Clutch and Nicole team up for their fifth annual comic split zine! This one covers two weeks in May '06. Clutch spends his days hanging out with friends, making odd observations, and going out on solo escapades around town while trying to not be defeated by daily annoyances such as new shoes that hurt and a messy room. Nicole's everyday consists of getting over a break-up, queer friends, furry & fluffy pets, working on art, and being silly.

Charmingly Florida-centric zine from Dave of the band Grabass Charlestons! This issue includes a bunch of great interviews, including one with the band Radon. There's also a discussion with Tom of Against Me! about his plan to live in hotels for a straight year, and one with Travis of America? zine about the differences between living in a communal warehouse, and buying his own home. These interviews work together as a thought-provoking examination of different living styles. There are also some very entertaining sunset reviews. Finally, I'd like to mention that the author has a tattoo that simultaneously depicts coffee and Florida. Let's just say he's committed.

3rd Edition! This is Nicole Georges & Jon Van Oast's compilation zine all about....you guessed it, coffeeshop crushes! Submissions from Nicole (Invincible Summer), Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man), Shawn Granton (10' Rule), James Squeaky (Sincere Brutality), Lizz Zitron, Greig (Clutch), Aaron Renier (Spiral Bound), "Rainman", Nate Beaty (Brainfag), Brad Adkins (Charm Bracelet), as well as MANY anonymous pieces (go figure!). About half of this zine is comics and the other half is short stories. The most entertaining parts to me were the articles on the sexual nature of a few coffeeshops' webpages and a comic about a boy who worked in a coffee shop and his story that suddenly jumps into graphic sexual drawings and depictions. You already know you want this. Do yourself the favor.

View All 7 Comments

Aaron's description of his travels, life, houses, and culture. Very instrumental and influential in shaping zine making today. #48 is a collection of interviews from people who have left cities called "Back to the Land". Aaron has an amazing ability to explain and glamorize things in punk that most of forget or begin to take for granted. He makes sex in a dumpster sound like something to seek out. He makes me want to kiss in the rain. He makes a horrible tour sound like a great experience. He turns broken bones and horrible injuries into a great metaphor for appreciating life. Limited to 10,000 copies so they become collectible.

Aaron's description of his travels, life, houses, and culture. Very instrumental and influential in shaping zine making today. #49 is a contributor issue. Aaron has an amazing ability to explain and glamorize things in punk that most of forget or begin to take for granted. He makes sex in a dumpster sound like something to seek out. He makes me want to kiss in the rain. He makes a horrible tour sound like a great experience. He turns broken bones and horrible injuries into a great metaphor for appreciating life.

It's back for the 25th anniversary! Aaron said that #49 was it for this zine but here we have #50 right here on our overpacked shelves. Along with Aaron's unmistakable handwriting and artwork are letters to the editor, interviews with some familar faces in music like Blake Swartzenbach, Ian Mackaye, Dave Edwardson, Zak Sally, KYP Malone, Greta Brinkman, and Christina Billotte...talking about anything besides their music, a few new stories from New York, and a big feature of reviews of NYC used book stores. This zine is more of what you have come to love about Cometbus and a few surprises.

A new Cometbus! Aaron has delved into East Bay history to produce this complex set of interweaving stories. He has done a ton of work on this issue, combining information gleaned from over 40 individuals. The stories are as obscure (to most people) as they are engrossing, and a whole secret history of Berkeley's Telegraph Ave. is revealed. Entrepreneurial booksellers and their long-standing feud, street vendors, and the Symbionese Liberation Army all make appearances. There's also back-story on Cody's Books, Shakespeare and Co., and Black Oak Books. And of course Aaron still manages to personalize it, with a pervasive sense of sentimentality and charm. Although the zine's central focus is on Telegraph, the underlying story is of the complicated relationship we often have with place.

A comprehensive guide to building your own bike cart or trailer - obtaining materials, design, welding or bolting the whole thing together, weight capacity, hitches, and then the most important fundamental question: why build a bike cart. All of the theory and practice necessary to convince yourself that you too need to construct your own bike cart or trailer to share in your community! A true tool to help more people reach car independence, and find more joy in the process if not only through the illustrations and photos in this zine. A good start to reduce excuses for driving!

New from Kristian Williams, author of the books Our Enemies in Blue and American Methods! Williams is an active member of Rose City Copwatch in Portland, Oregon, and has devoted a great deal of his life to "policing the police". Williams writes short essays on various current topics, such as direct action, the ELF, and various facets of Anarchism as it relates to a police state. A great way to become aware of issues surrounding state authority.

Constant Rider #8 is the first new issue from Kate in 3 years and well worth the wait! It's got the all the usual tales of fellow passengers, including the applicant and the sports fan. There's also Industry Insider, a section where Kate interviews a bus driver, a field engineer, and a traffic engineer. Proving that there are many sides to the same transportational story.

For you reading and riding pleasure, we bring you an anthology of the Constant Rider issues #1-7! Mass transit maven Kate Lopresti spins stories of fights, intoxicated passengers, fellow travelers' reading choices, and even impromptu bus stop singers. Detailing countless years of riding buses, trains, and planes, these pages will leave you engaged and charmed. The cover is a beautiful 2 color illustration from Kalah Allen. New second edition has 64 additional pages! ISBN 978-0-9788665-9-4

View All 9 Comments

Author Kristi wants to know why activists always seem to burn out mentally, and why they chose to disappear from activist communities. What in our communities keeps us from sticking with it? What makes us withdraw and then afraid to come back? Supposedly we have supportive communities to help us deal with mental health issues, but what does that mean exactly? Do we really? This zine presents some questions and discussions to get your mind working around these ever prevalent issues.

Luke, the author of Cracks in the Concrete, took Fred Woodworth (of The Match! zine) up on his offer to teach anyone to work a manual press, and moved to Arizona! So this issue of his zine was produced on an offset printing press! Luke is young and excited about Anarchism, and his zine is very Match!-like in its content: Why religion, authority, and voting are shams, police brutality, and obituaries are all included. The author hopes to inspire others with his serious passion for Anarchism.

Issue #2 of the comic zine Cramhole is about a bunch of different things including but not limited to: David Lynch, working at Burger King, record stores, death, freaking out on coffee, and Indian buffets. Cramhole always finds the humor in the basic trials of getting through life as a mid-30's punk rocker washing dishes. I would get this if only for the movie poster sight gags like: "Lindsey Lohan is King Lear." Priceless.

We ordered this based on other reviews we read and we weren't disappointed! Cramhole says that any similarity to persons living or dead is coincidental. It can't possibly be true because this comic more accurately captures the annoying houseguest experience than any other story we've ever read. I laughed out loud every time I turned the page. There's also two bonus short comics, one about the phenomenon of documentaries about punk, and the other about Betty White. If you don't mind a little negative humor, you should really pick this up.

Crescent City Stories is a sad, yet somehow still adorable zine written by Nicki about her two months spent trying to help clean up the mess made by Hurricane Katrina. Nicki tells the stories of the people she meets, and describes the landscape as it now appears. The whole zine is handwritten and full of sweet drawings. But all of this is conveyed with the deepest respect for those she meets, and with full acknowledgment of her privilege and bias. Which makes for a satisfying read.

From the editors of "Smile Hon, You're in Baltimore" comes this collection of true stories about crime in their fair city. The first person accounts range from house break-ins, to car break-ins, to business robbery and kidnapping. All told with an obvious love for this famed US murder capital. Also features insets of crime statistics, for a little hometown perspective.

Don't let the word literary scare you off. Cursive Bomb #5 is a collection of three short stories by Hazel Pine that carry your full attention. It's got a traditional perzine feel and layout, so you don't really notice they're vignettes until your through. The main piece is about babysitting for a wealthy family with a grand mansion, who you realize will never understand the class divide between you. The other two are about a mental health workshop and its resulting closeness, and the self-mutilation of bored young girls trying to understand their girlness.

Finally! A new issue of Cut and Paint, the stencil template zine!!!! This one is super beautiful with an offset printed cover and blue ink inside! Stencils about bikes, land use, gender, gentrification, and a bunch of other topics. There's a couple pages of spreads of stencils from around the world. And a fascinating article about making stencils with moss, and another one about making nano-stencils the size of a human hair!

Dames on Frames calls itself a feminist bike zine, and it strives to articulate the places in which feminism and bike culture overlap. It raises interesting points, like why are only a third of all bike commuters in Bogotá women? Why don't male doctors suggest using cornstarch to sooth bike rash instead of advocating not riding at all? Why does "skill" rank as a higher deterrent for women riders than for male riders? The authors do a great survey where they poll riders on their major deterrents and the results are intriguing! They also provide a comprehensive chart of solutions for the different issues.

A second issue of the feminist bike zine, Dames on Frames! In this edition, cool and simple tips for hosting a beginner's bike class, a reflection on the I-35 bridge 's collapse into the Mississippi River. Also, commuter tips, St. Paul Critical Mass, filing an official complaint as a cyclist, self-defense tips, sweating, and a report on a few bike equality groups. A fair amount of this zine is in English as well as in Spanish.

Crimethinc For Beginners. Their first graphic novel. Less of a novel and more of an exploded manifesto, this might be just what you need. It is the type of book you'd thumb through in the store and actually want to buy (or steal). Topics range from anarchy to hierarchy, work to sex, alienation to liberation and technology, but every page burns with a passion for a freer life. The books vehement insistence that living is more important than art carries the argument beyond the typical debate. When you make it to the end, the personal testimonials about not working and the closing art pieces become an aria of voices urging you to close the book and live. Glorious, even for the most cynical reader. What more can we ask from a book?

View All 13 Comments

From the portrait of a man laid off from an auto plant--who fantasize about eating the car he helped build--to the chilling first person account of a killing spree, the stories in Deliver Me From Nowhere illuminate the changing forces behind American discontent. Set against the expansive emptiness of the American landscape, Deliver Me From Nowhere presents a brave new view of the shifting territory between gender and class, power and death.

As the stories pass quickly beyond the "universal" themes--salvation, redemption, the search for joy--that have transformed Springsteen's songs into anthems, its characters question whether redemption is possible or even desirable. In doing so Tennessee Jones' unforgettable people extract--sometimes to their own bereavement and awe--the thread of religion that runs through the American experience of rock and roll.

Tennessee Jones is the author of the long running underground zine Teenage Death Songs. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including the Best American Erotica series and Lodestar Quarterly.

The long awaited collection novel of nearly 50 issues of Cometbus across 20 years. What more can be said except that Cometbus is THE classic amongst zines and this tome only makes that more clear as you can reread all of the indispensable stories again or for the first time and get that familiar warm feeling that trickles down your body. Now in its third printing!

When he was a young man, comics artist John Porcellino worked five seasons as an exterminator - a mosquito abatement man - and wrote about his on the job experiences in his award winning, self published zine, King Cat.

Now, this book collects all the Mosquito Abatement Stories that appeared in King Cat between 1989 and 1999 (many of which previously unseen by human eyes), as well as over 30 pages of new material done especially for this volume.

From the raw, spontaneous, punk-inspired energy of the early strips to the gentler, more reflective lyricism of the later ones, this book chronicles John's difficult path from a nihilistic belief in the meaninglessness of life to a deep respect for the world as it is, and an acceptance of his place in it.