CYANIDE MILKSHAKE zine
I think discovering the comics of Liz Suburbia has been my
favorite art-related thing in the last 6 months. It’s the perfect combination of punk, humor (both lowbrow
and highbrow at once), and awesome art.
Her style is very flowing, fun, and has an excellent sense of line. Each issue of this zine contains short
stories about dogs getting into adventures, an ongoing saga of two punk lovers
surviving a zombie apocalypse, humorous rants, sex, and lots of hilarious fake
ads. Liz also has some great
online-only comics on her site that are worth checking out. But these are most certainly worth your
few measly dollars too. Get it.
(Czap Books)
DO-IT-YOURSELF GUIDE TO FIGHTING THE BIG MOTHERFUCKIN’ SAD,
by Adam Gnade
You know how we all have that aunt, or maybe some person you
know from high school that you’re not sure why you’re friends with, on Facebook
who consistently post those vague little inspirational affirmations with a
picture of a field or something, along with something like “OMG so true!!!” in
the caption? This is like an
entire book full of those. This
guy basically made a bunch of lists, all saying basically the same thing, about
how to rise above when depression starts setting in, and remain
productive. If it works for the
author that’s cool. But if I want
a pick-me-up I prefer to go to music I suppose. Interjected throughout the book, though, are various little
stories that are about actual experience that I found far more interesting than
the lists, and far more substantive as well. (Pioneers Press)
HARD FIFTY FARM #2, by Jessie Duke
OK, I didn’t catch the first one, so the story kind of picks
up with a couple getting out of the West Coast and moving to semi-rural
Kansas. I sort of like how the
story jumps quickly from moving there, jump ahead a ways and she’s pregnant,
jump ahead a couple more years and there’s kids and a husband possibly unhappy
with how his life has turned out, jump ahead a bit more and a car crashes in
front of their house and they help deal with it. The author does a nice job of bringing you up to speed
without having to say much, and still putting the reader in the context of her
life. Anyways, it’s a quick
read. I wasn’t sure, at first, if
this was just fiction until I saw some of the photos in the zine and realized
it’s pretty autobiographical.
(Punch Drunk Press)
HIP-HOP FAMILY TREE, by Ed Piskor
My first exposure to hip-hop was through some compilation LP
my Dad brought home from the library sometime around 1983 or 1984 I guess. Hearing this cool music with
personalities like MC Ricky D (later known as Slick Rick) and Doug E. Fresh
filled my young mind with what music could be. Then around 1988 I became a fervent devotee of “Yo! MTV Raps”, the afternoon show that
showcased hip-hop videos and hosted by characters such as Ed Lover, Dr. Dre
(the East Coast one), and Fab Five Freddy… who I had no idea were so instrumental in hip-hop’s very
early origins. From that point on
I was a hip-hop junkie for the next several years. I still hold much of that music as influential and
instrumental in my growth. So to
see that a comic/graphic novel of the mid-70’s origins of hip-hop has been put
together made me very excited. It’s
a fantastic depiction of the mood of the era, with DJ’s creating beats and
playing them in parks and house parties in the Bronx/Queens areas of NYC. The people who got this all started- DJ
Cool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash, DJ Hollywood, Russell Simmons,
Kurtis Blow, and more- all show up and cross paths, battle each other in the
parks and clubs. People like Fab
Five Freddy, with connections to the graffiti and art scenes, introduced the
music to art circles, and then into the punk and new wave scenes. I find it a fascinating chunk of
history where so many big things were happening at the same time (graffiti,
punk, rap, etc), that would have massive cultural impact upon the world. And to think so many of these players
are still at it. This book drops
off around 1981 and I believe a second book is in the works. I love the art style in here too, each
page looking as if it were torn out of a comic from 1975. A must read/view for people interested
in hip-hop history.
(Fantagraphics)
JESUS LIZARD BOOK
All you reg mouth-breathers will get the dregs version of
this book, but since I was a good boy Santa delivered me the ultra-fancy one
that comes with a special 7” record signed by all the band members, as well as
some wacky postcard drawn up by David Yow. So suck on that turdlings. Yeah, so if my obsession with this band couldn’t get
geekier, they have a coffee table book now, simply entitled ‘Book’ (makes sense
for a band that used four-letter words in the title of everything they ever
did). It’s a couple hundred pages
of various accounts from band members about who they are, how they came to be,
as well as dozens of stories from fans, associates, tour buddies, and other
band people about the musical juggernaut that was The Jesus Lizard. I personally enjoyed the bits about
each album, how it was recorded, and bassist David Sims dissection of each
song. I have to say though, I’m a
little dismayed that he included no descriptions about the songs on “Down”
because he hated that record so much.
That, for me, was the introduction the JL, and stands as a record I very
much enjoy from them. He also
isn’t a big fan of “Liar”, which is my personal favorite in their catalog. But I digress. Hundreds of photos, flyers, a complete
listing of every show they played (probably close to 1,000 in total), and other
associated details of the band are included. Sure, it gets a little over loaded with stories of how great
of a live band they were (that doesn’t even need to be said, it’s undisputed
fact), but any story involving basically anything David Yow does is worth the
price of the book…. and there’s
plenty of those too. (Akashic)
NIGHT WATCH zine
A zine that promises ‘beer, boobs, and barf’ only registers
1 out of 3 in my interest zone.
But primarily the makers of this publication focus on art of the
strange, B-horror movie, tattoo art, and related strangeness. So it’s kind of an art zine. Juxtapoz of the lowbrow perhaps? Local detail-obsessed, obscurity-hound
and tattoo slinger Mike Tommyrot draws up the cover of the latest issue and is
interviewed (which tends to be worth the cover price alone as the man is wealth
of useless/awesome sub-references), along with showcasing a great deal of his
artwork. Other wild and wacky
artists contribute pieces to the zine, some are excellent and funny, others not
quite my taste. For some real fun,
take a look at their tumblr page, lots of wacky shit all over that thing.
(Night Watch)
SLURRICANE zine
I’m not sure I can accurately convey how ridiculous this
zine is. So this guy, Will Laren,
draws these sorts of random pictures of people, usually not very glamorously,
and writes a bunch of absurd text above them. This goes on page after page. There’s no story, just an immediate situation that gets more
ridiculous by the word. A man on a
cell phone calling a bug supplier to deliver a million moths to eat the ‘poor
people clothes’ off his body because he won the lottery and wants to buy new
duds. An old man yelling at a
young kid that he don’t know shit about stealing pies cooling on a windowsill
because he had been doing it for years, got too greedy, and burned his hands
down to stumps stealing molten bars of gold cooling off on the windowsill of
Fort Knox. It really makes no
sense and that’s the best part, and makes each page, each picture, and each bit
of text the funniest shit I’ve read in a long time. (Slurricane)
