Were Stan and Ollie Anarchists?

Were Stan and Ollie Anarchists?

Readers Digress! #9


12 pages, cardboard cover, a5

£/$: exchange encouraged, and/or stamps to cover postage

An interview between the infamous Radical Slapstick magazine and Oxbridge Milhaven whose spill-all book My Life in Hollywood exposes the 'true' secret history of the Golden Age of Comedy. 

Were Stan & Ollie Anarchists? What was the real motivation for the anrcho-surrealist political prankster Buster Keaton? Was Mae West a true libertarian?

This zine is another welcome addition to the Readers Digress! series, the former incarnation of The Bubblegum Dada Corporation. The series is intelligent, sharp, witty, playful, very much in the tradition of the dadaists, absurdists, and the 20th century avant-garde. 


The B.D.C. is a curiously offline enterprise based on the coast of England, but if you'd like a copy of Were Stan and Ollie Anarchists? you can now contact them at their newly acquired email address - bubblegumdadacorporation (at) gmail (dot) com - with offers to exchange creative endeavours, or an offer of stamps to cover postage.

Please say we sent you. 

Review by Nathan Penlington

Tales of the Celestial Shamrock

Tales of the Celestial Shamrock

Readers Digress! #16

A7, landscape, 40 pages, cardboard cover

£/$: creative exchange/stamps to cover postage

'A collection of comic wisdom from the laughing monks of the Sho Ping Temple' is how this zine from Readers Digress! describes itself. 

It is formed from a series of zen-like stories and poems that: 

gleefully celebrate the fact that in a godless universe there is nothing more glorious than the sound of poetic laughter.

Like previous Readers Digress! publications there are various levels of reality, playfulness, allusion, and theft, being carried out - this issue is an unapologetic homage to the comic genius of Tommy Cooper. The re-appropriation of the material into a cultural other is more than a dadaist act however, and encourages the reader to consider the text in other ways - that is as well as being a small tribute to the grand cosmic joke. 

As I've said before I've been enjoying immensely the output of The Bubble Dada Corporation (formerly Readers Digress!) - it is always varied, surprising, and its work is based on a diverse set of cultural references. So if you like the sound of this publication you'll definitely like the rest of their work. You can read my reviews of previous Bubblegum Dada publications here.

The Bubblegum Dada Corporation is a curiously offline enterprise based on the coast of England. But if you'd like a copy of Tales of the Celestial Shamrock you can now contact them at their newly acquired email address - bubblegumdadacorporation (at) gmail (dot) com - with offers to exchange creative endeavours, or an offer of stamps to cover postage. Please say we sent you!


Review by Nathan Penlington

The Elliptical Indications of Professor Pimpant

The Elliptical Indications of Professor Pimpant

By Henri Frelon / Readers Digress! #14

A5, 12 pages, cardboard cover.

£/$: exchange encouraged, and/or stamps to cover postage

2016 marked the centenary of the dadaist movement. Originally formed as an avant-garde reaction to the first world war, dadaism could be said to have spawned work as diverse as Duchamp, Monty Python, and even a new generation of comic artists.

Readers Digress! also wears its Dada DNA proudly. The Elliptical Indications of Professor Pimpant is written somewhat in the tradition of Benjamin Peret, with a nod to Alfred Jarrry's Dr Faustroll.

It's a narrative which defies logic and order, and in which humour and absurdity rule. It adds to the diverse Readers Digress! canon another slippery and witty publication.  

Readers Digress! is the former incarnation of The Bubblegum Dada Corporation - a curiously offline enterprise based on the coast of England.

If you'd like a copy of The Heap you can now contact them at their newly acquired email address - bubblegumdadacorporation (at) gmail (dot) com - with offers to exchange creative endeavours, or an offer of stamps to cover postage.

Please say we sent you. 

Review by Nathan Penlington

The Heap

The Heap
by William Periwinkle / Readers Digress! #17

A5, 16 pages, cardboard cover

£/$: exchange encouraged, and/or stamps to cover postage. 

The Heap embodies the spirit of Albee and Ionesco - not only is it written in short play form, it wouldn't be out of place on the stage alongside much of their work.

At the centre of the inaction is a compost heap, which is is blocking the only road to the train station. What follows is a dialogue between self-entitled businessman Pickering and Binky, the builder of the heap. But what is that sound coming from inside the compost? Is it really music? 

This is yet another surprising work from Readers Digress!/Bubblegum Dada - which always manage to uphold their tradition of wearing influences proudly while creating something new. 

Readers Digress! is the former incarnation of The Bubblegum Dada Corporation - a curiously offline enterprise based on the coast of England.

If you'd like a copy of The Heap you can now contact them at their newly acquired email address - bubblegumdadacorporation (at) gmail (dot) com - with offers to exchange creative endeavours, or an offer of stamps to cover postage.

Please say we sent you. 

Review by Nathan Penlington

Dynamiting Misery!

Dynamiting Misery!
by Avery Cruikshank and Pollard Laine / Readers Digress! #13

A5, 28 pages, cardboard cover. 

£/$: exchange encouraged, and/or stamps to cover postage. 

Dynamiting Misery! is a layered narrative of scholarly faction. It is centred around the world of early animation, the rise of Disney and the company's links to fascism, and the support lent to the witch hunts of McCarthy era America. 

The zine consists of a fictual dialogue between legendary animator Pollard Laine and celebrated critic Avery Cruikshank, which analyses Pollard's career choices and his desire to undermine the dominant rhetoric of capitalist cultural production. If that sounds a bit heavy, it isn't. The writing is erudite, witty, believable and well researched. The simple format of the zine lets the strength of the writing breathe. 

Readers Digress! is the former incarnation of The Bubblegum Dada Corporation - a curiously offline enterprise based on the coast of England. If you'd like a copy of Dynamiting Misery! you can now contact them at their newly acquired email address - bubblegumdadacorporation (at) gmail (dot) com - with offers to exchange creative endeavours, or an offer of stamps to cover postage. Please say we sent you. 

Review by Nathan Penlington