The American Indian Ready to Wear Catalog 2018

American Indian Ready to Wear Catalog 2018 
by Joey Clift, illustrations by Janet Myer 

14cm x 21.6cm, 12 pages. Colour cover, black and white pages. 

$5 or $1 digital* copy

You only need to have a very rudimentary knowledge of American history to be aware of the horrific atrocities carried out on native tribes by 'settlers' of the 'new land'. Even at this point in history discrimination against indigenous people in American is ongoing, and in many cases codified into law. 

American Indian Ready to Wear Catalog 2018 is written by Joey Clift, a registered member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, who grew up on the the Tulalip Indian Reservation. In correspondence Joey said this about his zine:

"Working in the entertainment industry, it frustrates me to no end to see how little representation actual native culture has in popular media. When we do get representation, it's almost always based on a very specific image of native people that hasn't been accurate for hundreds of years, if not just a straight up racist stereotype, the goal is to shine a light on that"

The American Indian Ready to Wear Catalogue 2018 is a biting satire which leaves no appropriator of Native American culture unscathed: Disney; The Native Sports Mascot; a well known butter manufacturer; Hollywood actors; sports team owners; male and female retired New Agers; and middle-class hipsters. 

This is a perfect example of the tone and style of Joey's zine:

For satire to work it needs to be funny and simultaneously make a political point, this zine does both of those things extremely well - that it needs to do so proves the tragic state of American culture.

I'm a sucker for cross generational collaboration, so the fact this zine is illustrated by Joey's mum is an added joy. Janet's drawing contributes considerably to the look and humour of the zine. She's a professional artist in her own right, some more examples of her work can be found on her artist facebook page. 

So, to know what not to wear this, or any, season go and buy a copy of the zine here: Redcatpress.com

*Please note we do not endorse digital zines at Syndicated Zine Reviews!


Review by Nathan Penlington 

Dirty Bind - Miami

Dirty Bind @ SWGR Gallery

2235 NW 2^nd Ave

Miami, FL 33127

swgrgallery.com

During my recent visit to Miami, in addition to the pop-up Exile zine shop at History Miami, another happy accidental discovery was Dirty Bind – a curation of zines from over 50 artists – exhibited and sold at SWGR Gallery.

SWGR is just over the road from Wynwood Walls - the uber-‘street’ gallery of graffiti art, some of which is stunning and worth braving the selfie fixated tourists to explore. The zines on offer are mainly graphic design, illustration, fashion and photography inspired, but there are also a few more word focussed publications too. Nestle in the reading chair for an afternoon of quiet page turning.

from SWGR Gallery

So, if you find yourself in Miami, head over – please let them know Syndicated Zine Reviews sent you!

Review by Nathan Penlington

Chloe Noonan Monster Hunter #2

By Marc Ellerby
marcellerby.com

Sometimes the comics industry makes me sad. Not because it's mostly based around superheros. Not because it's not the most sexually or racially enlightened of places. Not because they are ignored by so many people.* But because there is really good work put out by amazing artists that seems to be almost completely unknown.

Case in point being Chloe Noonan by Marc Ellerby. This is an incredibly well drawn, well written, and funny comic with characters I like reading about, yet Ellerby is self publishing it with no major distribution. Now sure, maybe he wants to self publish it, but after reading about some of the problems he had getting issue 3 printed I wish that all of that was being taken care of by someone else and he could just draw more comics.

Still, apparently he is currently pitching it to various people. So hopefully we'll have a full book before too long. I certainly can't wait to read more comics about this not very good monster hunter, and her adventures with bands and clothes stealing friends. Until then I'm just going to have to go and read all of his webcomics.

* Okay, yes, all of those things make me sad too.



(Originally written for 365 Zines a Year.)

Chloe Noonan Monster Hunter #1

By Marc Ellerby
marcellerby.com

On Ellerby's site he says that Chloe Noonan is "a terrible monster hunter". This is not to say that she is a terrible, horrifying person, nor that she hunts overly scary monsters. But rather that she is kind of shit at being a monster hunter.

Now don't get me wrong, she manages to capture monsters when she has to, but it's not exactly her calling, it's just a job to her. She'll be hanging out with her friends when oh no! A phone call telling her that she has to go _all_ the way across town to capture some stupid monster. Again. And she has to take the bus to get there.

When viewed in this way monster hunting isn't fun or exciting; it's boring, it's annoying, it's frustrating. Chloe doesn't want to do this job, but well, she has to pay the bills sometimes. And when she's called in to do overtime just before her band has a show, what is she supposed to do?

The monster Chloe fights in this issue is kinda lame, and entirely dickish. Perhaps not really what you expect from traditional monsters, but even trolls are going to have to grow and change with the times.

Artwise this comic is really good. Ellerby has drawn comics for Oni, Image, and Boom! so he's fairly established for an indie comics guy. His style is very...I don't want to say "hipster", but his characters are all kind of like that in that they have haircuts and fashion and does Chloe really need those thick rimmed glasses? And she plays synths in a band (we all play synths). Oh no! How awful.

(I'm suddenly reminded of a conversation I had with John Allison of Scary Go Round last year about how terrible fashion in superhero comics was. He told me he'd been to middle America and was terrified to discover that that was how people dressed in real life! Tshirts tucked into jeans! Noooooooo.)

Uhm, so aside over... I _like_ it when characters have nice clothes. I mean, it's not like I dress that well, but I try sometimes I guess? (My misuse of punctuation should be a crime.)

Anyway, this comic is fun. Chloe throws bombs at monsters and still manages to get to the bar in time to play with her band. Hurray!

And if you go to his site you'll see a pretty rad drawing he did of the band Sleigh Bells who I really like. Hurray!



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

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