Zine Showcase #11

Zine Showcase #11

from Oh My Clumsy Heart by sophie@ohmyclumsyheart.com (Sophie)

Dennis Pomales

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The Heart Cave // $1 + shipping

The Heart Cave is an 18 page, black and white, quarter-sized zine. Dennis Pomales describes the illustrations within as "creatures at the beginning stages of their spiritual, emotional and mental evolution." Divinely intricate illustrations of esoteric things are crowded into this mesmeric zine; being the first of an ongoing series I am curiously eager to see what will come next.

Erd Yakingun
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Miniature Atrocities // 50p + shipping

Here we have another fantastically twisted "miniature atrocity" in the form of a zine-poster crafted from a single sheet of A4 paper. In the typical style of this London based illustrator, this zine features drawings that can only be described as troubled (in the best possible way imaginable).

Kiddy Qualia
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Pareidolia Zine // $2 + shipping

Pareidolia is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus - in this case water marks, peeling wallpaper and obscure stains - being perceived as familiar. Common examples of this would be seeing a face on the moon or hearing hidden messages in a record played backwards. Pareidolia is a 20 page zine comparing marks found in an attic alongside illustrative interpretations of what one may possibly see within them. A curious concept turned into a surprising little zine.

Shayna

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The Little Coloring Book of Holiday Icons In Fictional Locations // currently unavailable

An 8 page delicately illustrated zine/comic/colouring book featuring holiday icons (think Buddha, Santa Claus and Cupid) in various fantasy locations (Massachusetts, World War Z and OZ). Despite the peculiar subject matter the illustration work is gorgeous (-ly hilarious)

Kelsey Keaton

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Rangifer // currently not available

Unfortunately Rangifer (if this is its true name) is unavailable for purchase since it is such a pretty little zine. Gorgeous illustrations, beautiful map and constellation imagery and printed on a brilliant azure-blue paper; I really enjoy when creators play around with the methods of zine making and this origami style folded zine is a delight.

The Last Ten Videos I Watched on YouTube Interview

It turns out that moving continents can be more stressful, anxiety causing, and crazy than I had anticipated. You'd think I'd know better by now. Reviews will be back in a few days, but until then I'll be running some interviews I recently completed.

The first is an interview about my zine The Last Ten Videos I Watched on YouTube that I completed for a girl who attends the London College of Communication (apparently my zine is in their library!). Her project was about how video sites effect how people interact with art, and apparently my zine was interesting to her. Amazing! I still have copies of this zine available, so if you'd like one just let me know.

What made you choose the videos you did for inclusion in the zine?

It was literally the ten videos I watched in full on YouTube in chronological order after I decided to make the zine. It was just after the Lady Gaga Telephone video came out, and the internet was filled with people talking about that, so I choose that as the starting point, and over the next few days I screendshotted (what an awkward word) and wrote about every video I watched. I didn't include videos I didn't watch all of (and there was at least one I stopped so I didn't include it in the zine, I can't remember what it was or why I didn't want it though), or videos I had open in the background so that I could listen to the music.

I thought it was an interesting look at what I actually watched on Youtube, and kind of showed how random some of the stuff up there is.

What made you choose YouTube as a zine subject?

I think it was a combination of several factors, primarily being people not understanding what a zine was and when you told them wondering why you didn't just do it as a blog or a website. I'd recently made a zine in the same format (sideways quartersized?) and realized that an image of a YouTube video would fit on the page pretty well. So I thought "Why not make a zine that _would_ make considerably more sense as a website?". YouTube comments (and many comments on websites in general) are generally thought of as stupid and things that you should ignore, so I found it amusing to write some and print them in a zine, "forcing" people to read them.

You might not be able to tell now (or from the quality of the zine you read), but I really attempted to make the zine look as much like YouTube as possible. It has the same fonts, style, and images as the website did at the time. Funnily about a week after I finished making the zine YouTube revamped the design of their website so that my zine now also functions as an archive of what YouTube looked like in March
2010.

Why make this zine in the first place?

Why make any zine at all? Why make anything at all? Because I thought it was a funny thing to do, and because other zine projects I was working on where getting bogged down as I got fed up with them. I like to have a new zine ready for each zine event I go to (even if I don't always manage!), and I made this one in less than two weeks before a Midlands Zinester meetup I helped organize. I can spend ages on zines that I care about a lot, but I seem to get more response from the silly, funny ones that take less time to make (my guide to last year's Eurovision song contest, a zine that reviewed various flavours of crisps). One of the best responses to this one have been people telling me that after reading the zine they've gone out and searched for some of the videos I "reviewed". I don't think this zine could be more successful than that.

I started making a second issue of YouTube videos, but I stopped about halfway through grabbing images. I've got about five videos screenshotted (and some of them are pretty good!), and another one bookmarked, but somehow it would seem weird to specifically go out and watch videos that are wierd on purpose. I liked the mundanity of some of them. I am currently working on another zine about the internet, which is a story/history inspired by a Wikipedia page. We'll see how that one goes.

---

And just because I can, here are a couple of quotes about the zine from some people.

Jimi Gherkin (one of the organizers of the London Alternative Press Fairs, and who I reviewed last month) said "I really enjoyed [the] zine [...] [I] wish I'd thought of it!!".

Lights Go Out (a UK punk fanzine) said "Genius! [...] Seriously such a fun and unique zine!".

(This interview was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

Biblio-Curiosa #1

Biblio-Curiosa #1

from Blackguard

48 pages, digest size, $5.00, Chris Mikul, PO Box K546, Haymarket NSW 1240, AUSTRALIA + cathob(at)zip.com.au
Huzzah! A new zine from the mastermind behind Bizarrism!
It doesn't take a detective to conclude (if one is familiar with Bizarrism) that Chris is a hardcore bibliophile, and this new zine seems to be the result of a compulsion to share some of those weird and wonderful books he has collected over the years.
Four books are reviewed here, but Chris has researched the authors too, whose lives were at least as fascinating as anything they wrote.
The first book is a perfect example - The Pepsi-Cola Addict [1982] by June Alison Gibbons. June had an identical twin sister, Jennifer, and from childhood they ceased to speak to anybody, only to one another, and only when alone. They spoke so fast it was likened to the twittering of birds. It was assumed they had invented their own language, but tape recordings of their speech were slowed down and it was found they were indeed speaking English.
The zine includes colour reproductions of covers and black & white illustrations from these books.
You could ask me for one word to sum up Biblio-Curiosa and I wouldn't have to think twice:
Essential.

Like vs Shit

By Bernard Boulevard and Gordon Gordon
Chow Chow Productions
PO Box 20204
Seattle, WA
98102
USA

My slang usage is pretty ridiculous sometimes. I totally say "like" and "rad" and "totally" and "killer" like all the time. On at least one incidence I impressed someone with my knowledge of literature, philosophy, and history despite saying something along the lines of "I love going to art galleries and shit like that". I've been told I speak Russian like a Russian valley girl (whatever that means). My accent is vague to the point that other Canadians don't know what part of Canada I'm from.

What I'm really saying is that just because you may say the word like from time to time (or constantly) it doesn't mean that you're an idiot. Yeah, I fall into that trap too when people say things so filled with slang, but you shouldn't really judge people on that sort of shit.

And speaking of shit! I was hoping that this zine would go through all the different definitions of the word "shit", but it only mentions a couple of them. I was having a conversation with my brother a while ago about how hard it is to learn English, and we thought of all the different ways you can use the word, so let's list some:

1. Excrement. "That dog shit on the floor."
2. Something terrible. "That book was shit."
3. Something good ("the" is always required for this one). "That zine is the shit."
4. A bad situation. "You are in deep shit because of what you did."
5. Pot. "Oh yeah, this is some good shit."
6. Things in general. "Just need to clear all this shit off my desk."

There's loads more! Maybe we need to get Joe Decie to do another minicomic.

(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

SSEX

SSEX

from Blackguard

16 pages, magazine size, $?, trades OK, from Leon, PO Box 398, North Melbourne VIC 3051, AUSTRALIA
I know Leon from back in the Sick Puppy days (late '90s). Back then he did a zine called Battery Acid. One issue contained a razor blade which I found out only when it cut my finger. Haw! Like many of us, he took a break from zine publishing but is now back with an excellent music zine. Leon was always a hardcore audiophile with an encyclopaedic knowledge of extremely obscure bands, so it was no surprise to me that his new zine is fascinating to the point I got so absorbed in it I missed my bus stop.
First up, a terrific interview with Michael and Mitch from Aussie 'eclectro' duo Scattered Order. These guys have been around (albeit mainly underground) since the '80s. One of the highlights of the interview is where Leon asked Michael if his children play music:
Michael: When he is not skating or PS3ing my younger son Tom (11) had his own myspace site and a deathmetal/screamo band which he constructed on garageband.
Leon concludes the interview by asking for any parting advice, and Mitch's response is pretty cool:
Mitch: You don't need to be musically proficient, have heaps of money, the latest music software or the need to follow the latest trends to make interesting/challenging music. You need a passion and desire to create music. Music you yourself like. Somewhere out there is an audience. IT HAS TO BE FUN!
Next up, an interview with Douglas P. of Death In June. I've never heard any of their music (but do remember the name from '80s indie magazine Zig Zag, that milieu of bands like Bauhaus, Gene Loves Jezebel, Nurse With Wound, etc.) but Douglas certainly makes provocative statements in his interview. When Leon asks him about his visit to Australia and did he visit Uluru:
Douglas: Ayers Rock was a really good experience... Climbing the rock was really great and more difficult than I thought it would be. ... My main memory of that was how many Aboriginal sites were nearby - all distinguished by wrecked cars, burning tires and the general look of slum encampments. Ah, the noble savage!
It was surprising to find three comic strips in here (by Scott O'Hara). These three-panel strips are very raw and primitive, and each ends with some sort of fucking or sucking. I liked them. They were funny!
Then it's back to the music theme, and the final section is something truly great and unique. Leon tracks down three people whose names he found in old recordspurchased at used record stores or garage sales. The lengths he goes to to get in touch with these people is awesome. One of them spans two years of searching and waiting. When the former owner of the record agrees to an interview, Leon asks them questions like, "Do you remember how you came to purchase this album?; "What do you remember about it? Why you sold it?" and "Do you still buy music?" Fucking cool.
Get this zine for this section alone and the rest is a bonus.

Little Garden Volume 1 Part 1

By Ayo

Whereas yesterday's comic suffered from a lack of monsters, this one is nothing but monsters! Monsters with wings! Monsters with hoofs! Monsters with three eyes! Monsters with horns!

Okay, so I guess they're pretty much just mostly human women with some weirdness, but that's close enough for me. The images contained in here aren't really a comic, rather they just show random snapshots from the lives of these women letting us know how their community functions. They farm, they deliver mail, they hang out, they go swimming. There's no plot, but rather we see these characters just living their lives. It's a fun little book even if I'm not really down with the portrayal of males (either a target of derision or tied up).

The art is pretty clearly not for everyone. There's an ugliness to a lot of it that appeals to me somehow. I find it kind of hard to describe, though funnily it's the way the lips and eyelids are drawn that make these characters look the most monstrous rather than their extra appendages.



(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

Narcolepsy Press Review #6

Narcolepsy Press Review #6

from Randy Spaghetti by noreply@blogger.com (Randy Spaghetti)

Narcolepsy Press review #6
$3
POB 17131
Anaheim, CA
92817-7131
narcolepsypresszine@hotmail.com

I kind of totally love this zine. It follows a very simple but effective format: Intro, letters section, zine reviews, adds. The intro is entitled, “What I did for my Summer” which recounts his adventures at Hempcon and a Donnas show. The letters section is filled with letters from dudes in prison and other zinesters. The reviews are full of opinions, which frankly, give them a personality and attitude that make you want to read them. Randy Robbins has been doing this for a long time. He knows what he likes, isn’t afraid to tell you what he doesn’t like, and is a dedicated and knowledgeable zine enthusiast. Send him your zines, and order his.

The Sweeper

.

By Amy Peltn

I'm in Canada! I haven't even looked at a zine (other than to pack it) in over a week. There might be some radio silence for a bit next week, but if there are any gaps I should be back in action by April.

Sometimes I come across comics that just leave me utterly mystified. This is definitely such a case. I don't know why this comic exists. Twelve entirely silent pages of full page images like those below. A guy hangs up something on the fence (what it is I have no idea), his broom falls over, he picks up it, the thing blows away. What? Why did I read this?

Am I just missing something? Maybe if the main character had been a robot I'd like it more.



(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

Zine Showcase #10

Zine Showcase #10

from Oh My Clumsy Heart by sophie@ohmyclumsyheart.com (Sophie)

Michael C. Hsiung

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Doobert Life #1 // $7+ shipping

This is Michael C. Hsiung's first zine, a collection of illustrations spanning 28 pages. Hsiung's work is peculiarly inviting; a blend of the obscure and unconventional yet with a wonderfully friendly tone. My inner geek particularly liked the role-playing homage in the form of profiling Hsiung's stat counts along with his hit points, alignment and race at the end of the zine; I understand for the less geeky amongst us all will be lost..

Art For A Democratic Society

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Iraq War Activity Book - Shock and Draw Edition // $3 + shipping

Celeste Christie and Steven Damewood are the founders of Art for a Democratic Society; an organisation with ambitions to encourage communication between the general public, art communities and politics. Iraq War Activity Book is a 20 page, black and white zine including colouring pages, crossword puzzles, connect-the-dots and other activities with a hefty dose of tongue-in-cheek humour.

Laura Walker

Shop
February 2010 One A Day // $3 + shipping

As part of a "one-a-day" project this zine chronicles the month of February across 32 pages with a hand coloured cover and fold-out calender. The pages are comprised of what was originally a drawing for one dollar and sold on Etsy. I like the unique origins of this zine alongside the creative flourishes such as the calender and the extra, completely original pieces included with every purchase.

Lacey Prpic Hedtke

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Likes/Dislikes // $2 + shipping

A voluminous list of the likes and dislikes of Lacey Hedtke; 24 pages, typewritten and photocopied, Likes/Dislikes appeals to the list-maker in all of us. Despite being a personal account of tastes, these lists reveal the shared appreciation for those little things we love to hate and those we hate to love. Likes/Dislikes is similar to Barbara Ann Kipfer's 14,000 Things to be Happy About and makes me think perhaps we should all create a little list to remind ourselves of the things we should cherish.. and those perhaps we would be better off forgetting.

Jack Teagle

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Dick Williams // £3 + shipping

Produced within the constraints of a 24 hour comic challenge in November 2009, Jack Teagle's 28 page, black and white zine tells the story of Dick Williams the strongest man in Cornwall. I cannot praise this zine enough; Teagle's illustration style is fantastic, it really is astonishing such a polished zine could be created in only a day. A blood thirsty yet comedic storyline with awesome illustration work; limited to a run of 150 I would recommend purchasing this zine post-haste!

7String Volume Zero

By Nich Angell
nichangell.co.uk

This big, glossy, full colour comic is filled with impressive art and some pretty cool action, but it is more definitively a zero issue. This means that it gives some background info about the characters, has some (really nice) pin ups, and features a couple of short comics. They all help to set the up the world that Angell is creating, but the major story he's working on clearly hasn't happened yet.

That story is explained in the opening text page, which is probably the weakest part of the comic. Not the ideas, which feature a maniacal villain trying to destroy the "eternal cosmic melody" by stealing a magic flute and an "elite group of cosmic musicians" creating a seven stringed sword instrument to save the universe. But rather parts of the text are a bit awkward and could have used one more rewrite. Generally the short comics don't fall into this problem, but I guess Angell's skills lie more in drawing some pretty awesome pictures instead of paragraph after paragraph of text.

The first comic is a three pager with the main character, Zachary Briarpatch, facing off against a cowboy type character, and the thing it reminded me of the most is the pre-credits action bit at the beginning of certain cartoons and TV shows. We're introduced to the main character, see that he can do awesome things that are beyond the abilities of normal people ("But, that's impossible... No-one can harmonize that fast"), and defeats the bad guy. The end! It's a compliment to Angell's art style and use of colour that I can easily see it as the intro to a cartoon. The sound effects make noises in my head and I'm kind of upset when the opening credits don't come up and then we head into the longer incredible adventure.

Looking at Angell's art it's clear to see that his inspirations are manga, video games, and cartoons, but his combination of all these aspects is original and looks really amazing. Part of this is down to his fantastic use of colour, which at times reminded me of the teaser trailer of Molly Star Racer (did anyone actually watch the show that eventually came out? Was it any good?).

Design-wise Angell's characters are more human than those in MSR (noses!), though they are still fairly stylized, featuring incredibly pointy knees, and haircuts that can only exist in a comic book.

The only major failing of Angell's art is that at times I find his faces aren't up to the standard of the rest of the art, being less detailed and looking a bit strange at times. Upon realizing this I then wonder if Angell has designed his main character's hair so that he doesn't have to bother drawing his eyes. Hmm...

The action sequences sing, the colours pop, the story seems like it's going to rock, and to be honest I'm having a hard time thinking up any more music related analogies. I can't wait until Angell finishes this and I can read the whole thing.



(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

Zine World #30

Zine World #30

from Blackguard

40 pages, magazine size, $4 US / $5 Canada / $7 World, PO Box 330156, Murfreesboro TN 37133, USA + www.undergroundpress.org + jerianne(at)undergroundpress.org
As I mentioned in a recent review of Xerography Debt #28, both XD#28 and ZW#30 landed in my mailbox on the exact same day. That's a pretty fucking big coincidence considering these are the two main US reviewzines, and only published twice a year. But this might also raise a question: If you could only get one of 'em, which one should you get? That's best left for another post, but for now I'll simply admit that I wouldn't even consider not getting both of them.
ZW#30 starts off with a couple of pages of letters, then a few pages of commentary. First up, Joshua (Basic Paper Aeroplane zine) works at an indie bookstore and runs the zine section. He overheard a hip-looking 20-something girl ask her boyfriend, "What's a zine?" to which he replies, "It's like a blog on paper." The next column is by Candace (a volunteer at Sticky Institute) and originally appeared in the October 2010 Sticky e-newsletter. Candace writes about fragile little crybaby ziners who don't want any negative reviews of their zines to be printed. She's against them, by the way, and so am I. Toughen up, ya big babies! Or step away from the fucking xerox machine! Finally, Jerianne vents her animosity at Teal Triggs and her book Fanzines [Thames and Hudson, 2010]. "Many of the reproduced images were included without permission, and the book contains a slew of errors."
The bulk of ZW is devoted to zine reviews, and there are buttloads. It's awesome! I take this baby on the bus with me and it lasts for days. That's DAYS of torture for my fellow busriders who are close to tearing their hair out because they don't know what I'm reading and they wanna know, and they want it, even though they don't know what it is! Yet they can sense that it is Something Awesome.
After the zine reviews there are listings of various zine resources (zine libraries, reviewzines, online resources) then a couple more columns bashing Microcosm, the zine distro (apparently they have instigated a policy whereby they will no longer distribute zines that don't sell a minimum of 40, the rotten bastards!).
Finally, one of the coolest things about ZW - the Classifieds section. These are "absolutely free for any do-it-yourself or out-of-the-mainstream project". (50-word limit.) This section is so great.
Zine World is so great!

Loserdom #21

loserdomzine@gmail.com
www.loserdomzine.com

One of my favourite things about reviewing things for this blog is that I read so many random things, and sometimes I am completely and utterly blown away by content I did not expect.

That is the case with Loserdom #21. I'd read some issues before, but nothing prepared me for the massive (over twenty pages!) history of the Dalkey punks that appeared in this issue.

Dalkey is a village suburb of Dublin in Ireland, and it doesn't seem like that exciting a place to live. Anto grew up there, and remembers being a little kid in the early '80s and being both scared and fascinated by the punks he saw hanging around town. Almost thirty years later he's tracked five of them down and interviewed them about what being a punk in that time was like, how they got involved with the scene, what music they listened to, how they dressed, where they hung out, how the group came to an end, and what they're up to now.

It is an incredibly epic piece of journalism, and feels more like the basis of someone's thesis in folklore, anthropology, sociology, or history than an article in a zine. It's a fascinating piece made all the more interesting because of the real emotions that the interviews conjure up in people. You can feel the joy and fun that these people had back when they were kids, and then, in the most brutal and unexpected part, there is a tragedy. I don't really want to spoil what happened, but it was a big enough thing that it was mentioned in newspapers at the time (which have been dug up, photocopied, and included here).

Even if that was the only thing in Loserdom #21 it would be worth picking up, but this is a massive zine and there's loads of other stuff too! Comics about riding bicycles, an interview with a woman who's been busking in Dublin since 1985, and more. Not all of it appealed to me, but that's always the case with anthologies, and I think this is definitely worth checking out.

(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

POLVO

POLVO

from Randy Spaghetti by noreply@blogger.com (Randy Spaghetti)

POLVO #1 Winter 2010
Joseph Delgado
2290 Peck Rd
Mohave Valley, AZ 86440
I’m a huge fan of Joseph Delgado’s drawings. Aesthetically they just appeal to me on many levels. Polvo is a poetry and art zine. The poetry is intense, visceral, graphic, and lacks any kind of humor whatsoever. I don't know how else to explain them. The images, for me, are the epicenter of this zine.

Skillshot 13

By Chow Chow Productions
myspace.com/skillshott
PO Box 20204
Seattle, WA
98102
USA

(Moving countries caused me to miss a review the other day, be prepared for more missing days coming soon!)

I've read a couple of issues of this pinball zine, but it still blows me away every time I read it just because I have a hard time imagining a pinball scene. It's not something I've ever really played, yet these people organize monthly tournaments that have dozens of people showing up! It all seems kind of strange, but also makes me want to start playing pinball more (last time I played was at a new year's eve party, where I was completely terrible at it).

This zine includes news and rumours about the Seattle pinball scene, telling what happened at recent tournaments, who's setting records on the machines, where the new machines are, a complete (?) list of every pinball machine in Seattle, tips and strategies for specific machines, high score contests, rule variations, and more. It reminded me of the video game magazines I read when I was a kid, and while I barely understand a lot of the strategy in here I'm sure you could write the same sort of thing about Street Fighter or poker and I also wouldn't understand it (I might like it more if it was Street fighter because hurray punching people!).

If you're into pinball and live in the Seattle area you have probably already read this, but if you're into pinball anywhere else in the world it's worth giving a read because it's pretty interesting and fun.

(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

Food Magic!

By Erin

This zine marks an incredibly important day for this blog, as this is the final zine I got at the 2009 Portland Zine Symposium. When I started this blog last January I had a stack of around sixty zines, most of them from that event, but (as you can tell from the fact that there are more than sixty reviews on this blog) I kept getting more, and certain zines ended up getting pushed to the back of my review box.

This isn't to say that this zine is bad, in fact I enjoyed the recipe I (finally!) made, and both of my parents complimented it saying that it was very good. The only reason I didn't use it sooner was that whenever I opened it I didn't feel like cooking any of the recipes, and you know how that happens. That recipe for tempeh bourgignon might be really good, but tonight all you want to eat is cookies. Also, I don't currently have access to any tempeh.

I'd also love to someday try the cocktail recipes that are included (the white sangria sounds delicious), but at least for the moment I can say that the peanut stir fry sauce recipe is a good.

(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

The Beloved Ones

By Cathy Khampoor and Timothy Batiuk

It's kind of crazy when four hundred something reviews into this site I still discover things I've never seen before. In this case it's a zine that reads right to left, and instead of the Japanese influence you might expect from such a thing (I've read a lot or manga that reads that way) it's actually a collection of terrible puns based on some Arabic words.

Well, it starts off reasonably enough explaining what "habiibatii" and "habiibii" mean using illustrations. Though, oddly, they don't really explain the gendered versions very well. Which one does a gay man or woman call their beloved?

After that it becomes a series of jokes, some of which are pretty ridiculous. However the first time I was reading this I didn't catch on that these weren't real words until about the half way mark (around "habobbl'hedtii"). I mean, they have things written in Arabic right there! Clearly it was a completely true illustrated dictionary.

Most of the jokes are amusing (and there's a ghost!), though a few of them took me a while to sound out exactly what they were referencing. Though that was more a problem with my comprehension skills than anything else.



(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)

To Share is to Divide

By Nick Souček
miscomp.wordpress.com

Reading Souček's comics I can't help but feel kind of bad for him. They're filled with near constant existential doubt, anxiety, loneliness, depression, and other bad stuff. I mean, breaking up with someone sucks, being lonely sucks, but neither of those things are the end of the world.

Of course it seems that Souček is exaggerating his feelings for comedic effect. Even ignoring the fact that I don't think I can take the phrase "forever alone" serious in any way, he follows a scene where he is blown out of a tree by loneliness by saying that he has a tendancy to be melodramatic.

Helping to create this sense of melodrama in Souček's comics are the words that he uses to describe the scenes. There's not much dialogue here, instead we have the poetic monologue of Souček himself. I really feel that much of the text here could be reprinted without the pictures as fairly effective blank verse poetry. Of course, if that was done I would read it and then forget it again almost instantly, so clearly Souček has the better idea by pairing his thoughts with images.

Souček's art is at its best when it's drawing inanimate objects (there are some pretty rad boats in here), while the inhabitants of his stories kind of remind me of Lego people. Large heads, no real expressions, grasping claw like hands, they're totally minifigs! Actually, that's pretty awesome. I really like the idea that these are Lego people and that potentially Souček storyboards all of his comics using actual toys.

Okay, that idea is completely ridiculous, but if Souček is allowed to draw himself being eaten by a whale, I'm allowed to imagine what I want. And if I had any minifigs around I would totally make one and either give it to Souček, or make a photo comic in the same style.

Souček also does comics for Boneshaker, an awesome little bicycle magazine. I really liked his comic in the last issue of that.



(This review was originally published on 365 Zines a Year.)