I did a volunteer shift at the Glasgow Zine Library this weekend, so I thought I'd highlight some of my favorites from their current selection of zines in the reading room. Check these out if you're local! The Weegie Whackers were also there, raising money with a bakesale for their LGBTQ Tennis club.
Title: In Amongst the Pigeons: An Intro to Ghost Dog
Category: Movies
I LOVE this movie, so much, and this zine is a really cool, eye catching format. Each page is a frame from the film, and the pages are cut to widescreen ratio. Stoer's thoughts on Ghost Dog himself, what he represents about the status of the hero (whether cowboy or samurai) in modern films and settings, are very perceptive and really capture why I think about this film so much. Is Ghost Dog not quite weird??? YES! But that's what makes it so good.
Title: How I Survived My Teenage Years
Category: Comics
This was a part of the new curated display for this month, themed around Human Growth. It's a cute, short comic zine that covers a variety of relatable teen years incidents-- being unable to dance, equally unsuccessful attempts at body modification, having to check out at the grocery store when your crush is on the register-- all the despairs and agonies are here.
Title: Thrift Score
Category: Periodical
This is a 90s quarterly zine that I love going through when I'm in the library, because my pulse also quickens at the possibility of recreating past amazing scores whenever I go past Glad Rags or an Oxfam. The zine is based out of Pittsburgh, PA, and is an interesting portal into how to find and evaluate thrift stores, as well as zine distribution infrastructure in the largely pre-internet 90s, though the author does have this crazy new thing called an e-mail address. Woes about overabundant items, reviews of pick-n-mix trashy SF paperbacks, reader submissions of the strangest items they've ever thrifted (including a psychiatrist's couch!), the hidden dangers of 70s clothing, and a legendary tale of how a thrifted shirt came to appear in a PJ Harvey video are all found within these rich pages.
This is a movies movies movies typa selection, not because the Oscars are soon or whatever but because I do just like movies and like getting zines about them. I think I got these from York Zine Fest last year and maybe also online? Let's dig in...
Title: Not Likely: A fanzine of unlikely film couples
Category: Movies
I used to hate romcoms but was won over to at least bewildered fascination with the genre by my current partner, who has written extensively about them, so zines comparing and contrasting different romcoms or recurring themes are always interesting to me. There are some interesting and also truly groanworthy picks rightfully flagged here... I actually totally forgot that Elf had a romance element to it, it seems so unsuitable to the subject matter lol. But ultimately I think I am a little more open to mismatched couples than the author of this zine is. Otherwise the genre can feel so enclosed by people with only superficially different appearances/class positions/careers/etc meshing perfectly in the end that it proceeds almost nightmarishly in favor of predestination or something. That two totally different weirdos can find they have something in common is what's so wonderful about ie Moonstruck. And also... even when I was in my romcom hater phase I loved The Holiday! Youngish Jack Black was definitely one of the most charming looking guys in Hollywood... I M O of course...
Title: For the Love of Gregg Araki
Category: Movies
A fun, old-school collagey zine full of visual tributes to the work of Da Master himself, Gregg Araki, along with some interesting interviews with a filmmaker influenced by Araki's work and an actor who appeared in one of his early films. It even has a mini-zine centerfold with lovely sketched illustrations. Generally just a big goodiebag of stuff if you like any of Gregg Araki's movies. I've watched a lot of them, but still have a few stored away for a rainy day... though this made me want to go full completionist.
Title: Fags Smoking Fags: John Waters
Category: Movies
A very luxe 8-page color zine compiling some rare selected photos of badass director John Waters (you know I love some Cecil B Demented) caught in the act of having a smoke. I like these sorts of zines; as the Internet's period of protean abundance ends and is enclosed by image search engines only retching up a page or two of the most basic results interspersed with ugly AI, the middle school binder ethos of printing out random cool images you found online seems to renew its relevance... I know I will always be chasing that image of Steve Albini in JNCOs I am kind of sure I definitely saw once, and will definitely immortalize it in zine form if I do find it.
Title: Cherry
Category: Comics
I read Alienation over the winter break and really enjoyed it. Inechi's unique style and expressive cartooning combined with characters struggling against the routines of everyday life as determined by bosses and tech companies are great. Revisiting this shorter work in zine form, a "bad girl fantasy comic" where a woman is liberated by the constrained timeline brought on by a mysterious health diagnosis, was fun given I've also just experienced the wonderful pleasure of quitting my job.
Title: The Name of This Zine Is... Talking Heads
Category: Music
As a certified "too much about the Talking Heads" knower, I can say this zine gets my stamp of approval as a nice introduction to the band for people who are curious and want to know what to get into. The illustrations are lovely and I really dug the dumb (complimentary) humor throughout as well. Stephen bought this for me at York Zine Fest and it included a postcard with David Byrne as The World tarot card!
Title: Scroll Down for Heaven
Category: Art
A series of descriptions of speculative art objects and publications. I was impressed with how this one managed to be equal parts inspiring, in a "why wouldn't someone do that" sense, but also satirical of how cornily acquisitive and commodifying the contemporary art world can be.
Hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day! I'm currently fighting off a sinus infection that is also making my ear feel weird... This Zine Revue I am highlighting three of my favorite ~subversive~ zines to draw attention to the ridiculous charges being brought against Des Revol for transporting anarchist zines. Read more about the case, and donate or otherwise support if you can here!
Title: The Past, Present and Future of Radical Pamphleteering
Category: History
This zine gives a really interesting overview of historically influential pamphlets from the 14th century onwards, then jumps forward to show how self-published print works influenced feminist movements in the 1970s and contemporary activist causes. It is an interesting examination that both considers the supersession of a lot of these functions by the internet/social media, but also makes a special case for why there are still some features of zines and pamphlets the internet doesn't have, and downfalls of the internet that print lacks.
Title: Trashzine
Category: Gaming
Vaida reminded me of this one this week! I remember some people objecting to the name as some sort of self-inflicted diss, which to be honest as an individual of punk experience kind of amused me. I think openly asserting the fact that you're not trying to be "good" in a games-industry standard way is actually an important element of self-esteem in a small games maker (or any other marginal, hobbyist sort of art, like zines), and this zine is a crazy time capsule of a bunch of perspectives on how and why to do that.
Title: Utopian Affirmations and The Why Cheap Art? Manifesto
Category: Art
These are lovely little riso printed pocket sized booklets that I picked up at York Zine Fair last year (which is an amazingly well done event!). The Why Cheap Art? Manifesto is an illustrated reprint of one of my favorite pieces of short art writing ever, and Utopian Affirmations provides a series of phrases and prompts to get you thinking about and towards the better world of the future. I love these, like a little afternoon snack to keep you going, artistically and philosophically.
And just like that, it's the end of January! Here are some more zines I've been reading:
Title: Work
Category: Politics
A well-structured pamphlet that advances a critique of work and a series of escalating direct action strategies workers can use to resist exploitation in the workplace. I picked this up knowing I would agree with its general idea, but found the practical side of what to do about these issues really clear-eyed; it also doesn't fall into the quagmires other left or anti-work critiques do when faced with self employment, sex work, unpaid reproductive labor, unemployed people etc. These ideas are always what most get my gears spinning thinking of how tantalizingly close a better world can be, and I feel the powerful solidarity of all people slacking off at work to do the things they actually care about. I was happy to see the essay Wageless Life get a shoutout, which I also enjoyed when I read it. (Not to be confused with the book of the same title, which I had more complicated thoughts about...)
Title: 5 Prose Fictions For A.I.R. - To be read, but not out loud...
Category: Fiction
I really liked Lucy Lippard's novel when it was republished a few years ago, and before that her curatorial and academic work on Conceptual Art was super influential on me. This is a recreation of a pamphlet from 1976 featuring copied drafts of some short prose pieces, but the conceptual eye for appropriation and recombination, of text from horoscopes, descriptions of scientific phenomena, nature imagery and first person narration with subtly unfolding scenes or character details that also made I see/You mean really interesting is all here. I enjoyed NY Times IV and First Fables of Hysteria the most.
Happy new year! Here's a roundup of zines I got at Edinburgh Zine Fair:
Title: They killed us all and there is no more traffic
Category: Politics
I enjoyed Folly Problem's other zine, so I was excited to see them at the zine fair and tell them so, plus pick up a new zine so pertinent to my interests. What is represented by the dystopia depicted in car commercials, where they glide eternally through an apparently depopulated Earth? This zine ponders this question in lovely riso. Honestly this one is hard to classify but I put it as "politics" because if I had to make a single-issue political party it'd be to outlaw car commercials and army commercials at the cinema, because I hate them. I hope this zine makes your stupid car cry.
Title: Evolution of Dexterity
Category: Technology
A zine with a really interesting narrow vertical format that depicts icons for a variety of digital cursor tasks, press, drop, pinch, click, scroll, etc. Inspired by the Whole Earth Catalog, it explores how our relationship to technologies and tools are shaped by our hands and common gestures.
Title: Take on Me (the song zine)
Author: Nora Yons
Category: Music
A cute series of bold and colorful UFO related illustrations (which was what caught my attention), set to the lyrics of the song Take on Me. It folds out into a poster!
Title: Stickers on Lamp Posts and Nariart's Halloween Playlist
Category: Activism & Music
A mini and a micro-mini zine. The first is a heartfelt poem about the dispiriting process of noticing and removing terfy/conservative party stickers in an area when no one else seems to care... I've also been there, but on the bright side a lot of people seem to give up easily after a few removals, and now I see more big-breasted anime girl stickers than anything (lol). The other is a Halloween themed playlist that ranges from Kesha to Zetsubou Billy to Screamin' Jay Hawkins. I think if we have to listen to the same 20-some Christmas songs in every public place for like 3 months of the year, it should be preceded by a Halloween themed 3 months for sure.
Title: The Boreal Crown and the Downfall of Civilization
Category: Politics (though this doesn't feel right; maybe I should make a Utopian category)
A thought-provoking and very useful set of essays that serve as an introduction to the utopian thought of Charles Fourier, and an incitement to imaginatively participate in his vision. A really useful zine, since Fourier's utopian writings, which had an impact on many contemporaneous marxist and anarchist thinkers, have long been out of print or hard to find in english.
Title: Astral Projection for the Modern Business
Category: Work
A mysterious and appealing riso zine in a unique skinny rectangle type format. I knew I had to pick this one up because I've been very into parody or satire for estranging the accepted absurdities of work lately. Work from home becoming much more of a norm in response to the COVID-19 pandemic kind of forces the question of the extent to which a lot of contemporary work requires presence versus simply using it as a means of control, or, on the other hand, demands splitting your knowledge and skills from feeble human limitations of the body. This zine combines evocative language somewhere between a guide to witchcraft and a timeshare brochure with savvy appropriations of public domain art to push the fantasies of worker compliance and productivity represented by the increasingly abstract, financialized economy to weird and hilarious extremes.