied stories from life about adult friendships written and illustrated by seven different artists. 

While all of the pieces overlap in anger and grief, their honesty is intimately personal, yet they reach out. In a way, its like talking with a new set of friends. 


Buy a copy of The Ship'd Sailed here: etsy.com/listing/583969599/the-shipd-sailed-stories-about

www.pikaland.com


Review by Nathan Penlington

Minor Leagues #5 - Simon Moreton

Minor Leagues #5 - Simon Moreton 

Published by Lydstep Lettuce - March 2018

62 pages, A4, black & white. Cardboard cover. Plus 22 pages, A6, coloured paper.

£5 (or pay what you feel you can afford) + p&p

The fifth outing for Simon Moreton's Minor Leagues series (previous issues are reviewed here) sees a change to a larger format, and with it an enlargement of Simon's stories to encompass histories beyond his own.  

We learn about the real ghosts that haunt his present, spectral memories from childhood encounters, and thoughts of the recently departed that shift focus when you observe them. 

It's no secret that Minor Leagues has come one of my favourite zine series - and it still has the capacity to surprise, and genuinely move me. In this issue, like previous ones, the interplay of documentary photography, well crafted text, and expressive illustration, pulls you into Simon's world. Included too is an additional smaller zine which explores the locus of this issue from different perspectives. 

Whether this is your first encounter with Simon Moreton's work, or you're a regular reader, you won't be disappointed. It's a zine of hope, heart, and humanness. 

Buy a copy: smoo.bigcartel.com/product/minor-leagues-5

Or visit smoo.bigcartel.com for subscription options.

Review by Nathan Penlington

Minor Leagues #4 - Simon Moreton

Minor Leagues #4 - Simon Moreton


Published by Lydstep Lettuce - Oct 2017


A5, 80 pages. black and white with colour covers. 



£4 (or pay what you feel you can afford) + p&p

It's the lightness of touch to both word and line that'd I've come to love about Simon's work, a simplicity that disguises a nuanced approach to storytelling. The threads and themes of issue #4 unfold across moments in time: the death of Simon's dad, layered accounts of memory, the retelling of boyhood memories, and recent domestic still-lifes.

In inclusion of photos in this issue adds further dimension to the zine, one that enriches Simon's expressive style. A kitchen in the 1970s seeming as unreal from now as the fantasy worlds lurking in the bushes of childhood.

The addition of an extra 'story behind the stories' sheet, pulls back the curtain on the creative process. I definitely recommend leaving it until after your first read of issue #4 - as one of the joys of Minor Leagues is making sense of the space, the gaps in time, and in not knowing where truth and fiction meet. That said, the extra sheet adds dimension and emotion to the pages that benefit from context - drawings made while being a passenger in car driving through the Welsh countryside for example. I think the delayed knowing compels you to revisit the drawings, mirroring how memory and knowledge shapes and reframes. 

This zine is warm, personal, funny and emotive. A genuine open door into Simon's life, filtered through the act and art of sharing into something much larger.

Buy a copy: http://smoo.bigcartel.com/product/minor-leagues-4

Or visit smoo.bigcartel.com for subscription options.

Review by Nathan Penlington

Minor Leagues #3 - Simon Moreton

Minor Leagues #3 - Simon Moreton

Published by Lydstep Lettuce - April 2017

A5, 66 pages. black and white with colour covers. 

£3 (or pay what you feel you can afford) + p&p

This is the third outing for Minor Leagues. Simon sums up the contents as: 

"Comics about teenage indiscretions, childhood dreams; writing and diary comics about change and renewal in the face of trauma and loss; Spring scenes, Spring feelings, drawings, that sort of stuff."

While writing this issue Simon's dad was diagnosed with cancer, and sadly passed away shortly afterwards. As an autobiographical zine the emotional core of issue 3 centres around the emptiness and bewilderment of sudden loss. But it's not a death comic.

While grief is always personal Simon's work has a way of striking an outward resonance. Minor Leagues doesn't just tell - the combination of image and text creates mood - it evokes. As regular readers will have come to expect there is still humour in the stories and observations, originality in the depiction of the nuances and details of everyday life. 

Although largely autobiographical Minor Leagues succeeds due to knowing what to reveal, what to fictionalise, and what to keep private. Simon has written a blog post that details his thoughts during the making of this issue here.  

Simon offers a cost price of £2 and a regular price, which is still just £3. This is to enable people who really want to read/buy small press work but can't afford the luxury. "Why?", I hear you ask - Simon answers: 

"I think it's important to make this kind of work as available as possible, and I hope this goes some way towards that. I know postage is expensive and life is expensive too"

Support if you can. Buy issue 3 direct from Simon - smoo.bigcartel.com/product/minor-leagues-3

Or visit smoo.bigcartel.com for subscription options. 

My reviews of Minor Leagues 1 & 2 are here.

Review by Nathan Penlington

Exscind #1

Exscind #1
36 pages, digest
Limited edition of 100
High quality, slick pages, heavy stock cover
$6 delivered, ($4 media mail)

Adel Souto puts together here a compilation of his work, writing and art, from various eras of his life. Some is previously published, much of it not.

First off, this print version is one of those few that get filed under,  "best value zine publication you'll find anywhere, ever." The only thing I didn't care for about the production was the unattached clear acetate sleeve over the regular cover, (acetate has title in black, card stock has colorful art.) Keeping it all together quickly became a pain in the ass and I discarded it.

The art, primarily photography, ranges from good to great.

The writing is nothing less that polished and professional. How much I liked it varied. The poetry goes in one eye and out the other. There is some whimsical commentary that I find a little trite, (especially when you consider the overall caliber of this writer,) and can only think of as "filler."

However, the bulk of the prose is exceptional. The very best is when Adel writes about himself and his life. There are also bits he does that aren't autobiographical but are written with an almost academic focus. He is intelligent and well read, especially in history.

What ties this all together in a bow is that he's a complex individual with a dark side and plenty of questionable history. Piecing together his intellect, knowledge , criminality, homelessness, and superimposing it over the high quality art he is presenting is fascinating and compelling.

In his attempt to present a cross section of his work he completely succeeds. This is someone to keep an eye on.

Contact to order
adelsouto@adelsouto.com
www.adelsouto.com


review by Jack Cheiky
This zine is being donated to the Cleveland Zine Library after review.