zine, [zeen] noun. 1. abbr. of fanzine; 2. any amateurly-published periodical. Oxford Reference

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Friday, August 22, 2008

i'm not angry (anymore)




 
 

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via Zine Writers Guild by Mrs. Noggle on 7/23/08

this  is a mini zine i did for the 24 Hour Zine Thing!
it's about my anger issues. (it also contains drawings by my very talented husband!)


I'm not angry(anymore)

it's a dollar from My Etsy Store. 
get it
here.


 
 

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Fw: Weird Science 1



 
 

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via Comics Village Reviews by John Thomas on 7/23/08

How often are archival comics this much better than the originals? Rarely this beautiful, thorough and fun. These classic tales have never looked so good.

 
 

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[sic] #30






 
 

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via (title unknown) by admin on 7/23/08

Even though I received not one, but two copies of this magazine months before I received #31, here I am still doing the reviews in a reversed order. For those who do not know what [sic] was, it was this excellent little zine that collected all sorts of writings, poetry, interviews, reviews, pictures, art, anything, [...]

 
 

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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Lucky Vol. 2 Issue 2 By Gabrielle Bell



 
 

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via The Daily Cross Hatch by bheater on 7/17/08


Lucky Vol. 2 Issue 2
By Gabrielle Bell
Drawn & Quarterly

What makes your life so damned interesting? It's one of those key questions that has steadily devolved into cliché, over the years, something that every artist flirting with autobiographical modes of expression must ask themselves, a question that will no doubt be repeated ad naseum with every subsequent interview and public appearance, a phenomenon that seems to go double in the world of independent comics, where autobiography is very nearly the default form of narrative structure. For those who have led lives chalk full of extraordinary circumstances, the answer is clear. For the vast majority of us, things are decidedly less cut and dry.

Until recently, perhaps—with her large-scale acclaim in the comics medium and forthcoming forays into the world of film—Gabrielle Bell largely occupied the latter category, leading a fairly typical existence as a young artist, bouncing around various big cities. It's a life that carries over into this second volume of her largely autobiographical series, Lucky. This second issue is a collection of vignettes whose subject matter really deviates from the sorts of goings-on to which, one expects, a large portion of her readership can directly relate. Any atypical experiences, like, say, co-scripting a film with Michel Gondry, largely occur outside 8.5 x 5.5 card stock that envelops the book.

Such narrative modesty proves a wise decision on Bell's part, never straying too far from the everyday—oft internal—struggles that defined its predecessors. And while it will doubt be fascinating to watch her sometimes introverted protagonist confront that mythological beast, Hollywood, should she pen her own seemingly inevitable version of Our Movie Year several issues down the line, the author clearly still has ample fodder to mine from more seemingly banal topics.

Unlike Pekar, that spiritual forefather to every subsequent work of graphic autobiography that has dabbled in the mundane, however, Bell's magic doesn't always rely solely on life's in-between moments. Rather she often opts to let her visuals paint their own truths, be it through overly literal translations of a friend's story that she's chosen to reappropriate, or fantastical graphic depictions of one of her own otherwise straightforward tales, like her struggle to wean herself off of Myspace, which culmitnates with a panel in which the author is stabbing her page's physical personification (ostensibly stabbing herself) in the chest, whilst dousing a wall of flames in the hall it occupies with a canister of gasoline.

The book's other highlights seemingly occupy the opposite end of the emotional spectrum. Bell's storytelling is oft at its best when at its most quiet and internally reflective. The most powerful moments of "When I was Eleven," a brief childhood aside that closes out the book, occur in a handful of largely wordless panels that make up much of the story's midsection. Narration would have no doubt seemed a touch overbearing, juxtaposed with the emotionally powerful silent images of a young Bell walking alone through an autumn leaf-covered summer camp.

It's a lesson Bell demonstrates that she has happily learned at various moments in the latest issue of Lucky, which, while growing more complex visually—thanks in no small part to Bell's far more confident lines and newfound affinity for shading—regularly finds the author more confident working with fewer words. As Bell's visual style has come more into its own, she has proven herself more and more willing to let it relieve her text of much of its storytelling load. It's Bell's increasing mastery in the delicate balance of these two sometimes opposing forces that make even the most banal moments of her life so incredibly readable.

–Brian Heater


 
 

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Second Street #1



 
 

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via (title unknown) by admin on 7/14/08

This magazine is just too short to do a proper reviewing of. However, I will try my best to properly review it. First off, it has as a cover one of the cutest little girls that I've ever seen. There can be said to be about 3 articles in this magazine. These articles are [...]

 
 

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she's so very... issue 11!



 
 

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via Zine Writers Guild by melissa ann! on 7/13/08



issue number eleven. 2.0 oz $3.00
38 half sized pages.
text with full color cover designed by Meghan Weinstein.
winter/spring (january - may) 2008.
I hope to make 2008 a year full of new experiences! This issue documents my first trip to California and other new and exciting things I'm trying to accomplish, details of my booking a show with The Old Haunts (featuring Tobi Vail from Bikini Kill), being interviewed for Hannah Neurotica's Zine Core radio show, JERK ALERT! recording our first "real" album and my continued attempts at dealing with sexuality, relationships and life. It also includes an interview with actress/musician Krysten Ritter (from Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls) and my friends answer my two favorite music questions! It's a great issue and features a full color cover, which is another first!

you can purchase it via snail mail for $3, or via paypal for $3.50 - i'm sorry, but i can't accept trades at this time : ( but if you are desperate for a zine and can't afford the price, please contact me and we'll try to work it out! xoxoxoxoxo







for $3.50

 
 

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Sunday, August 10, 2008

Small Press Review (Mother Planet)



 
 

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via M.A.D. Rants by noreply@blogger.com (MAD) on 7/13/08

Okay, I've got two of these right'chere in front of me. Mother Planet is a nice little fanzine which circulates in the gaming stores round these parts. Which reminds me, I should go visit the Guardtower sometime soon. Side note: on a quick google search for the Guardtower's url, I rapidly found a forum where my husband was posting away. Ah, gamers. Gotta love them.


Mother Planet is put together by a collective of four: Mike Getridge, Graeme Henson, Tim Razler, and Ed Shields. They seem to have a few rotating contributors also, who they thank on the front page of each issue. I had the pleasure of meeting Ed once IRL, the test of them remain mystery men to me. Really, I should be hunting these guys down, at least through the interwebs and saying hidey--hidey--hidey--ho. In the tune of Minnie the Moocher, ala Danny Elfman in the Forbidden Zone:



Okay, maybe I shouldn't do that. Maybe there are better ways to say hello.

So on to the review. Basically, this magazine features a few short articles. It is printed on legal sized paper (8.5x14) and is about 8 pages long printed on front and back. The overall graphic design is very well done for a small publication. My repressed inner editor approves of the graphic design and notes that the text is aligned very well along the the end of each article, with a good amount of runaround on the pictures and small advertisements throughout. My less repressed non-prick non-editor self forgives the fact that the small page numbering header at the top of the page is occasionally cutoff.

As you can tell by the covers, this is a humorous fanzine. The short articles contain gaming advice, movie reviews, gaming reviews and comic book reviews. I enjoyed reading Ed's Kung Fu Christmas Review, in which he identifies the top 5 Asain martial arts movies (in his opinon, of course). Which are Shogun Assassin, Sanjuro, Yojimbo, The Legend and Return of the Dragon. I still need to see Shogun Assassin. I also got a kick out of Tim Razler's scathing review of the comic book adaption of City of Heroes.

The back page of the Mother Planet has a listing of gaming store locations around Ohio and an events listing. I imagine that it is circulated at said gaming stores: Alley Cat Games & Comics, Armoury Games, British Paper Mill, Comic Town, Darkwood Manor, Dave's Clubhouse, the Guardtower, The Laughing Ogre, The Soldiery & Ravenstone games. So next time you are getting your comics & gaming fix, check the free table and see if you can pick up some issues.

 
 

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Penny Reads a Zine



 
 

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via Marek's Blog on www.MarekBennett.com by Marek on 7/11/08

PhotoByJulieBaudler1.JPGI was so happy to finish my zine for Teen Zine Week and bring it home tonight. It's a new edition of the Henniker*Star, similar to past editions, but eight whole pages long! It's also the perfect size for a cat to read, and most of the articles… nay, ALL the articles are tailored to a feline audience. (It has a lot of news about the ongoing cat elections, for example.)

I showed the cat newspaper to Penny. At first, it was kind of hard to get her attention…

DSCN5288.JPG

But once she saw an article about her own catpaign for Cat President, she was hooked:

DSCN5289.JPG

Now she's a regular reader!

DSCN5285.JPG


 
 

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KSENOFOBIJA # 4



 
 

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via punks is hippies - the blog! by Papst Benedikt XVI on 7/12/08

Hello zine lovers! Well, I don't know much about this fanzine, but I'm sure you know that the title comes from the word Xenophobia. I got this fanzine from a friend but I don't have a clue where he got it. It's from Croatia (a place called Našice) and it's also written in croatian; it was published somewhere in 1998/1999. Format is A4. It has a lot of concert reports (G.B.H., The Vibrators, Monte Paradiso festival in Pula and other great local gigs), punk photographs, crossword on the back side, new bands, Našice punk scene, adventurous stories about being a punk, getting drunk and other funny and/or serious stuff. Just a good ol' fanzine :) hope you like it. Cheers! dunjchi


 
 

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Saturday, August 9, 2008

Scorpi-Oh #3



 
 

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via (title unknown) by admin on 7/11/08

1/2 size - 24 pages. This zine is completely different from most others that I've seen since it deals exclusively with mix tapes. All the magazine is is mainly lists and different descriptions of each of the mixtapes, which seems like a pretty bland topic for a zine, but Joolie makes it interesting by [...]

 
 

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Small Press Review (Sunday Comix)



 
 

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via M.A.D. Rants by noreply@blogger.com (MAD) on 7/10/08

Here we have the "Sunday Comix Jams", and this is the book that got this whole small press reviewing party started.

A comic jam is basically like a music jam. I imagine that is where the term comes from. A band sitting together each one contributing to the overall song, having a "jam" session.

In a comic jam, one artist starts a panel and then passes the page around so that the next artist can add a panel to it, and so on and so on until the page is filled. The end result is usually something like someone's game of mad libs. Part of the problem with this though, is that, who wants to read someone else's game of mad libs? Especially if the mad libs are full of injokes and potty humor.

Comic jams are fun to make, sometimes, they are fun to read. But that is the problem. At least as I see it. I wonder if someone has the same complaint about 24 hour comics. Having an understanding of what 24 hour comics are, maybe a bit more leeway should be given...but comics should be fun to read, hell, I think everything except maybe that prospectus report from your insurance company should be fun to read.

Sunday Comix Jams
features (among other things) extreme close ups of an ass, piles of shit sold on ebay, and bird dispensing suicide advice and plenty of ways to kill Max Ink. At times it is very humorous, but for the most part it is just what you'd imagine going panel to panel - random. Really really random. The art is varied, as one can only imagine, and some panels are rendered much much better then others.

I really like the back page though, which is very much an example of Mike Lucas' humor and art style. Appropriate since Mike Lucas is the one who drew it. This book was published in 2003. There are 23 contributors listed on the inside back page. 23! I recognize only a handful of those names as continuing members of Sunday Comix.

I gave plenty of copies of this book away at Gem City Comic Con, but flipping through it, I thought, why not do something that showcases the group's work a little better? So I pushed Max Ink a bit and got the ball rolling for a new publication called Sunday Comix Showcase. It is that publication which I am writing all these small press reviews for. That and my sending out everything to zine libraries and clearing my shoebox so it can be ready to refill with the next batch of trades I make at SPACE.

It is always good to have something to give away. I know what a comic book jam is now, but only because I've done a few of them. The first time I was asked to do one, I had no idea what was being requested of me. In website design, part of the goal is to make everything as easily and instantaneously comprehensible as possible. That is why "Don't make me think" is a great book on web design.

At one of my shows, a casual browser looked at my table and asked "Are those greeting cards?" It took me a moment to realize what he was talking about. My books. He thought they were greeting cards.

I feel like I need to create a giveaway that explains to people what small press comics are. I have a wonderful collection in this shoebox here, all different sizes, different styles, some screen printed, some photocopied, some produced through print on demand. I can look at all those and see comics, comics, comics. But other people might not know that at first glance. That is obviously something which is on my mind, see my last blog for more on that idea.

Sunday Comix Showcase was one idea of a giveaway that I thought might benefit the whole group. Each person taking a page for their particular style. Letting their cartoons show the world what it is they do. It has actually grown far beyond that. For one, the Wexner Center had quite a lineup of cartoonists coming in town for their Jeff Smith: Bone Exhibit. One of the members of Sunday Comix was able to get an interview with Harvey Pekar at the Ohioana Book Festival. Another member of Sunday Comix has written an article about the correlation between comics and music. I'm curious to see how the final presentation will come out.

I'm taking advantage of my insomnia tonight instead of letting it take advantage of me, but that is all I have to say about this particular book.

 
 

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Friday, August 1, 2008

Small Press Reviews (Ray Tomczak)



 
 

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via M.A.D. Rants by noreply@blogger.com (MAD) on 6/26/08

Ray Tomczak is rather dedicated. There is a long list of websites in which his comics appear, on drunk duck, comic space, smackjeeves, webcomicsnation and wasted-potentialcomics.blogspot.com. That is only one of his blogs. He has several. A more complete list of his links are located on his blog.

The first comic I have here from Ray is Fit 2 Print. This is a mini which looks like it may have been printed 2 up on an 8.5x11 sheet and then cut in half. It is a collection of the Wasted Potential comic strips that appeared in Columbus, Ohio newspapers, "The Atomic Tomorrow" and Columbus Alive in 2005-2006, along with the reprinted Pop Darts strips from "The Atomic Tomorrow" and bios of Wasted Potential's main characters.

The back of this comic contains a little bio on Ray himself. It talks about how he majored in Communications at Clarion University of Pennsylvania and produced the comic Norm's Dorm for their student newspaper, The Clarion Call. He revived the lead characters of Norm's Dorm into a new strip called Wasted Potential which has appeared in Oh! Comics; Rap Sheet, the Official Newsletter of the Small Press Syndicate and of course the newspapers I mentioned above.

I also found Ray listed in the Denver Zine Library, so I don't know how much of a minor favor sending his books out might be in this case. But hey, at least that is another zine library to send books to. The list that I am using for sending these out is here: www.zinebook.com/resource/libes.html

Before I get too sidetracked, I'm going back to this review. Fit 2 Print contains newspaper strip style comics, most are Wasted Potenial but a few of them are Pop Darts a lot of these strips are available online for free if you follow the links you'll see what I'm talking about.

In Fit 2 Print, we follow around the life of the main character Norm, other characters include Norm's sister, Norm's roommate Bill Warner and Bill's on-again-off-again girlfriend Sheila. Generally these strips are about 4 or 5 panels long, with a gag line at the end.

Norm is a cartoonist with a day job working in a fast-food drive thru. Norm's bouts of self-loathing and depression can be clocked, and often are by Norms semi-calloused roommate and buddy Bill Warner. See what I mean below:


 
 

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Cheapest SOBs #1

Cheapest SOBs #1
16 Pages Pocket Size
$1

Holy crap. This may be the funniest and all-around best zine ever. Written as a series of single frame comics, these two or three sentence stories tell the story of Kelly's insanely cheap grandparents. I laughed my freakin ass off. My only complaint is it ended too soon! I hope Kelly never runs out of material, and I look forward to more.

Kelly Froh
706 Belmont Ave East #4
Seattle WA 98102
www.scubotch.com




Review first appeared in Zine World

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