Elly Dallas—author of my other favorite autobio zine about being an educator (Student Teacher Journal) and my constant repetition of the phrase “fuckin’ Pam”—is back with an ink-painted comic diary about her year teaching an art class to, presumably, junior high students. The diary has no plot, but does tell a story of burnout, empathy, […]
Ben Wrex shares their frustrations with dating as a non-binary person through several comic strips. Some have some humorous outcomes while others show how shitty it can be when others you’re intimate with don’t make it a priority to respect your gender. The comics are drawn in a simple style, à la John Porcellino’s King […]
I’m guilty of taking Hamburger Eyes for granted, assuming their collections of miraculous, funny, enigmatic, sweet, absurd, mundane, breathtaking photos will always be there if and when I need them. And lately I’ve needed them, maybe as a palate cleanser from bland social media photo saturation, maybe as a reminder that some people are still […]
It may be brief, but in these two pages is the encapsulation of why zines are so important: a personal outlet, a community resource, a cultural necessity. You get prisoner profiles, info on snitches, some prison history, movie reviews (as well as an explanation on why Turner Classic Movies is so important to prisoners), illustrations, […]
Adam Voith is back with the seventh issue of his mid-brow literary zine, Little Engines. There are stories and poetry from Mike Nagel, Vic Nogay, Kevin Grauke, and Leslie Wilbur. All the artwork is by Aaron Burch. I especially liked Wilbur’s piece about the romance between a piñata and a package of prune cookies at a tiendita. […]
For those with a sense of adventure, there’s always a lot to love with a good travel zine. Rachel’s first issue of Livin’ Outta Bins is all about her journey from her home in Seattle to her former residence in the city of Chicago over the course of five months. Along the way she travels […]
While meditation and mindfulness can sound easy, in practice it’s a constant struggle to not let your mind wander, think negative or random thoughts, or focus on outside stimuli like sounds and smells around you. Meditation Funnies takes this idea and draws one-page comics of the little voice as an actual horned character, distracting the […]
As this is part two of a story I did not read the first half of, I can’t really weigh in on the plot, which I was a bit confused by and which the character chart at the beginning does not really help. In any event, it’s the twenty-fifth installment in Andrew Neal’s “comedy soap […]
The second issue of this one continues the campy pulp tradition of the first issue, with tons of comics embracing gleeful violence and gore. “Atonement” is the standout here, with Jesus and Lucifer in the sort of battle you’ve probably never imagined before. An interview with J.R. Bookwalter, director of Robot Ninja, focuses on craft, […]
Another killer issue of all ’80s skateboarding photos. You get the sketchy quarter pipes, crust ditches, pools, launch ramps, half pipes, some really cramped-looking full pipes (but you take what you can get in the search for skateable terrain), and street plants. There are also a couple of early freestyle photos that would eventually give […]
This zine opens with a definition of class conflict from Wikipedia (I did look it up to confirm this). Then there are two very short interviews with bands that amount to “what got you into playing music,” a recipe for vegan soup, one six-sentence show review, one blank page, and an ad. Almost none of […]
Tyler Sonnichsen (who you might remember from One Punk’s Guide To Stand-Up Comedy back in issue back in issue #112) is the author of the Ben Irving Project: Tyler’s grandfather was a salesman and Hartford-based band leader who left behind more than a thousand postcards from his travels. This one-pager tries to make sense of […]