Loserdom #18 Dublin DIY Punk zine is out now

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Loserdom #18 Dublin DIY Punk zine is out now

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The latest issue of Loserdom Dublin DIY Punk zine is out now.
Number 18:

36 pages long featuring:

End the occupation of Iraq, five years on... (article and book reviews)
reports from:
London Zine Symposium
Ladyfest Cork
Token Feminist Hero comic
cycling stories and other writings.
comic and zine reviews.

contributions from Laura, Hedda and Pat.

€2 or €3 postpaid.

available from (now or soon):
Dublin:
Freebird Records (Wicklow St.)
Squarewheel Cycleworks (Temple Bar lane)
City Discs City Discs (Temple Bar lane)
Sub City comics (Wicklow St)
Connolly Books (43 East Essex Street)
Dublin Food Co-op (12 Newmarket, Dublin 8)

Cork:
Plugd Records (Washington St)
Barracka Books (Barrick St)

Leitrim:
Stitchy Press distro, publishers, record label and online shop!

Sligo:
Fwintillov Distro zine distro

Waterford:
Comic Stop, Coal Quay, Waterford City, Co.Waterford.

UK:
London:
56a Infoshop , 56 Crampton St., London SE17 3AE
Comics and Zines fest, London 19th July 2008 http://comicsandzines.wordpress.com/

__________________
keep on rockin' in the freeworld!
www.loserdomzine.com

I Hate This Part of Texas #7/Keep Loving Keep Fighting #7

I Hate This Part of Texas #7/Keep Loving Keep Fighting #7

via Feminist Review by Feminist Review on 6/12/08

Microcosm Publishing

Though you may not know from reading it I Hate This Part of Texas #7/Keep Loving Keep Fighting #7 is a split zine. Composed of journal style entries recounting the grief of losing a city, the introduction page of the zine calls itself "more of a splicing of two zines about...the city we still love, New Orleans." A layered and much needed marriage of accounts, this zine offers the kind of material and insight needed is we as a community are to make ourselves available to the psychic dealing and repair so lost to the Gulf Coast and its fighting residents.

Deeply honest, the zine unflinchingly details the fears and anxieties of upheaval, intermittent alcoholism, things to be grateful for, resentment, and displacement. "I can walk into the house and there's my old life, wracked and wrought and strewn about, moldy and collapsed...an eerie and terrible reminder of what might have been, had we been allowed to continue."

Dedicated in large part to their friend, Helen Hill, a woman, wife, friend, and mother who, shortly after returning to New Orleans post-evacuation, was shot and killed in her home, this "zine-splice" is a heavy 50 or so pages of mourning, as well as remembrance. An entry from Mardi Gras 2007 acutely describes the wearing of such loss. "Don and I spoke of the fog as souls returning to the city, all the souls who have died here. Perhaps all the souls up and down the serpentine length of this vast river, this artery of dreams and desire and struggle and loss."

The love and fervor written in the pages of this zine are a small miracle of words that do not die, but lay to rest - breathe. This work embodies the fullness of survival and dedication, an imperative read if the feeling that ought to end up lain in the dirt - isolation, despair, alienation - may seed and flower into hope and continuity.

Review by Sara Holy

Check out more reviews at http://www.feministreview.org

Random Life in Progress #2

 

 

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Random Life in Progress #2

via NeuFutur Magazine by admin on 6/12/08

Random Life in Progress #2 / :25 / 40M / $1 or trade / Alicia Dorr, 3729 N. Halsted, Apt. 3N, Chicago, IL 60613 / randomlifeinprogress@hotmail.com / Able to put eir's own personal bubbliness into each piece in Random Life in Progress, Alicia creates for eir's readers an incredibly compelling zine. Starting out a piece [...]

 

 

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Raise a Ruckus #1

 

 

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Raise a Ruckus #1

via NeuFutur Magazine by admin on 6/11/08

This is another zine that I had the distinct pleasure of copying for the editor, Foyle, who is in her own right an awesome girl. I feel closer to this zine than many others, as I was like a midwife to its birth. Zines like this really make me wish that I had a [...]

 

 

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Bitch Magazine: The Wired Issue (Issue 39)

Bitch Magazine: The Wired Issue (Issue 39)

via Feminist Review by Feminist Review on 6/11/08

Having never read an issue of Bitch, I found myself apprehensive when beginning my read of "The Wired Issue." The word "bitch" conjures a menagerie of intimidating persons to mind, and my expectation was that the content would be something similar. While I encountered a few impassioned articles and editorials, the majority of the issue's content was exploratory, explanatory, and thought provoking.

The magazine describes itself as the "feminist response to pop culture," and its content covers a range of topics including technology, the media, music, and film. "The Wired Issue" explores feminism in the digital age - from the affects of coffee on women's systems to misogyny in the blogosphere and "Bionic Betties." Enlightening? Most definitely.

While some readers might leave the issue feeling as if the writers are all under the impression that it's "us" against "them," the majority of their observations are overwhelmingly true. For instance, when was the last time you heard about a male blogger being threatened with rape and the kidnapping of his children? Also published in this issue is an article on how to spot bunk reporting, a skill we could all use in a world of aggregators and recycled leads.

Ultimately, I discovered that Bitch provides perspectives from men and women of varying ethnic backgrounds on topics you won't find anywhere else. I am particularly fond of the "Bitch List" column, which is described as "an annotated guide to some of our favorite things." Without it, I know I never would have heard of drag king trading cards or the crocheted uteri doll.

Even if you can't find "The Wired Issue" I recommend investing in a copy of Bitch. Its illuminating content may turn the time you devote to casual reading into something a bit more fulfilling.

Review by Lizz Clements

Check out more reviews at http://www.feministreview.org

some death metal back issue archives pdfs

http://liquidoflife666.blogspot.com/

Nichols, L.

Nichols, L.

via Optical Sloth by admin on 6/26/08

Website

Jumbly Junkery #4

Are there people reading this site who aren't cat lovers? It's one of the things that boggles my mind, like the idea that there are Republicans out there reading this (not that there's anything wrong with that… oh who am I kidding, I think they're all nuts at this point). Anyway, if that's the case with you, while there are still delightful chunks of this book that you would enjoy, the obvious cat love may turn you off. As for me, with a hungry cat meowing at me as we speak, I loved it. This is mostly a bundle of one page stories, about such subjects as the Hello Kitty idol, Sisyphus (actually L.) in action doing various hopelessly repetitive tasks, the good and bad sides of Spring, reconciling her profession with the macho jerks she inevitably runs into, making a conscious effort to get rid of her Southern accent, her mutual disappointment in her parents and their disappointment with her, and even a very brief origin story. Oh, and there are also the tales of Guard Cat, the valiant protector of the house who keeps it safe from evil, something every cat owner can relate to. I should also mention that L. is portrayed as a sort of sexless doll with buttons for eyes, not because of any lack of artistic ability, as the book is gorgeous, it's just one of those things that reviewers are compelled to mention. Just checked the website for price info and it turns out that this is issue #4 and it's $5, for the curious, but #2 is mysteriously missing from the site…

CR Review: We Can Still Be Friends

 

 

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CR Review: We Can Still Be Friends

via (title unknown) by Tom Spurgeon on 7/1/08

Creator: Mawil Publishing Information: Blank Slate, softcover, 64 pages, 2008, $12.99 Ordering Numbers: 9781906653019 (ISBN13) Let's get one thing out of the way: the cartooning in German cartoonist Mawil's second (?) English-language effort is extremely enjoyable and goes down much like a you-name-it paragon of pleasurable pop consumption: Tim Buckley's voice, an exquisitely prepared lemon bar, Bill Cosby in his prime doing stand-up. I haven't seen a book this year other than perhaps the Les Petits Riens collection that NBM published that offers up this much casual eye candy; I could live in this world for years at a time. That said, the cartoonist's story of missed opportunities with various love interests dances right along the line that divides engaging self-deprecation from tedious, anticipatory confession. This may be troublesome in that Mawil works in a narrative voice that practically begs for super-close examination, a scanning once and twice and maybe even three times for signs of inauthenticity. Worse, many North American comics fans that might be the perfect audience for this story have a knee-jerk, almost rage-filled reaction to material that depicts human frailty of any kind, let alone autobiographically-influenced stories of same. That latter take on things is patently ridiculous, of course, but the first could pose difficulties. Every so often while reading this material enough of the genial tone slips to one side or the other that one might find themselves scrambling for something to grasp onto other than the thought that our narrator is a really nice guy that just doesn't get it, and once or twice you might even come close to seeing the entire affair as a declaration of innocence more than a gentle examination of one's faults. Audiences may prove kinder to this material than I'm being right now; I'm not certain. There's a wonderful experience to be had in diving into how Mawil sees the world. One just wishes at times there was a little more moral and intellectual complexity to that vision. Once the novelty fades that our lead isn't neurotic nor does he obsess over his situation as patently unfair in the manner of many autobiographical comics works, it's hard to figure out why we should care about his plight one way or the other. It makes me very curious to see other works if only to find out if this is an approach that Mawil deemed appropriate for this subject, or if it's something that is ingrained in the cartoonist's general outlook.

 

 

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CR Review: Supernormal

 

 

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CR Review: Supernormal

via (title unknown) by Tom Spurgeon on 7/2/08

Creator: Marko Turenen Publishing Information: Daada, softcover, 416 pages, 2008, 19 euros Ordering Numbers: 9789529920181 (ISBN13) This book is a lot of fun. A collection of ten comics spread out over 14 years in the life of cartoonist Marko Turenen, Supernormal supplies its readers access to a dizzying array of approaches, everything from oddball, child-voiced superhero nonsense to abstract alternative iconography executed with a visual twist. It's like a summer's worth of comics reading that you can hold in your hand, Big-Little Book style. Some are more effective than others, or rather, none of them cohere in the kind of way that pushes one to the forefront. To be honest, it's probably the re-drawn kids material that's the most memorable for the daffy evocation of child's logic and a young person's approximation of adult dialog. The world view that pours out of that series of super-violent, relentless confrontations has all the recognizable cruelty that one can see in any game of Capture the Flag, and actually feels more realistic in its fevered arbitrariness than the genre-conscious film stylizations that fuel American corporate superhero comics product. My favorite material in the book is probably the quickly drawn, almost overly clever minimalist gag cartoons that run under the title "The Bear and the Mouse." That stuff isn't just frequently funny, its lack of conceptual depth makes these the only cartoons in this very thick book where one feels a conspiratorial conviviality emanating from the cartoonist. It's almost like the other works were Turenen playing his recorded work for you on a loudspeaker and this one is the cartoonist playing guitar over on the couch while you sit there eating Cheetos. Even the end notes are entertaining in this book, and if it's completely forgotten in six months it's a work that one might find pleasurable company for the week or two while it's being read. If we all lived in Hicksville, this is the book we'd see all over the place this holiday weekend, being devoured on buses and keeping folks company at breakfast.

 

 

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Review: Aurealis 40

 

 

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Review: Aurealis 40

via HorrorScope by Mark Smith-Briggs on 6/28/08

Aurealis is a highly regarded, long-running magazine publication of Australian fantasy, horror and science fiction. It is edited by Stuart Mayne and produced by Chimaera Publications with the assistance of the Australia Council for the Arts. Issue #40 includes fiction from Paul Haines, Lee Battersby, Pamela Freeman, Stephen Dedman, Nathan Burrage, Adam Browne and Karen Simpson Nikakis.

Aurealis backs up its long-awaited return from hiatus earlier this year with another excellent effort that shows why this has long been regarded as a major coup in Australian writer's caps. Issue #40 delivers an all-star line up of speculative fiction from seven of the country's brightest stars with an assortment of tales that unsettle, delight and evoke; but never fail to entertain.

Not every story is going to win an award, and as with any non-themed publication that mixes genres, certain stories will appeal to some more than others. But if examine what each story is trying to achieve, then you'll have no doubt all of them earn their stripes.

The issue kicks off with a dark twist on the Peter Pan story with Lee Battersby's Never Grow Old. Within just a few short pages Battersby manages to draw us into an unsettling realities behind a girl's decision to stay young and the consequences that come with such a decision. Battersby doesn't give us all of the answers, allowing the mood to linger long after the final sentence.

Likewise Stephen Dedman's Adaptation blurs the lines between reality and fiction with an astonishing character piece about a joy ride that goes horribly wrong. With realistic characters and a beautiful flowing narrative, he transports the reader into the world with ease and keeps you there until the final, shocking revelation.

Paul Haines' psychedelic horror The Festival of Colours is another brilliant merging of reality and myth. This disturbingly surreal Indian version of the Wicker Man transports the reader into a world where sex, violence and murder are just part of a bigger trans-dimensional existence. As always you are left in awe at the author's understanding of other cultures and his ability to relate them to a western viewpoint while pushing the boundaries of horror fiction.

Other fiction highlights include Nathan Burrage's cross cultural ghost story Spirals in the Sky, and Pamela Freeman's original twist on the dragon genre Sacrifice.

Of the issue only Karen Simpson Nikakis' The Gift and Adam Browne's The Final Writings of Baron Sir Heinrich Proteus von Zuse, Botanist failed to impress, but it was more of a dislike to the genre's in which they were written than due to any fault in the story. Browne presents an odd-ball historical recounting of a Baron's scientific discover through a collection of rediscovered diary entries and recounts, while Nikakis presents a dense, traditional fantasy tale with a complex narrative style.

Aurealis #40 also includes non-fiction articles on extreme science and science fiction and fantasy book reviews. It is available as part of a subscription or as a single issue for $12.50.

 

 

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Nihal Martli

 

 

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Nihal Martli

via www.caferoyal.org by admin on 6/25/08

New zine from Nihal Martli. Some really nice drawings in here, remind me a little of Jockum Nordstrom's.
16 pp. 14 x 20 cm. £4
Black and white xerox.
80gsm natural white paper.
Hand numbered edition of 150
2007

ISBN 978-2-916761-01-5

 

 

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Nihal Martli

 

 

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Nihal Martli

via www.caferoyal.org by admin on 6/25/08

16 pp. 14 x 20 cm
Black and white xerox.
80gsm natural white paper.
Hand numbered edition of 150
2007

ISBN 978-2-916761-01-5

 

 

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Jaime Hernandez, The Education of Hopey Glass: The PrettyFakes Review

 

 

Jaime Hernandez, The Education of Hopey Glass: The PrettyFakes Review

via PrettyFakes by Professor Fury on 6/26/08

Jaime Hernandez. The Education of Hopey Glass. Fantagraphics, 2008.

I have to admit that when I read (many of) these stories in serial format, they felt the slightest bit minor. Not that they weren't good stories, engaging and beautifully cartooned. But while I was glad to see what Hopey and Ray were up to, I wasn't sure there was much to the stories beyond Jaime Hernandez's loving depiction of his characters' everyday lives.

But now brought together in this volume – the final Jaime collection from Love and Rockets volume II, with volume III set to begin as a series of annuals this year – it's clear that Hernandez was up to something more complicated all along. True, Education is a lower-key affair than last year's Ghost of Hoppers, a collection which built to a tour-de-force of visual storytelling that deserves to be counted among Hernandez's best work. This volume features nothing quite so immediately stunning and goes much lighter on the magical realism than Ghost—no giants or hellhounds or devil-children here. But Hernandez's subtler storytelling skills come to the fore in two stories only tenuously related in terms of plot but closely connected in terms of theme, as Hopey Glass and Ray Dominguez each individually face (or refuse to face) the adulthood they've resolutely posptponed for a couple of extra decades now.

To my surprise, I found Ray's story the more compelling of the two; I suppose that might be a gendered reaction, though it may also have to do with a certain wariness at the one-shade-too-obvious conceit of Hopey's new glasses giving her a new perspective on life. ("Everybody's old! . . . We all got cracks in our faces!"). Despite my qualms, Hernandez carries it off by playing it for gentle laughs instead of solemn nods, though he adeptly switches to a more serious register when Hopey is nearly overwhelmed by the stresses of her new job as a teacher's assistant. It's the perfect job to suggest Hopey's in-between situation: She's stranded between childhood and adulthood, and while she at first basks in the adulation of her charges (basking comes naturally to Hopey), she also finds herself being treated like a child when she misbehaves.

(I would love to hear Hernandez describe how he came up with the character design for the know-it-all woman in the last panel, who pops up a couple of other times—it's hilarious and almost gag-strippish while managing not to look out of place among the other "realist" characters.) As one story near the end of the Hopey section makes clear, Hopey is evolving beyond her fire-cracking, hell-raising origins, but not so much that she becomes unrecognizable – to her longtime friend/sometime lover Maggie's relief.

Ray Dominguez, on the other hand: It's a testament to Hernandez's storytelling skill that Ray is still such a sympathetic and even attractive character at the same time that he's so utterly passive and disengaged from the world around him. In the opening chapters of this collection, Ray seems downright cool. Frequently half in shadow, with his rumpled suit (the jacket and pants don't match) and his cigarettes and his voice-over narration, Ray could almost pass for a classic L.A.-noir gumshoe. Or at least The Everyman Who Gets Caught Up in Events Beyond His Control Because He's in the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time.

There's even a genuine underworld murder and a femme fatale – Vivian "Frogmouth" Solis, blessed with a perfect body and cursed with a "foghorn" of a voice. (Viv originated in the last volume as a sort of bodacious monkeywrench. Here, though, she here reveals traces of a much more complex inner life – yet one that we only ever see through someone else's perspective.) Yet Ray is nearly always but a spectator to brutal beatings, skinny dipping, and everything else that goes on around him. Sure, he's happy to have sex if someone wants to jump his bones. But even when he dreams of solving mysteries he merely lurks on the periphery, never central to the action. If Hopey is evolving, Ray is stagnating – something Hernandez humorously suggests by having Ray grow a scraggly mustache that resembles nothing so much as moss on an unrolling stone.

It's not clear if there's hope for Ray. He's still pining for Maggie, but even the staunchest Ray fan would have trouble pulling for that reunion after this story. By the end of the collection, he has at least realized his plight and makes noises about becoming an adult, about taking a position of greater responsibility at his job. (Nothing about the art he was once so passionate about, though.) But Hernandez undercuts the slim optimism of Ray's ruminations by juxtaposing them with images of Ray sitting slumped in a chair, watching two women swim naked and not even considering participating (even to the extent of surreptitiously filming them like the neighbor kid is). Then later he sleeps through most of the bi-curious wrestling match/near-hookup happening behind him. Whatever your position on bi-curious wrestling match/hookups in general, they are not things that one generally sleeps through.

Still, so deft is Jaime Hernandez's cartooning that all of his characters—whether morose and internally wounded as Ray or physically scarred and wobbly as Ray's old pal Doyle, who with each appearance seems one step closer to finally collapsing in a heap of stringy hair and blood-soaked western-style shirts—are nevertheless beautiful. You can't give up on them because they're nearly real, and like real people, they still have the capacity to surprise you—or at least to inspire the hope that they might.

How to Read Love and Rockets.
Salon.com interview with Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez on L&R v2.
Mark Sobel's issue-by-issue retrospective for L&R vol 1.

Do you know what we welcome? Sunny days. Old friends. The opportunity for bloody vengeance, vengeance after all these years. And review copies. Contact us at prettyfakes at gmail dot com for info.

 

 

 

 

Review: Dark Animus Issue #10/11

 

 

Review: Dark Animus Issue #10/11

via HorrorScope by BT on 6/24/08

Dark Animus Issue #10/11

I've read a number of these anthologies/periodicals and there has always been a story that lowers the overall level of the publication. This is simply not the case here.

Corpus by Richard Harland
Should we embrace technology simply because it's highly advanced from ours and because those offering it seem to be a totally peaceful and higher evolved species?
Corpus announces the warnings of such folly, loud and clear.
The underlying moral of making the most of what you have, live in the moment and be careful what you wish for is nicely done in this easy to read depiction of a society too ready to accept change at any cost for the promise of a better future.

No Hands by MP Johnson
What if...all the puppets in the world, from unadorned sock puppets to intricate ventriloquist's dummies, came to life, and decided that the human race didn't respect them enough? What if...they decided that the only way to get that respect was through terror? What if...this tale was told through the eyes of a contract gardener whose hidden hero came to see the light of day in a wonderful exposé of violence through the application of lawn mower blades and weed whacker cord. Then I guess you'd have the amusing read that is "No Hands" and be thankful for it.

Just A Game by George Ivanoff
When today's computer gamers and an Internet savvy public, cross over to immersing themselves into virtual gaming, will the world be a safer place? When twisted individuals want to begin their antisocial behaviour in the comfort of their living room before becoming bored and wanting to try it out in the real world, will society be able to cope? Only if good minded program writers have their way.

Necromancing the Bones by Paul Haines
A very amusing and ribald tale poking serious fun at D&D gamers and the stories they create.
It seems the adventurers in this world live interconnected lives, with "the good" guys very much in league with the perceived "bad" guys, in an eternal cycle of swindling the common folk out of their money.
Filled with acts of bestiality, brotherly love, and profanity, it is a very funny romp through the product of some very twisted gamers' imaginations.

Vara by Charles Spiteri
Is the AHWA 2006 short story contest winner. It is a beautifully told story with an extreme sting in the tail. The prose is filled with flowing descriptions that evoke wonderful emotions. Jean takes his boyfriend back to his home town to witness the Good Friday festival where there is a procession involving statues, the Vara, from the local church. But the age darkened wood effigies of Christ and his tormentors aren't what they appear to be.

Mr Swift and the Dead by George Higham
Mr Swift's last client, the witch, died before he could deliver her last requested shipment therefore he's short the coin to move from the plague infested city. When he finds himself boarded up within her house though, things quickly become dire. Now he knows what she was using all those dead baby's for that he'd supplied her with--and it wasn't for the Sunday stew.

Cold Desires by Brian M. Sammons
A tale that makes the reader hold the book at arm's length in the beginning. A tale most "normal" people would find repulsive, slowly reels you in. With wonderful use of the language, I found I had unwittingly become engrossed in the description of an act I found repugnant in the extreme. And then I was hit with the twist which made it all perfectly acceptable, kind of, in a seriously twisted and utterly brilliant way.

A Million Shades of Nightmare by Cat Sparks
Written and illustrated by Cat Sparks, this is a very well told, strangely sedate tale of one girl's fears. Cat seems to reach intimately into the heart of the girl and presents us with a fear with which we can easily connect. In a peaceful, dare I say idyllic, setting, Cat then hits us with a pinch of darkness that is never truly revealed, leaving me wondering if I'll ever be bathing in the seaside pools of my youth again.

The Corner and Back by Andrew Wood
Our hero, who has to run the gauntlet to find provisions to keep himself and his beloved alive, does something I could see myself doing in a similar situation, if I was so unfortunate to find myself as a survivor in a post-apocalyptic world.
This piece has been so well written, I found it easy to drop into the first person point of view and even easier to admit to myself that I would be capable of doing exactly what he does. Could you admit to doing what Andrew's protagonist does?

Scarecrows and Devils by Kevin Anderson
A look from the other side, without actually telling us what side we're on to begin with.
A well paced story similar to a roller coaster with plenty of ups and downs. When purchasing your ticket, the vendor obviously forgot to warn you about the surprises you're in for, and when you come upon them, you're totally unprepared. And have a greater enjoyment because of it.

Der Wulf by Tim Curran
Dark, visceral and extremely powerful, it becomes a simple task for the reader to identify with a group of German soldiers and the horrors they endure during war. Then when it turns supernatural, it is only a small step to find yourself barracking for the historical bad guys to find an escape.

Dig This by Paul Kane
A thinking man's zombie story. A story of three teenage boys and a simple implanted thought that they are compelled to follow through to its fateful conclusion. An easy read that lulls the participant into turning the pages till the final scenes, where it really doesn't matter who's idea it was to begin with.

The Shape by Tim Curran
Tim shows his versatility with his second included story in this collection, by moving to a post-apocalyptic setting where something decidedly malignant has been born by man's self destructive tendencies. The old saying of "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" takes on a whole new meaning when the man made denizens of hell have been unleashed to walk the earth.

 

 

 

 

"i'll love you forever if i ever love at all"

 

 

"i'll love you forever if i ever love at all"

via the juniper bends as if it were listening by juniperbug on 6/23/08

During the summer, I try to get caught up on my zine reading. I don't think it's humanly possible to ever get caught up though, but I do what I can.
Recently I finished reading two zines that were somewhat similar in content. They were, for the most part, travel zines, and they both included trips to Europe. They have both been around for quite a while I guess. I'm glad that I finally got around to reading them, because they were both totally worth reading. They were:
-America? #14 by Travis F.
-Dream Whip #14 by Bill B.

Here are a few quotes from Dream Whip:
"In Austin, it was impossible to go on a simple errand without falling in love. Every time I mailed a letter, or went to buy a loaf of bread, I'd wind up with a broken heart." (pg. 32-33)
"The Berlin train pulls confidently out of Rotterdam's central station and speeds forward with a kind of assurance I can only dream of having. Me and my hesitant forward motion. Always shuffling and second-guessing." (pg. 165)
"For the first time in a couple months, my passport matches the country I'm coming into. 'Citizenship?' the border cop asks. 'American,' I say. 'Unfortunately,' I want to add, but I don't. I don't mention that I feel more like a dual citizen: American by birth, but Unamerican by inclination." (pg. 244-245)
"While I eat my ice cream, I think about happiness. How it's always temporary and unpredictable, and how most of the time, you don't even recognize it till later, when you're far away from it. Sadness sticks around. It's like your most reliable friend. You can be yourself around sadness. It'll drive across the country with you and it won't complain if the food is bad or if the motel has roaches. But happiness is a different story. It's always ditching you. Leaving you stuck with the bill. There's no one you'd rather spend your time with, and happiness knows it." (pg. 251-252)

Oh, and just like I promised, I added more links.

 

 

 

 

Hoopla hits the shops

 

 

Hoopla hits the shops

via Radical Cross Stitch by kakariki on 6/18/08

For those of you who still haven't got the hang of buying things through the interwebby, I've started putting hoopla in some shops and libraries.

As of yesterday hoopla #1 & #2 are on the shelves at Sticky in the Flinders Subway in Melbourne.

There's a few copies on their way to the Freedom Shop in Wellington and Black Star Books in Dunedin and the Huon Valley Environment Centre in Tasmania.

There's also copies winging their way to the Papercut Zine Library and the Loophole Zine Library.

And there's copies heading to the Marching Stars Zine Distro.

Plus, of course, all the contributors should be receiving their copies in the post soon!

If you know any other zine distro/info shop/library or whatever that might be interested in having some copies, get in touch. Or if you just want a copy yourself, check the Radical Rags etsy store. And I'm interested in trading if you've got your own zine, or make patches, or badges or crafty stuff of any kind.

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About my Disappearance

Zine Review - About my Disappearance

via Indy Media Reviews on 6/26/08

About My Disappearance is a perzine dedicated to Crohn's disease by Dave. It is an unflinching, brutal, honest look at a difficult part of one man's life, and we are...

Trickster - a Native Anthology of Tales in Graphic novel Form

 

 

Trickster - a Native Anthology of Tales in Graphic novel Form

via Comic Bulletin Small Press on 6/26/08

Thursday, June 2

 

 

CR Review: Cryptic Wit #2

 

 

CR Review: Cryptic Wit #2

via (title unknown) by Tom Spurgeon on 6/26/08

Creator: Gerald Jablonski Publishing Information: Self-Published, comic book, 32 pages, 2008, $5 Ordering Numbers: PO Box 385 North Greece NY 14515 This is the most out there, best comic book I've read so far this year. Gerald Jablonski provides what increasingly seems to be endless variations on three set-ups: a father-son trip to a school and discussion of same, a barnyard fable, and a silent confrontation between two boys. Where this new issue seems to differ from the last is that it's in full-color on slick paper (!) and he's start to make the tail ends of the word balloons wrap around the panels and each other like something my brothers and I used to fight over to use in our chocolate milk. The comics themselves are quite funny, the trip and fable set-ups stuffed with amusing verbal play and oddball jokes to the point of crushing the evocative artwork. It's a comic book version of that scene right before the scene in Crumb that made you feel bad for expressing admiration for Charles Crumb's cartoons, when the older Crumb brother's energy and devotion to making marks and words on the page made you crack a smile that five seconds later dashed. I don't Cryptic Wit #2 indicates anything close to a similarly tragic outcome, and the comics themselves feel like they may never end at all. I hope these come out once every few years for the rest of my life. If not, I'll always treasure the few I have. Not only is there nothing in comics quite like it, nothing in comics comes close. In a day when a comic seems refreshing because it doesn't pop fully formed from the womb with "please make a movie from me" stamped on its forehead, it's awesome to read someone following their muse to the point of near-incomprehensibility to the average reader. Poopy boom boom still makes me go tra-la.

 

 

Razorcake #30

 

 

Razorcake #30

via NeuFutur Magazine by admin on 6/6/08

Razorcake #30 / $3 / 1:15 / 116M / http://www.razorcake.com / Razorcake has their thirtieth issue out this month, and boy do they come out with a strong step forward this issue. Of course, there are the average gang of idiots (Rev. Norb and Nardwuar) writing in this issue, but there are so many [...]