Romp #2

Romp #2

from Blackguard

40 pages, digest size, $5.00, Aaron Lange >>> aaronlange13[at]hotmail.com or through The Comix Company
Not only does Romp #2 kick off with a cool letters page, the first letter is from R. Crumb! That tells you something. (I'm glad I read this too since I was unaware of Maxon Crumb's book Hardcore Mother which I jumped up and ordered immediately.)
In this issue Jay Jazz gets more than he expected when he declares to Hesh his love of the 'male gaze'.
There's a wonderful 20-page 'strip' called 'Hey, Do You Wanna..." - featuring many, many girls rhyming like so: "[Do you wanna...?] Pork? Park? Have fun in the dark? Ejaculate? Miscegenate? Watch me masturbate? Penetrate? Lubricate? Get drunk and date rape?" It's very clever and the drawings are awesome.
That's followed by a totally bizarre strip, 'Hesh and Friends in: The Party!' Jay Jazz takes his friend Hesh and another friend, Curry Brahmin, to arty Veronika Valkyrie's party. Veronika shows Curry her latest work, a photograph of a Robert Mapplethorpe photograph (a very funny dig at modern art) before taking him as her lover for the night. Curry is surprised when he discovers Veronika has stuffed her vagina full of Hamburger Helper.
Dexter sure is building a formidable roster of comix artists for his The Comix Company, with his own terrific work, and Aaron Lange's Romp.
I'll end with R. Crumb's own praise of Romp - "More! More! Give us more! You are rolling along at full creative force..."

Twilight World #23 [August 2017]

Don Fields, 266 Ramona Avenue, Grover Beach CA 93433, USA + oddlystupid [at] yahoo [dot] com + donosdump.com + "somewhere at Etsy.com"  Price: $3.00, or 'the usual'; Size: 8.5" x 5.5" Page count: 20 

The quest to find a zine that includes an even vaguely nice or positive thing to say about the 45th President of the USA continues, since in Don-o's intro the second paragraph begins "Then there's the very recent shift in our political direction into Downtown ShitsVille USA." It begs the question - if Trump actually [God forbid] did something right, would anybody admit to it? I gotta say though - that cover by Marc Schirmeister showing Abraham Lincoln busting up an out-of-control argument between Donald and Hillary is so funny, I'm almost inspired to call it "Hillary-ous"!

Anyway, that's cool. I'm not like those anti-Trump crybabies who - and this is just one true actual real-life example - overheard somebody in their store admit to being a Trump voter and promptly demanded they leave.

I love Twilight World! There's even proof in this issue! Don-o reprinted my diary comic strip of Wednesday 4 January 2017 in which I drew myself gladly having checked my mailbox to find a copy of Twilight World #8, the American Splendor issue.

Right after the intro/editorial we get six pages of albums from 2011 to the present day that Don-o still likes. A few pages into this I see that I've underlined "I listen to a lot of rain recordings for relaxation." What a great idea! It's true now that I think of it - the sound of rain is extremely relaxing!

Next up, 'My [Other Parts Of] L.A. Part 1' - five pages of photos Don-o took of "old haunts, streets and alleyways of Redondo Beach and small parts of the South Bay I didn't have room to include in the last TW issue." My favourite, and one that Don-o calls "probably one of the two best pictures I ever taken" is this message on a Torrance Boulevard bus stop bench: "REPORT ALL U.F.O. SIGHTINGS. THANK YOU."

Finally, five pages of 'Reviews o' Stuff' including the book Los Angeles In The 1970s: Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine edited by David Kukoff [2016; Barnacle Books/Rare Bird Books], immediately followed by a review of another LA book, the MYSTERIOUS 'Watch Channel 38 Every Night Until Jesus Comes: Southern California Photographs' by Ralph Coon. "Mysterious" because the book contains virtually no information like price, or address, and the only text to be found is some "VERY basic information and a quote from a Stan Ridgway song called Stormy Side of Town".

Don-o perhaps saves the best until last since the final three pages contain zine reviews, including one of Mark Strickert's Mark Time #116, which I mention because in another Twilight World I found myself inspired to send one of my zines to Mark in hopes of a trade, but it came back a month later "Return to Sender." I'll try again now, because I'm not the kind of person who can be easily discouraged. And I LOVE a good MYSTERY!

Butt-Rag Mag #13

J-Hash [Editor], contact via the ButtRagMag Facebook group for Price/Trades info; Size: 8.5" x 5.5" Page count: 16 

Wall-to-wall bums and farts and cocks and balls, here's one for the butt/fart fetishists.

This issue - or 'tissue' [it even comes with a couple sheets!] - is the "Bum Luck" 13th and features a buttfull of fartists paying homage to the keister. I don't know how J-Hash does it, but every page has a dirty, sleazy feel that uncannily convinces you that you're perusing this publication while standing in a funky, sticky-carpeted XXX bookstore at three a.m. And the pages seem actually DIRTY dirty - I mean grimy, as though you just found it in the gutter. After flipping through just a few pages I had the strangest urge to wash my hands!

You know, it just occurred to me that GG Allin would have LOVED Butt-Rag Mag!

[Soundtrack - GG Allin - 'Bite It, You Scum']

Node Pajomo 2.2

PJM, Contact: Post Office Box 2632, Bellingham WA 98227-2632, USA; Size: 8.5" x 5.5" Page count: 24

I'm not sure how many issues of Node Pajomo I've missed since the last one I received back in March 2013, so suffice it to say how glad I am that it's still going.

NP is an essential zine resource since not only does it feature zine reviews, but reviews of independently-released musical projects [genres like experimental, noise, ambient, folk, metal, etc] and even 'ephemera' that other zine review zines would not touch, since they could not be defined as 'zines' - what I mean here is, for example, single-page 'newsletters' like those Truman Bentley Jr. made [I wonder if Truman is still creating these? Truman! Wake up grab a brush and put on a little make-up! and please resume communication! I must know >>> How are your Self-Improvement lessons going?]

Node Pajomo also includes Mail Art Listings. It's good to know there are still people doing these through the post, because as PJM observes: "This used to be the core of the zine but the tantalizing glow of digital social media has changed the way that the majority of mail artists interact with each other..."

Finally I'll note PJM's appealing writing style, which is fresh and incisive, and perhaps best of all, is his readiness to challenge a zinester [see scanned page above] - quite rare in zinedom these days. Why does it seem impossible in 2017 to find a zine reviewer who is not terrified of saying something even remotely negative? Too nice. Too boring.

Munster Times 21 [July 2017]

Matt Ryan, Contact: Munster_mag [at] hotmail [dot] com for ordering info and check out the Munster Times Facebook page Size: 11.75" x 8.25" Page count: 36 

In Matt's 'Letter from the Editor' he notes the passing of Ms Izzy Cox, and describes her music this way: "It's the kind of music I could imagine being played on a jukebox in a smoke-filled pub in 1950s Texas while a bunch of characters straight out of a Raymond Chandler novel (where everyone is tough and hard and funny but not in a haha way) play pool and eye one another off." Then on a less sad note, rather one of derision, Matt writes that Mia Freeman made a dick of herself again. I had to Google Mia Freeman - she is the founder of Australian women's website Mamamia. But what she made a dick of herself about this time around is not revealed...

Anyway, loads of great stuff in this issue - interviews with Blag from The Dwarves; Dave Graney, and here's a great quote from that one: "...I do a show on RRR and I hear a lot of contemporary music, and I see a lot of new albums that come in and I'm amazed when I get acts that say it's their first album in seven years. And I'm like Wow, what is the point? You know, you are not that good to be taking that much of a break, that is the entire career of Jimmy Hendrix, or 2Pac. Get over it. Do something. If you're a muso you should record and play gigs. Taking seven years off is stupid."

Then three more interviews - Mick Batty of Melbourne record label Off The Hip; Melbourne two-piece garage band Cakefight; and comedian Greg Fleet. Part of the fun, of course, is finding out at the end when Matt asks them [and "them" meaning every single person or band he interviews] "What is your favourite The Fall album?" have they heard of The Fall? If so, have they heard any of their albums? If so, did they like it enough to listen to another one? And so on... Great stuff!

There's also a review of Dinosaur Jr at The Croxton on Friday 20 January 2017.

Hiroshima Yeah! #148 [June 2017]

Mark Ritchie, Contact: donbirnam [at] hotmail [dot] com Price/Trades? Send a nice email and ask!; Size: 11.75" x 8.25" Page count: 4

If you have never read a copy of HY!, I could write a big paragraph trying to convince you how great it is, and once again declare that it's one of my TOP FIVE FAVOURITE ZINES, but reading the first very short poem on page one of the latest issue would take much less time to answer the question: "Would I like this zine, or newsletter, or whatever it is, or not?"

GIFT
Nothing says
"Happy Birthday,
You Total Fuck-Up"
like three self-help books
and information about
counselling sessions
stuffed into a gift bag.
But thanks anyway, cuz.

If this poem makes you laugh, or even smile, the answer is YES, you would like Hiroshima Yeah! and you should email Mark today and tell him, "I have Stratu to thank..."

Also in this issue - Part Two of Gary Simmons's completed Probation Office form in which Gary had to write about his predictions/assessment of his health, lifestyle, relationships, personal development, leisure, and housing.

Mark reviews albums by Magnolia Electric Co, The Mountain Goats, Jesu/Sun Kil Moon [this rap trip Mark Kozelek has embarked on sounds SICK and DISTURBING], Milovan Srdenovic, Dinosaur Jr, Rocket From The Tombs, Dirty Three, Songs Ohia [thanks for the tip! 'Almost Was Good Enough is one of my new favourite songs], Animals That Swim, Teenage Fanclub, Richard Skelton, and Silkworm.

These DVDS are also reviewed: Salad Days: A Decade of Punk In Washington DC (1980-90), Drive, The Wicker Tree, and Better Call Saul: Season Two.

The Ken Chronicles #43 [May 2017]

Ken Bausert, PassScribe [at] aol.com + thekenbausertchronicles.blogspot.com  Price: $3.00, fair trade or letter of comment; Size: 8.5" x 5.5" Page count: 28

First of all - Ken, why is it that the most recent post on your blog is from 2014? Do you have another online presence? If so, I think it would be better to include that up there.

Now on with the show. The Ken Bausert's Chronicles Show!

In this issue: One of my new favourite [Top Five!] letter columns [see sample above, shout out to fellow Friend of the Animals, Gunther!] - ; People, Places and Things That Aren't There Anymore, which this time around includes the Elmhurst Gas Tanks, the RKO Keith's, and high school crush Betty Ann J.; reviews of what Ken's been watching and reading lately, including a very funny anecdote about Joe Biel. Ken was writing an article for zine review zine Xerography Debt and put out the word that he wanted to hear from people who had sizeable zine collections. One respondent was Joe, who admitted taht at one time he had 50,000 zines, but had to cull his collection before going off to live in a treehouse. Ken remarked that this sounded intriguing, so Joe said it was all part of his autobiography he had just written, so Ken put it on his want list. To Ken's dismay, when his daughter later gave him this book for Christmas, he found that it was an "extremely detailed story of Joe's life...", and "tiring and depressing", yet there was nothing to be found about "the treehouse he reportedly built and lived in for a time." Haw! [Update - Joe Biel himself replied to this >>> "The section about living in the tree house runs from pages 147-200." To which I can only ask Ken - How the hell did you miss it?!]

There is also Ken's account of his and his wife Ro's winter in Florida. Amusingly, among the photos to illustrate this period is one he snapped of a car groaning under a heavy blanket of snow - six inches had fallen in New York just before they departed for Florida.

Astrobabble: The Zine For Astrology Nerds #12 [2015]

Astrogirlzarro, m_zarro [at] hotmail [dot] com + astrobabylon.blogspot.com  Price: $3.00 Trades? Yes; Size: 8.25" x 5.75" Page count: 16

Astrobabble is a marriage of Astrogirlzarro's interests in astrology and pop culture, and she announces in her 'Editor's Notes' that this issue "focuses on the expansive and jovial sign of Sagittarius"; Keith Richards has his natal chart exposed; and the current Saturn-Sagittarius cycle is looked at in relation to the ancient Greek myth of Icarus. We also observe Frank Zappa sitting on the crapper as Exhibit A in 'How to Spot a Sagittarian'.

It occurs to me that it doesn't matter if you're not into astrology even a little bit. You will LOVE this issue if you're a Rolling Stones fan, since Astrogirlzarro read Keith's six hundred page autobiography, Life, as part of her research [yes! only part! - there's a whole page of 'Notes and Sources' listed at the back, like Chris Mikul does with Bizarrism]. I'm also sure that if YOU or a close friend or family member is a Sagittarian, this issue would be a fun read to find out which of the noted personality/character quirks match up or not.

Great stuff!

I should add that for Bowie fans, there is also a Bowie-focused issue that came out just after the Duke's untimely death.

Betty Paginated #36 [Winter 2017]

ADULTS ONLY! Dann Lennard, PO Box A1412, Sydney South NSW 1235, AUSTRALIA + Dann.Lennard [at] gmail [dot] com + track down Dann's SIX blogs by heading to http://bpzine.blogspot.com.au/  Price: email to enquire Trades? Probably - if your zine is in the same universe - email to ask; Size: 11.75" x 8.25" Page count: 16

"This issue of BP is dedicated to the memory of veteran zinester and Canadian lumberjack RODNEY LEIGHTON."

This issue - celebrating Dann's 25 years of zine publishing! - features: an evening with Rickie Lee Jones; a farewell to Elizabeth's Books [the Pitt Street store, that is, which will be merging with the Newtown store]; the COMPLETE, UNCENSORED interview with Dann's current porn obsession Amarna Miller that appeared HEAVILY CENSORED in People Magazine; superhero comic book artiste Rich Buckler; a Max 'Tangles' Walker obituary; Dann's ridiculously overwrought and melodramatic public letter to "punk cabaret" singer Amanda Palmer; and a few other bits and pieces, not least of which is a brilliant cartoon by Ohannesian >>>

Bizarrism No. 15 [July 2017]

Chris Mikul, PO Box K546, Haymarket NSW 1240, AUSTRALIA + cathob [at] zip.com.au Price: $8.00 Trades? Maybe. If your zine is very good. Contact first; Size: 11.75" x 8.25" Page count: 44

Some really great stuff in this new issue. Here's my Top 3:

1 - 'The Protests of Sandy Berger' - If you've ever found yourself wondering about those people who walk around town - or even stand in the one spot - wearing hand-written signs about UFOs or religion or THE EVILS OF PSYCHIATRY, then you will love this article. Sandy Berger walked around Sydney in the 1970s and '80s wearing signs warning of the evils of psychiatry, and that's just ONE of his many alternating endearing/infuriating quirks;

2 - 'In the Town of Marwencol' - The story of Mark Hogancamp who, in 2000, was almost beaten to death outside a New York bar, and with his resulting head trauma/memory loss created a WWII-era town populated by Ken and Barbie type dolls and wrote hundreds of pages to tell their stories, and took hundreds of photographs of scenes from their dramatic lives. Absolutely fascinating;

3 - 'My Favourite Dictators No. 9 - Kim Jong-il [with illustrations by Glenn Smith] - I get mixed up about Kim Jong-il and Kim Jong-un, but the former is the Daddy [now dead] and the latter is the son, now firing rockets all over the Pacific and making a damn nuisance of himself. He's also the star of one of the greatest episodes of South Park! ... Or perhaps I'm thinking of the movie...

If you're alive, you must obtain a copy!

Loserdom #25 [November 2016]

 

56 pages, 8.5" x 6", contact Anto at loserdomzine at gmail dot com for ordering info + www.loserdomzine.com

I saw Anto's announcement of this momentous 25th issue on We Make Zines so I emailed him, and he emailed me back, we agreed to trade zines, and now 23 days later here I am, I've read the whole issue and now intend to convince you to get a copy for yourself. Actually, I'm not going to do that. I'll just write down what I liked about it, or if I didn't like it, what I didn't like about it, and you can read what I've written, or not, do what you like. How about that? Good. OK...

Here is yet another party I've arrived late to - this one even later than all others [except for The Match!, that is - that's a record that will not be broken since the first issue came out in 1969, when I was two. Haw!] Oh well. That's OK. Unless I absolutely love it and decide it's the best zine I've ever read, but there are no back issues available at all...

I like what Anto wrote in his intro/editorial about seeing so many shitty things happening around the world and feeling bogged down and irrelevant - "It brings me back to the question: what is my motivation for making a zine? Loserdom is part of the Irish DIY punk tradition of zine making - a basic principle of which for me is: make your own culture, stop consuming that which is made for you and question. Winning or being the strongest isn't the be all and end all, it's ok to lose."

Loserdom #1 was born in June 1996. [A big year! David Puckeridge's Gristle Fern #1 and my comix anthology Sick Puppy Comix #1 were also born in 1996, but mine [and David's] came out in April, so I'm the sempai!]. I find I'm struck by an envy of anybody out there who has been a reader from the beginning. And then to wonder what happened to all those people who got a copy of Loserdom #1...

My favourite piece in this issue is an interview with independent Irish filmmaker, Graham Jones, who "...releases his films for free on YouTube and has written a manifesto-style article about a movement of indie filmmaking which uses digital technology to produce and release films called Nuascannan [Irish for 'New Film']..." Just one tidbit from this great interview is this one: rather than make a graduation film in third year of film school in London, like every other student did [clamouring to use the equipment], Graham chose to master in theory. So he found and interviewed 30 independent filmmakers around London, transcribed every word they said, and this was subsequently published as a book by the British Film Institute. His first film was How To Cheat in the Leaving Certificate [1996[!!]]; the most recent, Nola and the Clones [2016]. I intend to watch both on YouTube this week!

Also in this issue, a short piece about the need to repeal the Eighth Amendment [Irish Abortion Law]; 'Plastic in the Ocean' - a shocking article about plastic crap floating around the world's oceans, including a gigantic area known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, "estimated to be about 10 times the size of Ireland"; interview with bands Una Bestia Incontrolable [Barcelona] and Alps [Ireland]; a bunch of album and live music reviews; and most importantly - reviews-wise - zine reviews! including Maximum Rock 'n' Roll #396 the 'Do Zines Suck?' issue that I went to some length subsequently to order a physical copy of [I ended up emailing MRR because on their website it seemed they only had a PDF version for sale, but not so! Thanks Arielle!]

Loserdom is really great. A zine that deserves to have lasted 25 issues, and deserves to last 25 more.

Munster Times #19 [August 2016]

 

38 pages, 11.5" x 8", by Matt Ryan, email mag [at] hotmail [dot] com for ordering info, and check out Munster Times Zine on Facebook

I heard that last year Melbourne was voted [not for the first time] 'The World's Most Liveable City', and it seems that I've discovered yet further proof the award is legit right here in the shape of Munster Times, a zine which - if I understand correctly - is FREE and can be found in Melbourne pubs where bands play. If I found a zine like this at the Townie here in Newtown, I would be over the friggin' moon! The closest thing we have is Unbelievably Bad which is $9.00 an issue [although of course no other zine comes close to it in terms of awesomeness - it's absolutely worth at least that much [UB#16 was also where I first read about MT!]].

Anyway, and even though yet again I'm late to the party on this one, as mentioned it's thanks to Unbelievably Bad [#16] that I wasn't even later.

Matt seems to be pretty heavy into the Melbourne live music scene, so most of his zine is taken up with interviews of bands and singers/musicians. These interviews are terrific. These kind of interviews are often terrible, with a great gaping chasm apparent between interviewer and interviewee. Not here. The subjects seem to know and respect Matt and the interviews benefit greatly. In this issue, Matt interviews The Rebelles ['60s girl bubblegum pop Phil Spector Wall of Sound-type band]; Teagan Robinson [Melbourne singer also interviewed in MT#14]; Them Rumblin' Bones [genre-defying pub rockers?]; and Lisa Crystal Carver [Rollerderby Zine, named by Playboy 'Best Zine Ever']. This was my favourite interview here. Lisa Carver has the greatest answers to interview questions. Example: Matt's first question, "How has 2016 treated you so far?" Carver: "Any year I'm still alive is a good year." [I am shamefully ignorant of Lisa Carver and her work, I'll admit it, even after Jojo so many times telling me how great she is.] I found out from this interview she wrote a book, Drugs Are Nice, which I will be tracking down a copy of the second I finish this review.

There's also a terrific review of the Stooges documentary film Gimme Danger. Matt writes at the beginning: "I aint a film person, so every chance this review sucks." I predicted it wouldn't, and it didn't. Not a Stooges fan myself [not even a Radio Birdman fan! Oh, the shame!!], this review has motivated me to track down a copy of THIS, TOO! Check out this great line... "... the talking heads are kept to the bare minimum. ... No hack from Rolling Stone who wasn/t even born when the first LP was released, no cockhead stadium rocker who claims the band was an influence when his band sounds nothing like theirs, and no Bono." And his final comment: "I wish someone could ave hit me in the head with a frying pan so I could forget the Stooges music and I could rediscover them all over again."

Finally, the tables are turned and Matt's mate Vic Meehan interviews HIM. "...thanks for aving me in my own zine Vic, love ya tons."

At the end of every interview, Matt asks the person what their favourite album is by The Fall. [Mark E. Smith is his absolute hero of all time.] The only thing missing from this issue is Vic asking Matt what HIS favourite Fall album is!

[Note: Munster Times is chock full of weird typos/spelling - it reminded me of Don Fields in his excellent Twilight World zine - but for me it's just part of the charm of both zines. I'd much rather have a great zine with lotsa typos than a boring shit zine with none.]

New Titles at the Cleveland Zine Library

I dropped off a Whole Foods bag filled with zines today. Included was Stu's complete 2015 collection of diary comix. I found a nice plastic envelope so they could all stay together.

The Ken Chronicles #38 [February 2016]

28 pages, 8.5" x 5.5", $3.00, fair trade or letter of comment, Ken Bausert, 2140 Erma Dr, East Meadow NY 11554, USA + PassScribe [at] aol.com + thekenbausertchronicles.blogspot.com

One of the greatest things about zines - or at least those few that actually have them - is the letter column.

Exhibit A: Fred Woodworth's The Match! and the bags of letters printed in each issue.

Exhibit B: Ken Bausert's The Ken Chronicles. This issue has four pages of letters, and one of them is from Don Fields [who produces his own zine, Twilight World], who writes a great letter. The main subject of his letter is about him noticing another letter-writer [and zine maker], Rodney L. complaining about the lack of letters he receives for each issue. Don goes on to explain why he isn't too worried about letters, and mentions a couple of other things, which led me to write Don a letter. Now I hope he writes me a letter.

After Ken's letter column is a 'Travelogue' of where Ken and his wife Ro went during August, September and October [not the least of which was a visit to Wo Hop for some Chow Fun!].

Next up, everybody's favourite [or second favourite, if it's not the letter column...] section - 'What I've Been ______ Lately'. This time Ken and Ro saw an off-off-Broadway production of semi-semi-famous zine person Ayun Halliday [The East Village Inky]. He also saw Joe Walsh at the Civic Center, and read The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test. It was strange to read Ken's experience of it, remembering my own reading of it many years ago, and how it opened a new universe for me. A universe I had previously been unaware of!

Finally, Ken reprints an Associated Press release about the death of Holly Woodlawn, the transgender actress made famous by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey in their 1970 films 'Trash' and 'Women in Revolt'. Ken's note at the end, where he mentions that he read Holly's biography a few years ago, and found it "very interesting" yet "kind of boring" appears to defy the laws of Aesthetic Physics.


review by Stuart / Blackgaurd

Megaskank Mansion : Megacon

36 pages, 8.5" x 6", by Curt Sibling, Biesuiss, Relhok, Wicked-at-Heart, and Corelle Vairel --- No contact info whatsoever [fuck you]

for ordering info try contacting >>> kurtzibling at yahoo dot co dot uk

"When super-spoiled zombie queen Foxxxy decides to host a huge comic convention at her Megaskank Mansion, every troll, brony and freak in town soon attends! Chaos erupts as Feminazis try to close down the event. Can the fandoms unite for once to save Megacon?"

Here at long last is the second issue of MM [I reviewed the first here] - and the wait has certainly been worth it.

Sure, one can enjoy the skilfully-executed drawings of "kickass cosplay queens ... dropping more sex bombs than ISIS", and I do love those, but what I love most about this series are the many references which I don't get, but since it's a word I've never come across, of course I must immediately look it up. [Example: the first issue's 'Weeaboo' - see review]

With this issue, it was a name. Tom Preston. Who the hell is Tom Preston? I didn't know, but I sure as shit had to find out right away! And then finding out who Tom Preston was led to my learning about the phenomenon of 'inflation artwork' - a fetish in which characters are artificially pumped full of air so that they expand.

Tom Preston

My only gripe is the complete absence of contact info. For a printed comic, that doesn't make any sense. How do I let people know how to get their own copy? There's not even a friggin' email address in here! There's nothing! No postal address, no email address, no URL... even that Art Zine I received the other day had a Tumblr address. Well, maybe you're supposed to Google it. But that's bullshit! If you make a printed work, put a goddamn physical address in there so people who live in the hard copy world and not the fucking e-cloud can enjoy your creation, too. Cuuuntz!!


review by Stuart / Blackguard

Strenuous Stilts Art Zine issue one

16 pages, 5.5" x 8", by David Sait, 43 Grange Drive, Brampton, ON, L6X 2H1, CANADA + strenuousstilts.tumblr.com

It's always a real pleasure to receive something unexpected in the mail. Like this Canadian art zine! Every page is printed in full glorious colour. What a treat for these eyeballs! And yours, if you go ahead and write to David. Trade your own art zine with him. I'm sure he'll be up for it. There's collage art in here, along with line drawings that seem to be coloured using a computer application. They are very nice, especially the centrefold of the icy river scene with forest and mountains and twilight horizon. At work today I went across the road and stood in the park, lit a cigarette and looked at this. I looked and looked, and really was drawn into it all. It took me far from my workday.


Review by Stuart / Blackguard

also reviewed by Jack & Laura-Marie
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/2016/03/strenuous-stilts-1_22.html
http://syndicatedzinereviews.blogspot.com/2016/03/strenuous-stilts-review-by-laura-marie.html

The Ken Chronicles #38 [February 2016]

The Ken Chronicles #38 [February 2016]

• Feb. 16th, 2016 at 10:22 PM

28 pages, 8.5" x 5.5", $3.00, fair trade or letter of comment, Ken Bausert, 2140 Erma Dr, East Meadow NY 11554, USA + PassScribe [at] aol.com + thekenbausertchronicles.blogspot.com

One of the greatest things about zines - or at least those few that actually have them - is the letter column.

Exhibit A: Fred Woodworth's The Match! and the bags of letters printed in each issue.

Exhibit B: Ken Bausert's The Ken Chronicles. This issue has four pages of letters, and one of them is from Don Fields [who produces his own zine, Twilight World], who writes a great letter. The main subject of his letter is about him noticing another letter-writer [and zine maker], Rodney L. complaining about the lack of letters he receives for each issue. Don goes on to explain why he isn't too worried about letters, and mentions a couple of other things, which led me to write Don a letter. Now I hope he writes me a letter.

After Ken's letter column is a 'Travelogue' of where Ken and his wife Ro went during August, September and October [not the least of which was a visit to Wo Hop for some Chow Fun!].

Next up, everybody's favourite [or second favourite, if it's not the letter column...] section - 'What I've Been ______ Lately'. This time Ken and Ro saw an off-off-Broadway production of semi-semi-famous zine person Ayun Halliday [The East Village Inky]. He also saw Joe Walsh at the Civic Center, and read The Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test. It was strange to read Ken's experience of it, remembering my own reading of it many years ago, and how it opened a new universe for me. A universe I had previously been unaware of!

Finally, Ken reprints an Associated Press release about the death of Holly Woodlawn, the transgender actress made famous by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey in their 1970 films 'Trash' and 'Women in Revolt'. Ken's note at the end, where he mentions that he read Holly's biography a few years ago, and found it "very interesting" yet "kind of boring" appears to defy the laws of Aesthetic Physics. 

Reprinted from

http://blackguard23.livejournal.com/154152.html

The Zine Explorer's Notebook #6 [Winter/Spring 2015]

22 pages, 11" x 8.5", $2.00/Trade/Stamps/Letter >>> Doug Harrison, PO Box 5291, Richmond VA 23220, USA "Letters, reviews, editorials, real mailing addresses, typographical refinements, art & illustrations, esoteric notions" it says in a box next to the title on the cover. We're in the Zine Zone of No Computers here - a world also populated by Fred Woodworth's The Match!; Anthony Walent's Communicating Vessels; and Jason Rodgers's Media Junky. The format, size, and level of 'slickness' of these zines may differ, but one thing they all share is a passionate opposition to modern technology, especially the internet. These guys may actually even use the internet sometimes, but it sure doesn't take centre stage in their life. To put it another way, don't hold your breath for them to switch to a blog format; or a downloadable PDF. The Zine Explorer's Notebook has come a long way since I last reviewed it [tZEN #3] - doubling in size, for one thing. The letter column is also a treat, and one letter in here especially - the one from a prisoner who admits to beating an 'alleged' pedophile and leaving him for dead, and being proud of it. In his response, Doug objects to this guy's self-righteous braggadocio. Another fascinating letter is from Al Fry, who seems to be some kind of militant gardener, with his vigorous writings on weeds, Monsanto, and fluoridated water ["rat poison"]. I really appreciated the zine reviews too. Every zine really should contain reviews of other zines. You've probably heard that before, but for those who make a zine and don't include zine reviews in their zine, they need to hear it a few more times, at least until they wake the fuck up and start putting zine reviews in their own zine. Wake up! Grab a brush and put on a little make-up!

Making Jamie

[Note: I couldn't do this one, I started writing mean things in the margins, then realised this could end up just coming across bitter and twisted. Maybe it's just me? I mean look, I haven't had kids and certainly don't plan to, but my d-comix pal David Puckeridge actually HAS been through that nightmare... i mean, wonderful, joyous magical part of life! ... so I passed this one to him. So, here's our Special Guest Review! Thanks David! *Phew!*]

http://www.kylebravo.com/kylebravo/4223/making_jamie_comics

"Making Jamie" is a diary comic about having a baby.  Artist and teacher Kyle Bravo documents the journey daily over six months, climaxing in the inevitable birth and all the challenges that come with the momentous event.

Kyle's loose drawing style is appealing, and there's a lot to relate to in the story if you've gone through the same thing yourself.  Everyone else should stay away, unless you WANT to hear about lots of "poop" and pee and amniotic fluid.

Even the breeders among us might be turned off by Kyle's cutesy style ('cute' is a word he uses a lot.)  Still, it's interesting to see the babymaking process from another perspective, whether you warm to Kyle or not.

Originally posted on Blackguard

http://blackguard23.livejournal.com/152473.html

Stratu's Diary Comix - 2015 (monthly)

Stratu's Diary Comix

8 pages, full size

$3.50 per issue in Australia

$5.00 per issue World Wide

accepts trades

Stuart Stratu is one of our reviewers, and the man behind the Blackguard comix series. Every day in 2015, Stratu is chronicling his life with a three frame comic.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading these. Though we've known each other peripherally through zines and comics for some time now, I really knew very little about him. I feel like I know him much better now, and that's a good thing because he is interesting and likable.

Beer is a steady theme throughout. His father has Altheimer's and Stu visits him frequently and takes him places, taking it in stride and keeping a sense of humor. He obsesses over job opertunities and gets letters from prisoners. I thought it was funny when someone had an "American" themed party where they had hot dogs and hamburgers.

Totally worth it.

Stratu

PO Box 35

Marrickville NSW 2204

AUSTRALIA

http://blackguard23.livejournal.com/

Review by Jack Cheiky