I’m working on an awesome project I will talk about next week, and getting ready to travel to New York. I’m excited to be catching the final night of the POC Zine Project Tour, and hope to come away with lots of great zines and happy memories.
- Lily Pepper
Basic Paper Airplane
by Joshua James Amberson
At long last, I got around to reading these zines by Joshua Amberson, one of the people behind Ms. Valerie Park Distro, one of my very favourite purveyors of print goods: it’s well-curated, with lots of rad, unique zines, and they are the nicest guys. I am bashful it took me so long to read, and write about, this zine, but there you have it, and here I am, saying nice things about how much I liked it.
Zines, drafty window, cough syrup.
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Issue #3, January 2010
32 pg. at half-letter size
$3 from Ms. Valerie Park Distro
In Issue #3, Amberson writes about paper culture: zines (of course), the U.S. postal system, and an adventure accompanying a friend to the Utne Independent Press Awards.
Amberson also has some expertise around the postal service, being the son of a rural letter carrier, as he endearingly describes:
“Throughout my childhood, my mom always had at least a couple mail jeeps (sometimes as many as 5 or 6) in our yard. She’d have one working one and the rest would usually be on blocks and used for parts.”
The writing in this issue is funny and fervent: it’s a little more flippant, while the other issues are more thoughtful, but Amberson’s expertise and enthusiasm for his topics carry it through.
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Issue #4, October 2010
28 pg. at half-letter size
$3 from Ms. Valerie Park Distro
Issue #4 is the Family issue of Basic Paper Airplane, in which Amberson recounts tales of his relatives, tidbits about Icelandic culture, and general thoughts on history, community, and kinship. I especially enjoyed his piece about how looking at old photos can help you remember that people’s lives don’t necessarily follow broad historical trends and clichés, and “how lives sometimes have their own paths that have little or no care for outside influence.” It seems like a basic point, but in practise it’s hard to remember that history (like Soylent Green) is made of people.
I hope it is OK with Joshua if I quote at some length from this issue a passage that especially delighted me. I offer this with the proviso that there are many more wonderful characters, descriptions, and moments in this zine:
“Aunt Elsie is a cat lady, but maybe of a more refined type. Instead of having dozens of cats, she has one cat and hundreds of cat knick-knacks of all sorts, shapes, and sizes. She sends everyone in the family five dollars for each nationally-observed holiday and puts a cat sticker over the face on the bill. My stepdad likes to pay with them in stores to see what they say, while I’m more reserved and usually take them off to avoid the conversation.”
So great!
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Issue #5, September 2011
20 pg. at half-letter size
$1.50 from Ms. Valerie Park Distro
Issue #5 is on the theme of America and Americana, and Amberson offers personal travelogues and historical facts, including a brief essay on the midcentury fad for hula hoops: “It died suddenly and without a reason that hula historians can place.”
It was a pleasure to read these three issues of Basic Paper Airplane back-to-back and see the zine’s scope and concerns become clear, and Amberson’s writing become sharper. His prose is lucid and unpretentious; he thinks hard about things and cares about them lots as well.
- Lily Pepper
Funwater Awesome, Issue #4, July 2009
by Zach Mandeville
64 pg. at 1/4 letter size
$3 from Ms. Valerie Park Distro
Funwater? Awesome! The first fiction zine I have reviewed, maybe even the first I’ve read. Are there other fiction zines? Are they all this great? I am earnestly discombobulated by how great this zine is. Thrillingly, too, Funwater Awesome excerpts Zach Mandeville’s novel-in-progress, My Brother!. That means there’s more; there will be more.
The zine is a fictionalized tribute to Mandeville’s home: Tumwater, Washington, just outside of Olympia. It consists of three interspersed components:
1. Headline-style dispatches from Funwater in 1889.
2. A present-day story of friends enjoying life in contemporary Funwater.
3. Brief biographies of the founders of Fun/Tumwater, with reviews of the swingsets at the elementary schools named after them.
All three are magnificently funny and warmly earnest. Mandeville’s descriptions are incongruous and perspicacious, like the way he describes someone speaking in an “angry, sad tone, like an old man explaining the power of a single vote”. Further, he writes well about the power of radio and the way that nostalgia can consume and unhinge you.
Issue 4 of Funwater Awesome is about doing summer things with your friends in the summer. By summer things I mean, for instance, drawing comics, reading library books, and having big feelings about the song playing on your Discman. If you are an adult, there is a good likelihood you used to do these things more than you do now and that you miss them. Hence the power of these anecdotes, tapping into a vague but potent current of nostalgia.
In the interests of fairness, Mandeville notes on his website that he loves Achewood, a comic I spent a lot of time appreciating at a tender age. Thence, perhaps, a mutual appreciation for absurdist humour about tragicomic situations. Even if you never spent too much time looking at humourous drawings of talking cats, you might still appreciate this.
The writeup for Funwater Awesome on the Ms. Valerie Park Distro website promises that it will “make you long for the next chapter as if it was the 19th century and you were waiting for the next installment of a Charles Dickens book”. This is a bold claim, but justified. I recommend this zine highly and without reservations.
- Lily Pepper
Resume of Charm
Issue #9, January 2008
by Danielle Rodeo Warhola
$3 from Ms. Valerie Park Distro
I love personal zines— one of my favourite things about zines is getting a glimpse into someone else’s life, especially when their experiences are substantially different from my own. However, I do also feel that personal zines have a tendency to overshadow other types of zines, when there’s no reason zines can’t run the full gamut of form and content spanned by other written matter.
So it’s always a pleasure to read a zine about something I wasn’t expecting to have an opportunity to read a zine about. I really could read with great satisfaction about… gender, and Greyhound buses, and punk rock shows, until the cows come home, but what a fun surprise to read a zine about sex dolls and the men who love them. (This is not the time to use gender-neutral language, there is definitely no discussion in this zine of non-male people enjoying the company of real dolls).
Warhola gives an informative and enjoyable romp through real doll history, from ancient antecedents enjoyed by lonesome sailors, through advances in real doll technology spurred by WW2, through to their contemporary apex. There’s also an entertaining detour into yarns and legends of haunted dolls.
I really liked that this zine isn’t just a cheap shot. There’s a lot of low-hanging fruit here, and Warhola isn’t (entirely) just taking a gander at the lonely freaks:
“I am obsessed with these dolls and the men that own them; it took me a long time to formulate this zine because a lot of me cares about the way they are represented.”
She quotes extensively from doll owners on message boards and documentaries, some disturbing (“Makes me sick to think of all the time and money I wasted on Human females.”, some tremendously poignant, and offers funny, sad, insightful comments:
“There is the struggle for some to see life in these dolls, taking meticulously lit photographs to caputre the shine from the doll’s glass eye”
The screenprinted cover is pretty killer, and this was an interesting read. I recommend this for all weirdos, weirdo sympathizers, and weirdo enthusiasts!
- Lily Pepper
Butch Nor Femme, by Lynne Monsoon
Issues #1 (Spring 2011) & #2 (Summer 2011)
$1.50 each from Stranger Danger Distro, also available from the author
19 & 24 pg. respectively, at 1/4 letter size
I went a little crazy recently with my distro orders and now I have a towering stack of zines on my nightstand. It’s been a delight to dig around in those big manila envelopes and pull out zines to read on the bus, tote around in my purse, and write about here on the internet.
I’d been reading Lynne’s tumblr for a while before I got around to picking up an issue of their zine in my most recent order from Stranger Danger Distro.
Lynn’s writing is really thoughtful, in the most literal sense that it evinces long and careful thought. I really liked their piece in Issue #1 where they raise their concerns about the casual use of the terms “fucked” and “fucked up”, which they point out trivializes sexual assault. It had never occurred to me, and I describe a lot of things as being fucked up, and I may put the brakes on that a bit.
Issue #2 has a good piece about quitting Facebook, as well as about the titular concern of the zine— that Lynne, being queer but not butch, is read as femme, and how they feel about that. This zine is actually up to Issue #7 now; I am a bit behind the times. In any case, I do recommend picking up an issue or several of Butch Nor Femme.
While there are a lot of zines that cover some of the topics Lynne writes about, like gender, language, and trying to have radical, ethical relationships with friends and sexy friends, Lynne does these topics very well. Their writing is clear and concise, and I really respect the way they admit to their own mistakes and use them as object lessons for how to work on yourself and live out your beliefs.
Dig Deep #4, by Heather C.
$1 from Stranger Danger Distro
48 pg. at 1/4 letter size
In the order that included these issues of Butch Nor Femme, Heather C., who runs Stranger Danger Distro kindly also threw in the latest issue of her personal zine Dig Deep. I wrote about the first three issues of Dig Deep here, so I was really stoked to read the new one. I really admire Heather’s clear, honest, introspective writing about trying to live out her priorities and her politics in a way that makes her happy.
Her writing always makes me feel really pumped up to do things like work on relationships with friends and take good care of myself. In this issue she writes about Chicago Zine Fest, which she organized, dealing with creepy dudes, and how to know your limits when you take on projects. I highly recommend you pick it up.
- Lily Pepper
Ross Winn: Digging Up A Tennessee Anarchist
by Shaun Slifer and Ally Greenhead
44pg. at half-legal size
The address of Robert Helms’ website is www.deadanarchists.org, and not because he thinks that’s the only good kind of anarchist. Helms is a historian devoted to digging up, and helping others dig up, the work and life stories of lesser-known anarchist heroes of the past.
In the introduction to this zine, Helms explains that his interest in bringing figures like Winn to light is that there’s a lot said about a lot of capitalists and how they live(d) their values, and that to counterbalance this, anarchists need more stories of anarchist heroes and the ways they lived anarchist values. What anarchists DON’T need, in his view, is another friggin’ Emma Goldman biography.
Helms believes, in particular, that we need to dig up our own long-lost hometown heroes, and find “anarchist soul-mates who spoke our language, and with the same accent”. With that in mind, when he met Nashvillains Shaun Slifer and Ally Greenhead, he told them what he knew about turn-of-the-centiury anarchist Nashville typesetter Ross Winn, and they took it from there.
Winn was the publisher of a series of radical newspapers, one of which, Winn’s Firebrand, he described as:
“A Periodical with Few Principles and no Politics, and without a Mission, published for the Amusement of People who dislike to be Instructed. It will be mailed regularly (as far as possible) each month to all who cough up the cash to pay for it. The Subscription Price ought to be three dollars a year, but it isn’t. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE FIFTY CENTS A YEAR.”
The zine that Slifer and Greenhead assembled based on Helms’ inspiration is a fine and handsome tribute to Winn. It includes an account of his life, the story of their research, some snippets of Winn’s writing, and Emma Goldman’s epitaph for him, which begins,
“The inexorable master, Death, has once again visited the Anarchist ranks. This time its victim was Ross Winn, one of the most earnest, sincere, and able American Anarchists.”
There’s a weird rebuttal, under the name Sunfrog, of one of Winn’s arguments, which apparently feeds into the “Republifucked Robot[’s]… holy war against human freedom”, but otherwise I enjoyed all of this zine.
Celebrate People’s History: The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution
Ed. Josh MacPhee
255 pg. 7x9” hardcover book
Ross Winn: Digging Up a Tennessee Anarchist is distributed by the Justseeds Collective, best known for its moving and informative People’s History posters, affordable and beautiful prints about lesser-known countercultural heroes.
When I got this zine, I also bought a copy of Celebrate People’s History: The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution, which collects the People’s History posters into one lovely harcover volume, which is a steal of a deal at twenty-two bucks. It is such a delight— you will learn, you will enjoy cool pictures, and you might get all teary with pride and hope— no joke. It’s super rad.
- Lily Pepper
Sub Rosa, Issues #6 and 7
by Taryn Hipp
32 pg. at 1/4 size
$2 each from the author
The phrase sub rosa denotes secrecy or confidence, covert operations or conspiracies. The zine Sub Rosa is a confessional series of pocket-size tales from Taryn Hipp’s life. Sub Rosa #6 is about feeling shaky after a breakup and trying to rebuild oneself. Issue #7 focuses in on Hipp’s experiences as an alcoholic and how she got sober.
It’s interesting to read the two issues in concert, to see how similar a substance addiction can be to an unhealthy relationship with someone, and how the two intertwine to bring good people down. Hipp writes unflinchingly about her self-destructive tendencies and worst moments:
“The sherriff had a sadness in his eyes that I knew was meant for me but not because I was being served divorce papers, but because I was visibly a complete disaster.”
She offers resources for those in the position she was in, and even, movingly, gives her own email address for anyone struggling with sobriety who wants to talk. Hipp’s thoughtfulness and dedication to doing good really shine through in Sub Rosa.
Spoiler warning! Sub Rosa #7 ends on a happy note: Hipp wrote the zine to celebrate having been sober for two years, and her own renewed resiliency and sense of self:
“My mother says I need a better job, a better car, shoes without holes in them and maybe she’s right but I think about what I do have. A giant heart, good intentions, and a new-found sobriety”.
I’ve written in this space about a couple of great zines about sobriety, namely Amber Forrester’s Culture Slut #25 and Cindy and Caty Crabb’s compilation Filling the Void. I’m really happy to see all these zines about getting and staying sober cropping up. Regardless of your own relationship with alcohol or your feelings on the matter, it is awesome to read about someone making a change in their life and fighting their way up from bad times to better.
- Lily Pepper
Sir\Ma’am, A Southern Queer Zine
Ed. Stiles, Kayden Althen, and Joey Gidseg
Issue 1, Fall 2011, 96 pg. at 6x7”
Issue 2, Spring 2012, 100 pg. at 7x7”, $8 from the editors
I love, ardently and committedly, the aesthetic of zines. But, y’know, sometimes it’s nice to hold a l’il thing in your hands that is just so beautiful and slicky and such a delight for the eyes. Sir\Ma’am is such a thing. A collection of “sketches, paintings, drawings, collages, photography, 3D art. Anything that expresses who you are as a queer person living in the South”, Sir\Ma’am is based in Austin, TX, which seems to be a good contender for the South’s queerest city.
Both issues of the zine consist mainly of interviews with queer and gender variant Southerners of many stripes. The interviews are thoughtful and interesting and stand confidently on their own merits, but are also accompanied by artful black-and-white photos of the interviewees.
Many of the interviewees are photographed— beautifully, and tastefully— in the nude. It’s a trope I’m curious about and have noticed cropping up a lot with writing by and about trans folks. It is certainly the case that when someone is writing about being trans, their topic is, among other things, their own complicated and contentious body. I guess all memoirs are about bodies, ultimately, but ultimately, some bodies are more controversial than others, and those are the ones that are visually brought to the fore.
I feel a tension there between a respectful admiration of handsome gender-variant bodies, and an element of prurient novelty. I guess it’s all in the eye of the beholder and the intentions of the photographer and photographee. However, it’s something I’ve noticed and wondered about lately, and if anyone has any opinions on this either way, I’d be very interested to read ‘em.
I appreciated that not all— actually, a lot— of the contributors aren’t white, and that interviewees also talked about their genders in relation to topics like sex work, immigration, and religion. Basically, they’re all people with lots of interesting things to say, and not solely on the topic of gender.
All in all, this zine is a total class act. It’s beautiful, and it satisfies one of my favourite things about zines— the glimpse they give into the ordinary lives of others, and in particular people whose experiences aren’t well-represented in pop culture at large. I’m hoping for a third issue of Sir\Ma’am.
- Lily Pepper
Put A Egg On It, Issue #4, Summer/Fall 2011
$7 from Librairie Drawn & Quarterly, also available here
48 pg. at half-letter size
Food is one of my major interests and top five desert island objects, and I also really like zines, so I am often excited to take a chance on a food zine. However, having been vegan for a long time, and no longer being so, I have already pretty much reached my lifetime quota of reading about vegan food and cookery, so that is a big problem with me and food zines.
I bought Put A Egg On It at the Librairie Drawn & Quarterly in Montreal, the beautiful bookstore belonging to the art comics imprint. I always stop by when I am in town, and it is always resplendent with tempations. This time I bought Put A Egg On It and this concertina print by Micah Lidberg, published by Nobrow Press.
Printed in full colour on handsome matte green paper, Put A Egg On It is pretty much only a zine, not a maga-, by virtue of being printed at half-letter size: it’s pretty professional. The content, in this issue, includes nostalgic regional processed foods, picnics, and communal meals at Harvard.
This zine is very eclectic, which sometimes seems like a good thing, and sometimes comes across a little bit dodgy, as with the issue’s two photo spreads, one of the Explorer’s Club dinner and one of working-class Black families picknicking on the Fourth of July. It was hard to tell if it was wilful social commentary or just tone deafness, but it made me a bit uncomfortable.
Put A Egg On It looks and feels a lot like Lucky Peach, the McSweeney’s/Momofuku joint. Both feature interesting art, gory food photos, and a highbrow foodie’s slumming fascination with unsalubrious Middle American eats. Put A Egg On It, at least the two issues I’ve read, thankfully does not require each issue to have a story about eating until you barf, and then eating some more, which is my main problem with Lucky Peach.
To sum it up, Put A Egg On It is entertaining, handsome, eclectic, and informative— just not really the most politically savvy.
- Lily Pepper
Piss Factory, Issues #1 & 2
by Rachel
12 & 16 pages at half-letter size
FREE from the author
This is going to be a short zine review, cause I’m going over to Gatineau tonight to watch the Batman movie at a drive-in.
I got a package today from the other side of the world (Australia), from a Tumblr friend who graciously sent me a free copy of her zine, Piss Factory. I’d like to note up front that this offer is valid for anyone: you, too, can send Rachel your address and receive a copy of Piss Factory.
Piss Factory is a fanzine through and through. Rachel is full of enthusiasm for her topics and for zine-making:as she writes in Issue #1,
“i’ve wanted to put something like this together for a long time now and now I’ve done it i feel like my heart’s gonna burst like an over ripe banana.”
Piss Factory features comics, drawings, record reviews, passionate arguments in favour of Rachel’s favourite music, and a piece about watching videos of Woodstock and wishing for revolution.
There is also an article about something called “Spicks and Specks”, which is apparently a TV show in Australia. Judging by Wikipedia, it seems to be like The Price is Right, but with music trivia instead of weird consumer durables, which I concede does sound awesome.
This zine also came with something I have never received with any other zine: a necklace of my name! Thank you Rachel for the fun zine and excellent necklace.
- Lily Pepper
