from LCRW no.
8
Zines, alphabetical, bicameral*,
and more.
How to read these listings: Title,
issue number, price, subscription price/number of issues, contact
address. Send well-concealed cash (you'd be amazed how often it doesn't
get stolen!) or a check to 'cash' or to the individual's name, if
given -- only the bigger zines have actual business bank accounts.
Or send your zine as a trade. Zines give an insight into the interests
of thousands of people not represented in the mainstream press. The
percentage of scantily clad women and the editorial/advertising ratio
are usually much lower than in the mainstream mess.
Fun abounds; not just bored and
ironic takes on the latest film, because these folks might not have
heard of the latest film, they're more interested in . . .
Broken Pencil,
#15, $4.95, $12/3, 96pp. Broken Pencil, PO Box 203, Stn P, Toronto,
ON, M5S 2S7, Canada www.brokenpencil.com
Canadian equivalent of Factsheet 5 or Zineworld but
nicely laid out and very easy use. Loads of letters, reviews, comix,
and excerpts from favorite zines. Is it just me or is Canada just
a revolution waiting to happen? I keep reading these excellent, completely
politicized zines from Canada, then I look up, and it's still the
same. Better than it is here, sure, but still . . . Is socialized
medicine a good thing? Ask anyone who has experienced it. Yes, you
can wait for a while, but, you get treated -- and how is that different
from the Human Mismanagement Operations? Ask them that can't afford
a doctor. That would be what, forty-two million people in the USA?
What's the population of Canada? If they can do it, why not us? Did
that make sense? Maybe, maybe not. But the zine does. Subscribe, learn,
revolt!
Dildo, #2, $2, 23pp. Ducky
Doolittle, PO Box 1474, NY, NY 10009 www.drducky.com
The "I Love Pussy Issue." Factoids, lots of good information,
piece on Annie Sprinkle, and a recipe. Tiny, pink, and like a lot
of the zines here, fun!
Doris, #17, $1, 68pp. Cindy
Ovenrack, PO Box 1734, Asheville, NC 28802
"A reprint issue, mostly of old stuff, written between '95-7,
with some newer things too." Piece on Sex and Power, an excellent
short story, "Ice Cream," and a few recipes including a
vegan chocolate cake recipe (by Caty) that I have to try now! I keep
mentioning this zine in the hopes that one or two people might actually
go out and pick up a copy.
The Exchange, by Nicholas
Sporlender (Jeff VanderMeer), illustrated by Louis Verden (Eric Schaller).
$6.99/$20, 28pp. PO Box 4248, Tallahassee, FL 32315 www.vandermeer.redsine.com
The Festival of the Freshwater Squid is celebrated in annually in
Ambergris. For the festival, Hoegbotton & Sons print a special booklet,
and this year it's The Exchange. Illustrated in a stiff style
that reminded me of my old paperback of Ray Bradbury's The October
Country. An old couple at dinner are about to exchange presents
but they don't know that they're being watched . . . and we don't
know what's watching them. It's the kind of small press package that
gives us all a good name. More fun than the average squid out of water.
Comes in an envelope with an Appoggiatura sheet and there's a boxed
limited edition which is accompanied by mushrooms, a memory capsule,
and other appropriate items.
The Exploding Girl, #,1
$1/trade, 26pp. Jessica, 401 Gristmill Crossing, Serema Park, MD 21146
Good piece on cancer and fish in Maryland that reminded me of Terry
Tempest Williams' Refuge and Sandra Steingraber's excellent
Living Downstream. Being an extra in a John Waters film, poetry,
friends, jobs, women in rock'n'roll. When you next get all your change
in dollar bills and are cursing your luck, sit down and send Jessica
(and Cindy above) a couple.
Farmall Promenade News, #2,
free, 4pp. Farmall Promenade, PO Box 85, Nemaha, IA 50567 www.farmallpromenade.com
Farmall is a tractor manufacturer and I'm sure they never expected
to see their nice bright red tractors doing this. Send off for the
video and sit back and be ready to enjoy. The good news: they're on
tour all summer.
Fish Piss, Vol 2, No. 1,
$3, $12/4, 78pp. Fish Piss, PO Box 1232, Place d'Armes, Montreal,
Quebec, N2Y 3K2, Canada
Must be done by someone who works in a print shop. Nice covers, different
ink colors used throughout, lots of illustrations. Some parts in French,
which is pretty cool, even if my high school skill level lets me down
and leaves it unintelligible. Mix of nostalgia/curiosity about the
past and current fiction and comix.
Greenpeace Update, Spring
'01, $30/4, 18pp. Greenpeace, 702 H Street NW, Suite 300, Washington
DC 20001 www.greenpeace.org
Greenpeace get the zining habit. Half the size of their regular
bulletin but seemingly with as much information, this is a great idea.
From front cover ("Cancer Starts Here" -- see The Exploding
Girl, above), through the usual nasty pics to remind us what they're
fighting (whales with their skins being pulled off, a warning on a
Louisiana beach about contaminated sediments), to the back cover pic
of a protestor being arrested, this is solid, solid stuff. Governments
are in the pockets of the corporations, this is not fiction anymore.
They don't want you to protest, and if you do, then you can protest
in this tiny square of land, on that day, at that time. Even then,
you'll probably be arrested. Don't want to be arrested? Your 401K
owns stock in that corporation? You can still write your congresspersonage
and take him/her to task. You can still write the corporation and
demand that they change their methods. Look to Europe where genetically
modified food isn't sold, but it is over here. Why? Because not enough
people have complained.
The Happy Dinosaur, #1,
$1.50, 18pp. Gregory Cook, PO Box 592, Pepperell, MA 01463
An oldy (wonder what he's up to now?) that came my way and amused
me. The Happy Dinosaur wants to be your friend, make lots of money,
and destroy cities the way his pal Godzilla gets to. It could happen.
Kiss Machine, #1&2, $3.50,
$10/3, 64/52pp. 18 Virtue St, Toronto, ON, M6R 1C2, Canada www.kissmachine.org
Another wonderful Canadian zine. First issue concentrates on bugs
and small business, the second on elephants and the media. High standards
of writing and design throughout. Excellent cockroach zine in #1.
Keep an eye out for #3, the sex and condiments issue, coming soon.
The Match: A Journal of Ethical
Anarchism, #96, $2.75, free, 88pp. Fred Woodworth, PO Box 3012,
Tucson, AZ 85702
The other zine done by the editor of The Review (see last
issue). This will put a spoke in your wheel if you still have
any doubt about the alternative city weeklies actually being alternative.
Fred refuses to take checks (too many bank problems, and why do they
charge you to hold -- and use -- your money for you?), and prints
this on what he thinks may be one of the last keyboard typesetters
-- the only part of the printing process not powered by solar energy.
Get off the grid, read The Match.
the Park Bench zine,
#3.3, free, $7.50/4, 21pp. ,
PO Box 16, Nutting Lake, MA 01865 parkbench@mac.com
Why read zines? This is the answer right here (just like all the others
listed!). This one has a summary of Jason's ten years of zining, some
excellent relationship advice from Gwen, and some solid reviews. Excellent
production values perhaps due to: "Thousands of dollars worth
of technology in the hands of slacker twenty-somethings."
Plotz, #s 13&15, $2, 24pp.
Barbara, PO Box 819, Stuyvesant Station, NY, NY 10009 www.plotzworld.com
This is either going to pass you by or, like, it did to me, crack
you up. No. 13 is based on Dr. Bronner's soap -- the one with the
odd label, that one, you know, it's kooky, kinda scary, but fresh,
invigorating! -- and no. 15 is all about TV. Yiddish-isms, stories,
games, fun.
The Scavenger's Newsletter,
#204, $2.50, $24/12, 24pp. Janet Fox, 833 Main, Osage City, KS
66523-1241
Review of LCRW no.
7 that ends with, "All in all a very weird issue in a fun
way. Almost a surprise on every page and its always an unexpected
one.* The fiction doesn't quite match this bizarre construct which
in itself is weird so maybe it all does fit. Absolutely worth a look
and a bargain at the price, even if you don't go for the iMac."
Don't believe the bit about the iMac, it's a very good bargain. Includes
market news for sf/f/h writers (you know who you are), a couple of
poems, and one piece of fiction.
*We hate the expected surprises.
Especially socks and ties at birthdays, the Festical of the Fresh
Water Squid, etc.
The Therapist, $1, 20pp.
Hob, 93 Jewel St, IR, Brooklyn, NY 11222 ww.graphesthesia.com
Tiny (5.5"x3.25") wordless comic. Is therapy bringing us
together, splitting us apart? Is the general process suitable to all
or will the results vary? Worth a buck, send it on.
The Twelfth Street Review,
Vol. 1, No. 1, $3, $10/4, 20pp. The Twelfth St. Review, 858 West
End Ave., No. 2B, NY, NY 10025
First slim issue found in a lovely shop in Brooklyn (Carte Postale,
229 5th Ave -- one of those shops that's really useful when you need
a present, but then you wonder how it survives. Is everyone like me,
doing a last-gasp burst of shopping right before a birthday or holiday?).
Consciously literate in poetry, fiction and reviews.
The
Urban Pantheist, #2, $2.50, 32pp. Jef Taylor, 140A Harvard
Ave., #308, Allston, MA 02134
If you haven't read this zine, put your money where your heart's interest
truly lies and order yourself up a copy. (The back ad offers vegetarian
cats, reserve one of those while you're at it.) More fleshed out than
Anne Matthew's recent (wonderful) book, Wild Nights: Nature Returns
to the City -- and better comix too. Full disclosure: the editor
of LCRW has an article in here. Great bibliography that can
be your kick-off point into the Weeds of the Northeast or That Gunk
on Your Car.
Xerox Debt, #5, $2, 38p.
Davida Gypsy Breier, PO Box 963, Havre de Grace, MD 21078
Ok, so you've read the monthly glossies, you're bored with your fave
supermarket tabloid, your local paper ain't nothing but an ad sheet
(just like the nationals!), where do you start when you want something
with a different slant? Zines like Xerox Debt and Broken
Pencil (see above) are here to save you. This issue includes a
How-To section on starting your own zine (as easy as you think it
is!) as well as reviews by divers hands. Zines reviewed include personal,
political, humorous, comix, gay, straight, sociological, and more.
The Vegan GT New York City,
7th ed., $5.75, 52pp. Ryan Berry, 159 Eastern Parkway, Suite 2H,
Brookly, NY 11238
Very handy guide with hundreds of listings (guess I'm not leaving
NY any time soon!), a map, contact info on lots of interesting groups.
Well organized, good tips on what to eat in the restaurants, and small
sections on food, why veganism, and where to buy good green food.
* Well, they may have two chambers,
more likely they are multicameral.
More Reviews
from LCRW no.
9