Can you believe I'd never read this book? When it comes to zines, I'm pretty heavily a primary sources kind of a girl, but prepping for a talk that required me to know a little about pre-riot grrrl zines, I wanted to do a little homework. And you know what, Zines! is really good. Vale chose a good variety of zine folk to interview.
It's hard to write a competent review for this minicomic perzine. I really just want to show you all of the comics so you can see for yourself how brilliant they are. But that would be obnoxious.
One of the greatest things about this punk rock lesbian bildungsroman is that it takes place on Staten Island, and also the East Village of the 1980s (?). The narrator Nina Boyd is a working class high school junior who is an athlete and aspiring member of the armed forces, in addition to being a dedicated reader of Love and Rockets and a Rocky Horror Picture Show-goer whose mecca is CBGB. Too bad she doesn't make it into CBs in high school due to curfews strictly enforced by her parents.
A friend sent me the unpublished manuscript of her collected writings about her unexpected pregnancy--making the decision she did, her relationship with the baby's father, pro-choice Christian spirituality, and lots of other great stuff. I look forward to the book being published so I can go into more detail about it. For now I'll just say that L is an excellent writer and while reading her book-to-be, I kept thinking of all the people I wanted to share it with.
The first issue (of many, I hope) of Rhonda's first zine in over a dozen years tells the story of her 42-hour labor and delivery. I am a childless lady who loves birthing stories, not to mention zines by librarians, so even if Rhonda wasn't someone I adore, I would have been all over Bloom.
I read this book. It is the autobiography of a pioneering distance runner who broke down barriers for women athletes. It is very good. I am sick right now and can't offer more than that.
It's 2039. Scientists have cured cancer and the common cold. Unfortunately in so doing, they have also created a virus that turns all of the dead or infected into zombies. Good thing there are some blogjournalists on the scene to find out who's weaponizing the zombies and training them on a presidential campaign.
See, Berkeley has always drawn the nuts and flakes of the academic world. That's what happens when you have a university that offers degrees in both computer science and parapsychology. It was a city primed to believe any weird thing that came across the wire, and when all those arguably crazy people started hearing rumors about the dead rising from their graves, they didn't dismiss them. They began gathering weapons, watching the streets for strange behavior and signs of sickness, and generally behaving like folks who'd actually seen a George Romero movie.
If you remember my gushing review of Emily's Parfait zine, you know I'm a fan. Basil Is Dying, about the passing of her beloved tabby will not disappoint you, but it will probably make you cry.
The Encyclopedia of Doris is more than the sum of its Dorises. I'm often not crazy about zine collections because zines read better individually. They're complete unto themselves and are particular to the moment they're published. With the Encyclopedia Cindy edited together nine years of Doris content, plus articles and interviews from other zines and magazines, and so it reads like a complete work, rather than awkwardly connected episodes.
Milo was in a funk, so ze made an abecedary zine about why ze loves zines and zine culture. I love it so much I'd make one myself, but that would be redundant and inferior because I'd pick most of the same things to go with each letter, and my graphics wouldn't be a thousandth as cute or a millionth as well laid-out.
