MY MAILBOX doesn’t bulge like it did 20 years ago with zines, but my heart still skips a beat when a small package or envelope arrives filled with Xeroxed (or professionally printed) self-published goodness. Let’s dive in and see what I’ve got lately.
I miss One Thousand Feathers. There was a coherence to that zine that I appreciated (even if certain issues were more miss than hit). Rojonekku Word Fighting Arts 2 is Raven Mack at his most mystical and stream-of-consciousness state of mind. It’s free-form jazz in an essay and there are times when I can go with the flow and appreciate what he’s saying. And there are times when I just go, “Huh?”
Unfortunately, RWFA2had more of the latter and less of the former.Wanting to keep things positive, I’ll focus on the article I enjoyed most, which was a surreal wrestling-themed piece called “New Earth Wrestling”, which reminded me of those old fantasy matches between rasslin’ legends that Gold Belt Wrestling magazine would print in the late 80s, pretending the results were calculated by a super-computer. In this instance, however, EVERYTHING is fictional, including the names of the wrestlers. This is a trippy but accessible piece. It’s sad that I can’t say the same for much of the rest of his zine.
I love Raven’s writing style and much of what he’s trying to convey, but I worry that his writing is heading to a plane that I just don’t understand anymore.
Rojonekku Word Fighting Arts 1: Raven Mack, PO Box 270, Scottsville, VA, 24590, USA. www.rojonekku.com[email for prices, 40S, :70]
Kamuke #8: You love ukes? You’ll fucking love this magazine. Still no feature on my fave uke player Amanda “Fucking” Palmer, but other than that…this is pretty uke-tastic.
Cameron Murray; editor@kamuke.com; www.kamuke.com[email for price, 36 x A5 pages, reading time: 20 minutes]Unbelievably Bad#15: The Melvins…Herschell Gordon Lewis…and the curious case of Kenneth Pinyan, who took horseplay a little too far. If you know any (or all) of these characters, then THIS is the zine for you. Funny, informative, irreverent – UBis so ziney it’ll make your anus bleed tears of joy. Oh and the piece on the Hottentot Venus was great – now THERE was a chick with booty!
Unbelievably Bad, c/- Von Helle, 9 Ross Street, Dulwich Hill, NSW, 2203, AUSTRALIA unbelievablybad@optusnet.com.au[AUD$8 or e-mail for details if from overseas, 68 x A4, 60+ minutes]OF COURSE, not all zines are zines. Some are self-published comics. In the past month I received the following…
Totentanz by Marcel Ruijters; A stunningly drawn, beautiful printed mini-comic about a naughty nun dancing with a skeleton. But things turn disastrous when another skeleton tries to cut in on the happy couple. I kept waiting for something blasphemous to happen, but this wordless strip is joyfully silly and trippy. Page after page is just highly kinetic illustrations of this very odd couple “cutting a rug”. A delightfully endearing tale. Contact Marcel at www.xs4all.nl/~troglo for ordering details.
#takedown by David Blumenstein: A factual account of the huge protest that terminated the short stay in Australia of pick-up “expert” Julien Blanc (watch one of his odious videos at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iULxmr2je8w). David was there the Melbourne seminar – working undercover as one of the seminar attendees. This simply told tale is both amusing and surprisingly fair towards the protesters and the people who attended the event…although not to sleazebag Blanc himself. I liked this comic a lot.
Order it from Pikitia Press (www.pikitiapress.com).My friend Adam gave me Good Dog, Whiskey, an Aussie comic by K. Kobi about a dog who takes loyalty to his master to an extreme level. I found it quite moving, although the art (based heavily on photo references of people) was patchy in parts.
You can order Good Dog, Whiskey from Book Depository (http://www.bookdepository.com/book/9781481076463?redirected=true&selectCurrency=AUD&w=AF45AU96QHCMF0A8ZRS5&gclid=Cj0KEQjwuLKtBRDPicmJyvu_qZMBEiQAzlGN5jpK8_od8PwdiQd4v88vbb3xAeYGjlsQRl2cbM4UbAcaAvNe8P8HAQ).