Lake Erie Ink, Summer Zine Making

I recently had the pleasure of speaking to a group of young people at an ongoing zine making workshop at Lake Erie Ink.

These preteens were well into zine making before I was invited. Over the last several weeks they had made individual zines, and collaborative zines. I talked mostly about zine history, zine culture, and what's happening today, including how the internet has effected zine making and distribution. They were a great audience and asked really smart questions.

I was allowed to take some zines home, and I took four of the collaborative ones: Animals Summer Days, Highway to Learning and New Beginnings. Summer days was my favorite, because of the wonderful art, and there was a funny story about frozen yogurt.

I'll be donating these to the Cleveland Zine Library, so if you want to look at them that's where they'll be. Also, Mac's Backs on Coventry will have some of their other zines available.

It was really wonderful to see the next generation of zinesters in action.



Jack Cheiky

Cleveland Zine Library

I am happy to report that the Cleveland Zine Library is officially open for business at the Lee Road branch of the Heights Public Library. I dropped off a batch of zines today and took pictures. There is an accompanying display with zines and some books on printmaking, drawing comics, and photography. The new zine section is on the second floor near the Harvey Pekar displays. This was Harvey's neighborhood library.

I will continue to donate all zines sent to me for review when I am done with them. If you want to skip the review, you can send zines there directly, including back issues and collections you don't want anymore.

K. Atherton
Adult Services
Heights Public Library
2345 Lee Rd
Cleveland Heights OH 44118




A few of the zines on display I recognize:

Grimm Memes
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/2015/11/grimm-memes.html

Futchi Perf
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/2015/10/futchi-perf.html

Rot #5
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/2015/10/rot-5.html

Youtube Girl
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/2015/10/youtube-girl-airport-diner-claw-machine.html

Dear Crabby
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/2015/10/dear-crabby-3.html

Mini Comic by Alex Nall
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/2015/09/10-mini-comics-by-alex-nall.html

Quitter / Ten

Quitter / Ten
52 pages, mini
$6 + postage

I really loved this. I was pretty sure I'd read an earlier issue, but when looked it up I couldn't find anything. As I was eking out words that might adequately praise this work, I got distracted looking over a book of excerpts from previous issues that had come in the same package. On the back cover were the requisite blurbs. One struck me as being precisely what I would say. Then I realized I had written it for a review in an issue of Zine World.

"The subject matter is intimate and stark. With precision wordsmithing, Trace ventures into parts of the emotional landscape we normally avoid, and engages us by tapping the common well of humanity with an unflinching examination of his personal experience. Inspirational."

All of the above still holds true, though this issue is perhaps a little less stark. Lovely art inserted in unexpected places. Some of the typeface is art as well. It goes forward and backward in time to draw together bits of the writer's life and weave them into an unlikely something. The center point being a house that isn't there anymore. A memory of a house that is a depository for family nestolgia. A house that is now just part of a corn field.

The continual and eventual wiping away of the past is juxtaposed against the unfolding the now in the form of his wife and baby girls. Thoughts of mortality are the middle ground between his past and future. Stories of birds told to his older girl are the common thread that stitch it all together.

I suspect I would be enthralled by anything this guy wrote.


Order
http://pioneerspress.com/products/quitter-10

Contact
Trace Ramsey, 213 N Briggs Ave, Durham NC 27703
traceramsery@gmail.com



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

Strenuous Stilts #1

Strenuous Stilts #1
16 pages, digest
$10 + postage

An art zine of drawing, collage, and (I believe) computer art and mixed media, all by Canadian, David Sait. I like it. Parts of it I love. Nice array of imagery. Neat, slick production. I'm on the fence about the price, but I could be behind the times. How much are quality color copies these days?

Issues 1 & 2 are out

Order
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/StrenuousStiltsZine


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

Laura-Marie reviewed it recently too:
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/2016/03/strenuous-stilts-review-by-laura-marie.html

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.

Cleveland Ohio Zine Library

Press Release and Call for Submissions
Please forward, re-post and link

I am pleased to announce the opening of the first Zine Library in the Greater Cleveland Ohio area.

I pitched the Idea to my local public library and they are delighted to get in on it. They are going to start with some of the zines I have on hand right now. I only have a couple dozen because I gave away a ton of zines in August at the MOCA Cleveland Zine Exhibit.

From here on I will be donating all zines sent to me for review when I'm done with them. I will make another announcement with the library info once I know for sure where they want them sent and what branch will be displaying them. I'll be meeting with the library this week.

In the mean time you can send everything and anything to me. If I get buried in zines I'll just donate them and go to the library to catch up on reviews.

If anyone sends me material I normally would not review, (like poetry zines, for example,) I will just donate them straightaway.

If you're not familiar with Syndicated Zine Reviews, go check us out now.

Review Blog
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/

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Send Zines here
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/2006/04/jack-cheiky.html