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 is a genre bending memoir - combining text, comics, collage, historical documents, and contemporary photographs.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

.

Review by Nathan Penlington

Previous issues of Minor Leagues are reviewed here.

Kackle #14: Prom Queen Werewolf in 3D

Kackle #14: Prom Queen Werewolf in 3D
By Bruce Wilson

9cm x 12cm; 16 pages; blue, red and grey print; includes 3D spectacles.

$7 USD

Remember when 3D meant red and blue cardboard spectacles? 

Prom Queen Werewolf in 3D reads like a low budget horror film from the 70s, complete with retro styled 3D glasses. 

Kackle #14 is a single short story, that follows Sally Jinkins on the lead up to her prom in a small town with a big problem. The problem comes in the shape of a local werewolf that has yet to be killed or caught. A curfew is just a precaution not a solution, and with the prom coming up, well, the town is asking for trouble. 

It's a fun, lighthearted horror romp, and while there are some twists to the plot, you can probably guess the ending. In a way though, the enjoyment is in getting there. All the illustrations are drawn in 3D, and are incredibly effective. 

Kackle #14 is well executed and produced, for example even the 3D spectacles are attached in a way that facilitates the zine to dispense with an unnecessary envelope for shipping. It's a small point, and I know paper is fundamental to our medium, but we should all be conserving where we can. 

With Halloween coming up you should definitely buy this - you get bonus points for incorporating Prom Queen Werewolf into your fancy dress: 

"What are you dressed as?", "Oh me? I'm just a retro styled 3D zine fanatic".

To buy a copy contact Kackle via facebook.com/kacklezine

or email spatty31 at hotmail dot com

Review by Nathan Penlington

Forever And Everything #3

Forever And Everything #3

By Kyle Bravo

14cm x 21.5cm, 46 pages, 

$10 (plus shipping)

Forever and Everything chronicles fragments of everyday life with a young family, the struggles and joys of creating a new life and new art. We join Kyle and his family when their first child is a toddler, with another child on the way. As a dad of a two year old, there is a lot in Forever and Everything that speaks directly to my personal experience: the difficulties of explaining the world, and having to psychologically accept a psychotic range of emotional outbursts at any given moment. But there is a lot here for anyone, parent or not, who is a fan of the Chris Ware end of the comic spectrum. 

The stories are full of emotion and humour, wry observation, and an honestly that is beguiling. The simplicity of the drawing style contributes to the tone - going on one of the fragments in this issue they seem to be drawn with a ball pen, which is also part of the charm. 

It's hard to believe that Kyle only started making comics when his first child was born, Forever and Everything #3 is a confident and considered comic worthy of your time and attention. 

Buy a copy via Etsy: etsy.com/listing/640787451/forever-and-everything-3

You can also check out some of Kyle's stories on Tumblr - most of the comics in Forever and Everything #3 are brand new, and have not been published elsewhere, but this will give you a great introduction to his work.  foreverandeverything.tumblr.com

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.

Terrible Stories from Kelly McClure

A5, 28 pages (cream and navy).

$6

What qualifies as terrible? Quite a lot of things, I should imagine. The lack of politics taught in Britain’s schools? The internalised gender divide? My colleagues’ insistence on discussing nothing but Love Island for the past two weeks? All are different flavours of terrible.

Kelly McClure’s stories certainly aren’t terrible, which led me to the conclusion that she must be the sort of person whose modesty is so extreme that she would actually take the naming of her anthology as a weird opportunity for self-deprecation. Slightly bemused, I began to read, and then I got it – perhaps it wasn’t the stories that were terrible, but the characters.

A sadistic rancher, an imperfect mother, an extreme introvert. In truth the characters’ personalities are scattered all over the morality spectrum, and it’s difficult to judge whether each of them are good, bad or other.

One of the interesting qualities to McClure’s writing is that her stories feel more like scenes, the reader is placed into the characters’ lives and just as they begin to feel like they know them, they’re whisked into the next story. This anthology seems to be less about providing the reader with entertaining stories, and more about creating a feeling of kinship with the characters (whether that be positive or negative). It’s an interesting read and skilfully written – these six stories will play on your mind for a long, long time.

You can get a copy of Terrible Stories from Kelly McClure via Budget Press here.

Review by J.L. Corbett

A short, sad story

A short, sad story
by Will Conway

A7 zine fold from A4. B&W print on coloured paper. 

£1.50

A short, sad story is, well, a short, sad story. 

The zine is similar to Will's other work that I've had the pleasure of reviewing, in that it is made up of witty wordplay with a poetic sensibility. 

Each page contains a line or two, illustrated minimistically, that also work towards the whole. The whole in this instance being a love poem. In my opinion it's worth reading for the last line alone.


Buy a copy on Etsy for only £1.50: etsy.com/uk/listing/579513592/a-short-sad-story-booklet-will-conway

And while you are there check out the rest of Will's zines (some of which are reviewed here) - a pick up a couple of other ones too. 


Review by Nathan Penlington

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

Land Slide Dreams - Adam Void

Land Slide Dreams 

by Adam Void

Approx 21cm x 27cm, zine fold into 7cm x 10.5cm mini zine. 

$/£: trades encouraged

Another mini-zine by prolific artist and zine maker Adam Void, creator of the great Nirvana Rules and Misadventures & Musings from the Train Brain zines reviewed elsewhere on SZR. 

Landside Dreams opens out into a cut & paste collage that illustrates a handwritten text on the reverse side: 

These memories, brought back by a brief dream I awoke from just a moment before. The bed was just cold enough to not make it back. Sometimes you just can't make it back. 

Like the best kind of zines it's confessional and artful, drawing you in to another's vivid world. 


If you'd like a copy contact Adam at adam_void (at) yahoo (dot) com - trades are encouraged. If you ask nicely he might also send you some other goodies. 

Adam's been making zines since 2003. Check out his past publications page: adamvoid.com/index.php?/ongoing/publications - now THAT is a zine maker.



Review by Nathan Penlington

Back of the gig #1

Back of the gig #1

2017

A6, 8 pages.

25p + 75p p&p (or trades)

Don't be fooled by the title - Back of the Gig has nothing to do with music. But don't let that put you off, it's a sweet pocket sized handwritten zine (complete with corssing crossing outs) filled with anecdotes and observations about haircuts & supermarkets, funny asides and musings about the mystery of the man at the roundabout. 

And 25p, what is to lose?! I look forward to issue #2. 

And while you're buying this issue pick up the greatest hits of Drink the Sunshine for no extra postage. 


To buy visit backofthegigzines.bigcartel.com/product/back-of-the-gig-issue-1 


Or if you'd like to trade email backofthegig at yahoo [dot] com


Review by Nathan Penlington

Misadventures & Musings from the Train Brain - Adam Void

Misadventures & Musings from the Train Brain

Adam Void, 2017

13cm x 18.5cm, 20 pages, cardboard cover, plus 8 small centre pages. 

$/£: trades encouraged

Post-industrial American folk culture has the mythology of the once great railway running straight through it. At once a symbol of power, exploitation and expansion, to those on the other side of the tracks the railway is also a symbol of subversion and freedom.

In Misadventures & Musings from the Train Brain Adam Void jumps the present day rails, and this is a catalogue of those journeys: the yearning for the vast expanse of landscape, the thrill and reality of riding open porches, the dust of experience. 

Adam's zines have a distinctive style, partly the result of the cut & paste of urgent typewriter. But the writing is compelling too, and brings to mind some of the early work of Cometbus - I guess the wanderlust of this issue also helps contribute to that. 

The centre pages reproduce contemporary railroad graffiti - long part of hobo tradition - a firm nod to the history of a largely unacknowledged counter culture. This is a really well put together zine documenting perfect misadventures. 


If you'd like a copy contact Adam at adam_void (at) yahoo (dot) com - trades are encouraged. 

Adam's been making zines since 2003. If you want to make yourself drool and/or make yourself feel envious check out his past publications page: adamvoid.com/index.php?/ongoing/publications - now THAT is a zine maker.



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

Drink the Sunshine - greatest hits

Drink the Sunshine - greatest hits

July 2017

A6, folded from a3 printed double sided.

25p + 75p p&p (or trades)

This is a great little greatest hits compilation taken from Drink the Sunshine, a perzine written between 2006-2010. 

It has an intimate handwritten and hand-drawn style, perfectly suited to the personal observations, dream recollections, anecdotes, and life happenings. 

It's a witty, warm, cup of tea & a chat kind of zine. You know, the best kind. And what else can you even buy for 25p in 2018?
To buy visit backofthegigzines.bigcartel.com/product/drink-the-sunshine-greatest-hits
while you're there pick up other zines by the same writer for no extra postage!

Or if you'd like to trade email backofthegig at yahoo [dot] com

Review by Nathan Penlington

Ellipsis Zine: One, A flash fiction anthology

A5, 62 black and white pages.

Print: £5 (+p&p), digital download: £3

On the back cover of this zine lies a strong statement. “Ellipsis Zine: One, a flash fiction anthology,” it explains, “[contains] 1000 words or fewer from 57 of the best contemporary flash fiction writers”.

Hmmm, we’ll see, I thought to myself, flipping back to the first page. It’s fairly common for zine makers to be enthusiastic about the work they produce, sometimes so enthusiastic that it becomes difficult for the material itself to measure up to expectations. So, when I see creators using words like “best”, I become cynical.

As it turns out, the editor of Ellipsis Zine (Steve Campbell) wasn’t far off when he used that bold little word. I spent a week reading this zine; a handful of stories at a time whenever I had a spare moment, and I can say with confidence that there isn’t a weak link in the collection. These stories are literary fiction in its tightest form. Each word has a purpose; scenes are written so cleverly that only a few brief paragraphs are necessary to project an entire story into the mind of the reader.

Late one night I read My, She was Yar, by Zoë Meager, only to lie awake in bed wondering about how young families cope when a child dies. Several days after reading Bird Girl, by Janelle Hardacre, I was still daydreaming about how technology could progress in the next few years, and the impact that would have upon our identities.

Each story is unique, and yet they are drawn together. The number one appears in this collection again and again, as a young girl’s new home, as a lost love sitting one carriage away, as the sole meeting between father and child, as a missed opportunity with a one true love*. A flock of sheep trample across the cover, all moving forward save for one, who looks back at the reader. Whether the recurring number is a conscious choice by the editor is ambiguous, but I prefer to believe that all these number ones are kismet, unexpectedly brought together for the first print issue of Ellipsis Zine, for its number one.

I had two warring emotions as I read this zine. As a reader, I was delighted. As a writer, I was filled with envy.

Issue one of Ellipsis Zine can be bought from their online store, here, and for news and updates follow them on twitter.

*House Number One by Eleanor Jones, One Carriage Away by Amanda Quinn, What Happens When Hot Air and Cold Air Meet? by Danny Beusch and Daisy Chain by Debbi Voisey, respectively.

Review by JL Corbett

Someone Stranger #5

Someone Stranger #5 - The Silent Pen Issue

by Zippity Zinedra

14cm x 22cm

$3.50

Someone Stranger is a zine by Zippity Zinedra - "a 45 yr old bald-headed Non-Binary Queer weird-o zinester". 

Issue #5 takes an unusual angle to the self produced, self edited, and self written zine - by hiring a ghostwriter. What makes it particularly unusual is that the ghost writer in question is ghosting themselves. 

The 'ghosting' idea is fun - and allows the fictional pieces to follow tangents, themes, and styles, outside the form of Zippity's usual writing. The stories include encounters with tumbleweed, how to fight a shadow, taking a trip on a flying windmill, and what to do with a personal chef. The zine is illustrated throughout in cut & paste style - the collages also contributing to the humour.

You can buy a copy of Someone Stranger #5 from Etsy - and while you are there pick up another zine or two - so you can check out Zippity's non-ghosted work too! 


etsy.com/shop/ZippityZinedraPress

Review by Nathan Penlington

Idle Ink #1 - Madness

Idle Ink #1 - Madness

A5, 24 pages. Cardboard cover. 

£2 + p&p

The first issue of Idle Ink is a collection of short stories and illustrations on the subject of madness. Each piece reflects different facets of the theme: insanity, self-deceit, violence, control, and power.

"With enough practice, a person can convince themselves of almost anything"

says J.L. Corbett at the start of She Outruns the Humdrum. A particularly apt analysis of all the characters in these stories. 

The zine features work by J.L. Corbett, Jenny Nolan-Lee, K.R. Tester, L.L. Kipling and Dazz. The authors' influences include Douglas Adams, George Orwell, and Neil Gaiman. But there are also touches of Ray Bradbury, particularly in the stories that walk the border between character driven narrative and sci-fi. Which is no bad thing, I'm a big Bradbury fan.

It's an engaging start to what I hope will become a long series of zines focused on new writing by emerging authors. 


Buy now via Etsy: etsy.com/uk/listing/529891809/madness

Or visit Facebook.com/IdleInkHull


Review by Nathan Penlington