In case you missed it the first time around, Crap Hound -- A Picture Book for Discussion and Activity is, between a brief introduction and the end credits, pure imagery. Each page is filled with high-contrast line art, culled from vintage catalogs, advertising, obscure books, and found ephemera.
Craphound #7 is Church and State vol. 1. Loads of images of uncle sam, political mascots, american flags, jesus, the pope, crosses, and a few star-spangled fonts.
Perfect for zine makers, graphic designers, tattoo artists, or just someone who needs a specific, perfect image. Sean has a tremendous ability to scour for such things and the results are stunning. Time and again I'm amazed by the genius employed in just collecting clip art. Bootlegs were circulating and now the entire series is slowly reprinting!
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.
J. Gerlach is working on something he calls the simple history series-a set of zines, each one focusing on a different widely misunderstood event in history. We already carry his zine about Columbus, and now we've picked up his newest one, an explanation of the Crusades. In general, the Crusades were Christian raids on Arab lands, conducted with the purpose of "reclaiming their Christian Holy Land." These raids lasted for 134 years! It's a vital piece of history to help understand the clashes between Christianity and Islam today, and why there is ongoing animosity on both sides. It's really easy to read and worth your time. If we do not learn from our mistakes, we are doomed to repeat the past!
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.
Instead of documenting existing stencil culture, Cut and Paint provides stencil templates for you to cut out and print your own stencils! In order to get you started, inspired, and motivated in the exciting world of stenciling, it includes brief instructions as well as designs that are artistically and politically motivated. Beautiful artwork with adaptable messages from Icky Apparatus, Erik Ruin, Colin (Ideas in Pictures), Shaun S (Ross Winn zine), Josh MacPhee, Andalusia (Clitical Mass), and more! Newer, cheaper half legal version minus screenprint cover!
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?
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A searing critique of the car. Talks about the function of the car in suburbs and people's resulting dependence on it as well as the car's social ideology. "Things got much worse for author Kudo Mojesic. He was arrested in the street outside his Belgrade home attacking cars with an axe, yelling "Away with all cars - they are the devil's work!" -Sunday Mirror, London, January 11, 1976.
Many people speak out against President Bush in his illegal war and occupation of multiple countries but few do it so powerfully as Cindy Sheehan, the mother/war-supportor turned activist who appeared in Faerenheit 9/11 and then camped outside of the Bush ranch in Crawford, TX to protest the war and question what just cause her son was sent to die for. This is an interview with Cindy about her tactics adapted from Martin Luther King's nonviolent, yet direct, in your face approach to confronting the war. She talks extensively about civil disobedience, US foreign policy, New Orleans, military recruitment, her son Casey's death on his 5th day in Iraq, soldiers who resist, and her personal transformation into America's most outspoken advocate for peace. It's always very powerful when a middle aged mom feels the need to uproot her life to the battlefield of confronting the US administration, as opposed to a young, relatively free and privileged radical.
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!
By rebelling against hierarchical society and living under the Jolly Roger, pirates created an upside-down world of anarchist organization and festival, with violence and death ever-present. This creation was not a purely whimsical process. In The Devil's Anarchy, Stephen Snelders examines rare 17th century Dutch pirate histories to show the continuity of a shared pirate culture, embodied in its modes of organization, methods of distributing booty and resolving disputes, and tendencies for high living. Focusing on the careers of Claes Compaen, a cunning, charismatic renegado who claimed to have stolen more than 350 vessels, and Jan Erasmus Reyning, who hit the seas at age 12 and became a buccaneer in the pirate jungles of Santo Domingo, Snelders paints a salty picture of the excesses, contradictions, and liberatory joys of pirate life.
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.
While it may be pushing things to say that these pieces are just as accessible and relevant today as when they were written almost 400 years ago, it is certainly true that they are as relevant as when this pamphlet was first published in 1989. The Diggers were a communistic group in 17th century England who banded together against a ruling class intent on exploiting them and their labor.
This collection of powerful and illuminating essays by the likes of Alexander Cockburn, Michael Donnelley, Jeffrey St. Clair, JoAnn Wypijewski, and Kevin Gray, among others, makes clear the oft-repeated but fuzzily understood fact that there is ultimately little difference between the two dominant political parties in the US. Even if Democratic candidates talk a slightly more ideologically sound game, their platforms and promises are often just words: Cockburn calls the Democratic Party a "graveyard of movements for social change." The message of this book is not totally cynical, however; it stresses the importance of grassroots efforts and the power of common citizens. In this sea of bland, insincere, greed-fueled politicking, we have to do the work ourselves.
The beloved and infamous zine Dishwasher....is now a book! Dishwasher Pete made it his mission to wash dishes in all 50 states, and this book tells the tale of his quest for dishdog glory. In a public opinion poll on job desirability, cites Pete, dishwashing was listed #745 out of #750, beating out only 5 jobs, including prostitution and panhandling. Still, despite prevailing public opinion about the profession, Pete forges ahead in search of another state to put under his belt...well, um, apron strings. Definitely a book you want to sit down and read cover to cover, or until you pass out...so you can wake up and read more. This book reminds you that you can be whoever you want to be, whether that's a doctor, a lawyer, or a dishwasher.
A true, therapeutic story of a brother who rebelled against his family after a rough childhood, became quite abusive, fought with his parents, and eventually joined the military. No one quite knew how to socialize with him in a healthy way anymore as he had become so distant. This zine isn't about the answers as much as it is about trying to find them and dealing with the situation and feelings at the time. Something that perhaps everyone could relate to in their own way.
A well informed study that champions the unsung heroes and heroines of DIY distribution in art, music, literary zines and culture
This exploration of lo-fi culture traces the origin of the DIY ethic to the skiffle movement of the 1950s, mail art, Black Mountain poetry and Avant-Garde art in the 1950s, the punk scene of the 1970s and 80s, queer core, riot grrrl, situationists, rebel radio, raves, right the way through to the current music scene. Through interviews with key writers, promoters and musicians (including Bikini Kill, Aaron Cometbus, and Bratmobile) Amy charts the development of music outside of the publicity machine of the large companies, and examines the politics behind the production of the many 'home-made' recordings and publications available today.
Amy Spencer is a former zine writer and record label founder who is part of the promotions collective The Bakery. She is currently studying for a PhD in Contemporary London Literature.
This third printing combines the previously separate DIY Guide #2 with The Walls are Alive into one sturdy 72-page zine.
DIY Guide #2: This rugged little urban pirate handbook includes practical information and tips on tons of different projects, tasks and adventures: dismantling capitalism, action direct, forearm guards, shoplifting tips, software piracy, diy spelling and grammar, travelling on trains, backpacking, evasion communiqué #2.25, herbal gynecology, how to abort, sewing, diy oil change, quarter pipe, records, cd's and zines, book publishing contacts, postal jubilation, food not bombs, cook it yourself, wheat flour egg noodles, intro to plaster, black and white photography, safety pin tattoos.
The Walls Are Alive: A concise and masterfully conceived introduction to doing your own graffiti. It consists of practical and thorough advice on every step of getting your graffiti skills primed: preparation, how to make a stencil, mapping it out, strategy, escape, post-action regrouping, and also a whole section about wheat-pasting. Valuable also for its forty photographs of great real-world graffiti to ignite ideas and provide examples.
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A fascinating graphic novel that details the art and science of screenprinting from inception to printed t-shirts to working in a print shop to understanding line screens, to hawking your printed wares on the street! How to build a screen, burn an image, test how things are going, pull ink, wash out screens, know what screen mesh to use, and creative ideas. It's a true joy to see the exaggerated illustrations while learning such a useful and practical craft! How to turn your home into a t-shirt factory! Essential for people who don't know how to screenprint or those a bit rusty. ISBN 0-9770557-4-4
These comics by Fly are part one of a multi-parter! This is the Summer of Glass, and squatters are fixing up a former Glass Factory in NYC. K-9 is a squatter girl who is just trying to exist in a city of sweat, sex, and alcohol when she meets a fellow squatter named Dug. He's different, he doesn't force her to examine herself, or make her feel like a freak. The two start a friendship. But things get crazier than ever when the city tries to shut down the Glass House and all the squatters rally together at the Community Board Meeting to stop the eviction!
Part 2 of Dog Dayz! This issue picks up where the last left off...with Dug under a pile of cops! After his stint in jail, Dug and K-9 make a plan to escape the craziness of the city. K has second thoughts about Dug when he gets a ride to Philly without her. They go to the Anarchist Convention and it's predictable, except when K hears Ramona Africa speak about MOVE which hits close to home. Then they clamor into a car covered in scrawl like, "fuck the war machine," and head off to Dug's Grandma's house?!?!? To be fuckin' continued.
Cindy Crabb's zine is simply one of the best personal zines, complete with little scribbly cartoons and a subtle idealogical base worked in for good measure. It is really worth all of the hype and more. This is the L-M-N-O issue of the alphabet series discusses love, the ladies' group she attends with her grandmother, the process of menstrual extraction (a process developed in 1970 for women to take control of their bodies from home before abortion was legal), stories of living with her grandparents in Arizona, and a frightening trip that brought her and a friend to the California beaches where they got water logged in their tent and had to make an emergency evacuation. The beauty of the zine is how she slips in the simplest sentence in the middle of a story that connects her reading a book as a 16 year old to cultural appropriation or talks about her grandmother using the same inflection as her deceased mother and you can smile with her or shed a single tear because you understand and you can tell that she understands you too.
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