Cute

Cute
20 pages, digest
Accepts trades, PCP, records, cigarettes, switchblades, etc.
(I say send him a couple bucks to cover the postage.)


This one is a collaboration between Fishspit (of Wiseblood zine,) and Serena "Aika" Pruess, (of Cooncat Creations.) Art, collage, and prose. It's primarily about pets, but there's also something about an encounter with a furry hippo, (either fiction or hallucination,) and also a piece about cute girls in school and how he got the name Fishspit.

Aika does anthropomorphized animal cartoons, or "furries." Fishspit does awesome collage work, and writes stuff that you can never really tell how much is autobiographical, how much is fiction, and how much is delusion. He goes off the reservation in a way that few could get away with, but it works for him. He's never boring.

Fishspit
1304 175th PL.  NE,
Bellevue WA 98008

also check out

Aika
aikacooncat.blogspot.com
cooncatcreations@hotmail.com


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

Wise Blood #64

Wise Blood #64
20 pages, digest
Accepts trades, PCP, records, cigarettes, switchblades, etc.
(I say send him at least $1.50 to cover the postage.)


I really liked this one. First, the envelope was a collage. I opened it as I was standing in line to get  coffee. I looked up at the wait person, and looked at the envelop again, and then back at her. She was the spitting image of the collage woman on the envelope, (it was from a famous painting, and I should know who the artist was, but I don't.) Freaky.

Inside was a note written on an artsy postcard. The handwriting was almost illegible. It said the reason for the collage was that he was in a hospital bed due to depression and a nice lady came into to do art therapy with him and he didn't have the heart to tell her no, even though he thinks artists are a bunch of nimrods.

Inside the zine, I was happy to see everything was type written. There were illustrations and it all looked pretty spiffy. The writing was a collection of personal stories, some were directly about mental illness and addiction, and in others the illnesses ran in the background of what could be stories from anyone's life. Very easy to read and very easy to relate to.

He loathes political correctness, refers to women as broads, and is working through some other racial issues. The narrator is anything but one dimensional.

When it was all said and done I thought this guy was pretty close to being a genius. The writing had "flaws" in it, but there were like Stephen King kind of flaws, inserted into what was otherwise outstanding writing. I also noticed that this guy was pretty prolific, with like a hundred issues of this zine and others out there, and from what I saw in this one, they'd be pretty well organized and produced too.

It was very hard to tell whether this dude is just a talented guy with more than his share of problems and a few grammar issues, or if he's just an outstanding writer doing pure fiction and pulling our leg. Probably the former, but In either case it's darn good, and the fact that I can't quite tell for sure one way or the other makes it positively delightful.

Fishspit
1304 175th PL.  NE,
Bellevue WA 98008


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