Microcosm Publishing

Nine Gallons #2: True Stories by Susie Cagle

tina — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 20:00:00 +0000

In Nine Gallons #2: True Stories by Susie Cagle, writer and artist Susie Cagle recounts her experiences with Food Not Bombs. For those unfamiliar, Food Not Bombs is a "franchise activist non-organization dedicated to fighting hunger with vegetarian meals comprised mainly from wasted food.” Food Not Bombs chapters are all over the world, though predominantly in major cities.

Though this publication is small, Cagle covers a lot of ground. You learn that it’s not easy being involved with the non-organization. One will face working for free (not everyone can afford to volunteer), unreliable volunteers, and uncertainty over where food and resources will come from. The public responds to your work in varied ways, ranging anywhere from positive support to fevered rudeness. There are also issues of class and racial privilege that come into play. As the writer perfectly states, "a largely white monopoly on Food Not Bombs as a cultural institution is an impediment to people of color self-organizing.”

Though the artist didn't touch on weather being an issue, the climate in which you live greatly affects when and where you can serve food. One year, the Food Not Bombs chapter I was involved in served spaghetti at a park on the fourth of July. With little warning, there was a rainstorm that showered us and our hard work. We couldn't afford a tent or cover of any kind, so the food was flooded and had to be thrown away.

Susie's writing is skilled, her illustrations are well-formed and charming, and her characters are both believable and easy to relate to. The only qualm I had with the zine was her illustration style. The artist draws people from a two-thirds angle and they are usually facing the same way. I am unsure whether she is limiting her angles and facial drawings due to necessity or artistic choice. Either way, this repetition distracts us from good stories that deserve our focus.

Overall, Nine Gallons #2 serves as an easy to read, honest, and articulate recount of working with Food Not Bombs.

Written by: Jacquie Piasta, April 11th 2011

Rad Dad #18: Sex & Love

tina — Sat, 09 Apr 2011 20:00:00 +0000

By Tom Moniz

Microcosm Publishing

After a promising introduction I was ready to absorb the essays that lay before me in Rad Dad #18: Sex & Love, a short zine concerning radical parenting with narratives exploring issues of sex and love. Needless to say, this zine made me feel a range of emotions: offended, entertained, informed, and bored. Some of these essays do not concern love or sex or are only very loosely related to the topics in an abstract way.

Rad Dad himself falls flat in his own personal essay. Using movie script queues, he rambles from one point to the next about memories and experiences that are loosely related or not connected at all. The author's entertaining writing style, passion, and experience are worthy of better organization and editing.

The third essay in the zine, entitled “Making Love,” was bad. I'm still reeling from reading a man's recount of a newly polyamorous relationship. When his wife comes home from an arranged date with another man, the jealous husband thought about sexually assaulting her and “not caring how she felt.” Though he didn't act on these thoughts ("I didn't want to look aggressive"), it was completely unexpected and terrible, especially when it was so graphically detailed. There was no warning; just an in-your-face, deal-with-this description of how he would rape someone. He also goes into detail about cheating on this same woman, years prior. The writer's colorful writing when recounting these gross experiences only cheapens them more. For a few days after reading this, I felt nauseated whenever I’d recall the author's words.

There's also an essay about child nudity and another about a person "breaking up" with the anarchist community. Many of the writers talk about their preference for polyamarous relationships. Some even insult monogamy, which I found unnecessary and misguided. There are a few essays by radical parents who talk about sex, love, and dating in relation to being a parent. I feel that these authors truly understood the zine's topics, while offering their own personal knowledge and experiences. This compilation would have benefitted from more essays like these.

My favorite part of this zine was the last section, “An Interview With Dr. White.” The interview was engaging and interesting and I wish it went on longer and was featured more prominently.

While I am against censoring voices, I feel this zine would have benefited from basic editing. A simple "trigger warning" before graphic material would be a great start. A few snips and cuts to a rambling essay would help the reader understand the authors' intentions and sticking closer to the zine’s topics would be a major improvement.

Written by: Jacquie Piasta, April 9th 2011

Bipedal, By Pedal! #2: Confidential Mad Libs

mandy — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 08:00:00 +0000

By Joe Biel

Microcosm Publishing

Because it’s been about ten years, I forgot how funny mad libs could be, and the ones in Bipedal, By Pedal! #2 have proven to be a fun distraction during lunch breaks and in long grocery store lines. Take, for example, my mad lib from this morning: “On Wednesday, September 29th at 17:30 hours, the so-called 'bananas' are planning a bicycle rally in downtown Portland. From information supplied by C.I.D., their plans...were to gather coffees in the South Park Blocks, group into formations of twelve riders...and gyrate along a predetermined path.” Okay, it’s not the most mature form of entertainment, but that’s a large part of its appeal.

What I was most excited about when Bipedal, By Pedal! #2 came in the mail was seeing the awesome creativity of fellow cyclists. I anticipated seeing the heavy-handed injustice that had fallen upon riders nationwide portrayed through silly rewordings of the Portland police inter-office memorandums. Yet the purpose of the small paperback booklet is presented in an aggravating way. While the information is served up with a strong slant against law enforcement, and in favor of the Portland Critical Mass Bicycle Rally, it doesn’t make cyclists look very good.

Critical Mass rallies are huge (usually monthly) rides that take place in many metropolitan areas around the world. The ride works better in some cities than others. Last year in L.A., for example, the LAPD was asked to join the group in order to protect the cyclists. And riders in Sydney, Australia have long ridden with police officers, who help control car traffic and facilitate the ride.

So, when I read that the group’s mission was to be “as non-confrontational as possible and...try and educate people about the stupidity of -ing verb cars,” I cringed. How can tired motorists trying to get home in rush hour traffic relate to a group of 200 cyclists blocking the intersection they need to cross? How do reports of cyclists “lifting their bikes above their heads and shaking them at police,” help anyone? In short, how will adding another frustration to people’s day win them over?

This is not to say there have not been reports of disturbing police behavior toward cyclists. One report, written by the arresting officer, details a confrontation with a cyclist: “I watch (Rothkoph) ride [eastbound] in the [westbound] lane. [When I] asked for his identification, he replied that he had none with him...I informed him that for his own and my protection I would place him in handcuffs...he looked at me and said ‘I don’t think so.’ I grabbed him by his head and took him to the ground.” Would that have happened to a motorist without I.D.? Unlikely.

We all have an agenda—that’s why many of us choose to write for Elevate Difference—but brandishing bicycles like weapons doesn’t seem like it will help the cause. In response to the antagonistic nature of Critical Mass in Austin, TX, a number of alternative rides have started, check for social cycling groups in your town, or try a Critical Mass to see if it’s right for you. Maybe you can step up and ask both the law enforcement and confrontational cyclists to be on the side of the greater good, no matter when or where or how they ride.

Written by: Tatiana Ryckman, April 3rd 2011

The Book Bindery

gwen — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

By Sarah Royal

Microcosm Publishing

I just read a wonderful interview with the great poet Martin Espada, in which he talks about the beauty found in writing on all kinds of subjects. Espada himself has worked as a bouncer, a gas station attendant, and everything in between. His words immediately rang in my mind as I sat and devoured Sarah Royal's anecdotes on working in an actual book bindery in an industrial section of Chicago. Her descriptions about the place itself are fascinating—full of dust, ink, large copiers, and smells reeking from all areas of the work environment. I could immediately imagine what it was like to work there, based on Royal’s vivid details. Royal also describes the surrounding areas of the book bindery—where the piles of detritus can create a sweet altar of art on the book bindery's windowsill, where a naked man parks in the back lot and lives for a few days, and where the neighbors run an auto shop that never seems to fix any cars. The stories range from hilarious to a quirky kind of sad and feature fascinating characters—the large dysfunctional family that works at the book bindery and everyone Royal meets through her lengthy commute to her job—as well as a location that seems like a character in and of itself. There's the boss in drag and his brother, who are former alcoholics; a mix of folks who have hooked up with each other, used to be married, have kids together, or are somehow related; and the infamous crazy girl that sits on the bus with Royal as often as she can and tries to break down the mysteries of life with her.

I relate to her mindless drinking of the sludge they call coffee at the bindery and bitching about the bosses in everyday banter with the other employees. I relate to using arts and crafts projects and other creative pursuits to break up the monotony of a job. I used to work at Wawa (for anyone that doesn't live in the northeast U.S., it's a big chain convenience store) and would create all kinds of songs and beats while slicing huge slabs of pink meat behind the deli. I would entertain all the other Wawa employees with imaginary stories and daydreams while filling the walk-in cooler. I think a good deal of folks can relate to this kind of behavior while working the drudgery of their daily job. And that's why these little stories are so satisfying. They're real slices of life, and as poet Espada says, "It's easy to write about the working class in the abstract, but that impulse tends to produce bad poetry. It's very different to write about working class people in terms of the work they do."

Written by: Maleka Fruean, March 30th 2011

Zinester's Guide to New York City

gwen — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 20:00:00 +0000

Edited by Ayun Halliday

Microcosm Publishing

I love Ayun Halliday's writing voice. It balances a small, healthy dose of making fun of oneself with a snarky and sassy perspective of the world. Her world is New York City, which she describes so well in her adventures with her husband and kids in her zine, The East Village Inky. So I knew I was in for a treat when I saw that Ms. Halliday herself cooked up this tasty guide to New York built exactly for my anarcho-feminist-who-still-watches-crappy/sexist-reality-show leanings. This is the guide to New York to use when you don't have much money, you're open to exploring, and you don't mind public transit. I was especially fond of the top 100 vegan items to consume throughout all of New York (oh, I heart you zinester Melissa Bastian...). There's information about festivals, all kinds of interesting venues for music, arts, and culture, and the atmosphere at each hot coffee shop and brunch place. Microbrews! Places that host guest bartenders! The best spots to copy your zines! It's even got cartoons and illustrations sprinkled throughout the guide, including art by one of my indie faves, Christy C. Road. It makes me want to live in New York (minus the high rents and New York attitudes).

If you need any more convincing to use this honest-to-goodness, made-on-paper guide instead of just doing a random Google search before you hit up Brooklyn or any other New York neighborhood, consider a few things. What Google map will be hand drawn and point out adorable facts like a water taxi that's free on weekends? What other city guide will give little anecdotes on street pole art and advice on how to make your own? And where else can you find gracious knowledge on everything from hostess gifts (edible items from throughout New York are safe bets) to scenic views to photobooth spots? I'm in love with this guide, and I guess I'm a little in love with New York, too.

Written by: Maleka Fruean, March 22nd 2011

Firebrands: Portraits from the Americas

priyanka — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:00:00 +0000

By Justseeds Artists' Cooperative

Microcosm Publishing

I was initially unimpressed by Firebrands, but that was because I approached it wrong. I tried to sit down in my living room and read it cover-to-cover, and that's not what this book is for. It's a pocket-sized compendium of amazing people—people "left out of the schoolbooks because they were too brown, too female, too poor, too queer, too uneducated, too disabled, or because they daydreamed too much." Each firebrand gets a page-long description, a lovely illustration, and a number of suggestions for further reading.

Firebrands reads somewhat like a reference book, and it could function that way—one could keep it on the shelf in case one heard the name of a lesser-known abolitionist, revolutionary, or what-have-you; then one could simply look that person up. As a blogger, though, I see it as much like a themed blog. It's best opened at random pages, read in fits and starts. It might have been interesting to include some kind of decentralized theme-organization within the book—something along the lines of a blog's tags. A few blog-inspired books have done things like that in recent years, such as the sex-positive anthology Yes Means Yes, which attaches a number of tags at the end of each essay, then lists all tags and their associated entries at the beginning of the book. (Firebrands does have a very nice index, however, so it's possible to navigate the book by themes in that way.)

Once I started reading the book at random and in small chunks, I started liking it a lot. The authors have done a great job of digging up pithy quotations and interesting anecdotes. A few entries lack vividness (it's hard to be enthralled by vague sentences like "She did a lot of community organizing"), but for the most part, these firebrands really sound inspiring. One of my favorite quotations came from the description of Latino baseball player Roberto Clemente: "Clemente's motto was, 'If you have the chance to help others and fail to do so, you are wasting your time on this earth.'" And I was charmed by an anecdote about the singer Nina Simone: "During a recital when she was twelve years old, Nina's parents were asked to relinquish their front row seats to a white family, and Simone refused to perform until her parents were returned to their original seats."

I was also impressed by the book's genuine inclusiveness—it covered a wide array of warriors, artists, leaders, and it did so while pushing beyond the typical "inclusive" boundaries. For example, as a sex-positive activist I was thrilled to note that the painter Frida Kahlo was acknowledged to be both bisexual and polyamorous.

The illustrations add a lot to Firebrands. I particularly love the images by Roger Peet. It goes with the last biography in the book, Zumbi dos Palmares, a Portuguese slave in Brazil who led an insurrection in the 1600s. Firebrands was produced by an artists' cooperative called Justseeds, and it's clear that the whole group pitched in for this book and thought carefully about each element. So you could benefit a bunch of artists by giving this charming collection as a gift! What’s not to love?

Written by: Clarisse Thorn, January 28th 2011

If It Ain’t Cheap, It Ain’t Punk: Fifteen Years Of Plan-It X Records

annette — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Directed by Joe Biel

Microcosm Publishing

If It Ain’t Cheap, It Ain’t Punk is a sweet, well put together documentary film that captures the spirit and feel of the do-it-yourself, underground punk scene that has grown up around Plan-it X Records in Bloomington, Indiana. The film began as part of a filmmaking workshop at Plan-it X’s weeklong festival in Bloomington in 2006. In sixty concise minutes it documents the fifteen-year history of Plan-it X records and of the growth of the do-it-yourself, underground punk movement that it has helped foster. The film includes live footage of bands such as Operation: Cliff Clavin, Ghost Mice, Defiance, Ohio; Against Me, Soophie Nun Squad, Japanther, and This Bike Is a Pipbomb. It also includes interviews with important figures in the Plan-it X universe such as Chris Clavin, who runs the label, and Hannah Jones from Ghost Mice and Operation: Cliff Clavin, as well as many participants in the Plan-it X festival.

The tone of the film is positive, light, and respectful. It showcases the relaxed, friendly atmosphere created by the bands and fans and their commitment to the politics of do-it-yourself economies, punk community, and radical activism. It is clear that the filmmakers are a part of the scene and close to many of their interviewees. They capture the scrappy aesthetic of patched shorts, wild hair and silk-screened t-shirts and the sense of playfulness that infuses the scene through kickball games and quarry swimming, as well as participants’ dedication to freely exchanging skills, ideas, and resources.

The filmmakers also make a conscious effort to explain the scene to those who may not be familiar with it. They try to contextualize its emergence within the history of do-it-yourself hardcore, pop punk, and the ease of communication and information dissemination facilitated by rise of the Internet. While this makes for a balanced documentary, it also is where the film falters. It’s unclear whether the film is made for an audience that is already familiar with Plan-it X and will thrill to seeing their community captured on camera or if it aims to explain this sub-culture to a wider audience.

Because it is unsure of its audience, If It Ain’t, It Ain’t Punk’s only fault is that it does not analyze the scene very deeply. While the range of commentators includes men and women in nearly equally numbers and the filmmakers are sure to include some voices over the age of forty, including a very sweet dad who has come to the festival with his son, there is a lack of analysis about who exactly is able to participate in this sub-culture and feels welcome. Most of the faces are white and most of the bands are male and the demographic of participants is overwhelmingly young, most under twenty-five. While this is unfortunately inevitable in many rock-oriented scenes, because the filmmakers are so seeped in the culture of do-it-yourself punk, they would be in a good position to critique it while not loosing what makes it so special: the friendship, fun, and political commitment that the film highlights so handily.

Written by: Eleanor Whitney, January 7th 2011

How to Make Soap Without Burning Your Face Off

mandy — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 08:00:00 +0000

By Raleigh Briggs

Microcosm Publishing

The ever-present danger of burning one’s face off is, in fact, one of the reasons I have hesitated to take up the hobby of soap making. Raleigh Briggs’s How to Make Soap zine helped to make the process seem less daunting and intimidating. While the zine is relatively short, at ten pages, it is chalk full of useful tips and information for beginners. The overall tone is lighthearted and fun, with a sprinkling of sarcasm and a wee bit of sass. Briggs does a wonderful job maintaining the cheery air, yet is still able to stress the importance of following all safety precautions and explaining some potential dangers of working with lye. Lye is a key ingredient in soap making, and if not handled with respect and caution, can be quite harmful.

Overall, I’m quite impressed by the layout and design of the zine. It is entirely handwritten with doodles and sketches, staying true to its DIY roots, but is aesthetically pleasing and easy to read. The zine begins with a brief history lesson, followed by important information on working with lye and a crash course in working with fats and oils. Towards the back of the zine, Briggs provides two basic soap recipes, along with some additional tips and tricks on customizing your soap with colorants and additives. The actual instructions are laid out in a flow chart type format spanning two pages.

While I find it visually appealing, I’m not convinced it’s the best way to present the information. If I were to have this handy while making soap, the layout would be difficult to quickly glance at and consult. The zine touched on many different aspects of soap making, but due to its concise nature, I found myself wanting additional resources to consult. Something I would have liked to see included would have been a short list of links, blogs, or favorite books to check into if the reader wanted additional information. Another useful addition would be a few recommendations on brands or places to order your soap making materials online.

I look forward to my first soap making attempt and thanks to Briggs’ zine, the task is much less intimidating and seems fairly straightforward. And I feel confident that I will emerge from the experiment with my face intact.

Written by: Liz Martin, December 30th 2010

The Curious Case of the Communist Jell-O Box: The Execution of Julius & Ethel Rosenberg

gwen — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0000

By Michael Hoerger, Mia Partlow

Microcosm Publishing

What could possibly be the connection between imitation raspberry Jell-O, communism, and the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg? I was intrigued. After all, what self-respecting leftist would not be interested in the case of the Rosenbergs, who at the height of the Red Scare were convicted of smuggling secrets to the Russians? The Curious Case of the Communist Jell-O Box (CCCJB) is a political zine by Michael Hoerger and Mia Partlow, which folds out into a full-sized poster, but for maximum enjoyment you have to read it as you unfold. In other words, the story unfolds as you do.

The authors use the theme of the Jell-O box to great effect. This seemingly innocuous product and its unlikely association with communism initially lighten the darker themes of espionage and subsequent execution. The ubiquitous gelatin dessert box then takes on a more sinister significance when presented at trial as a sophisticated communications device. Yet this evidence, which was central to the prosecution’s case, was never recovered, and unsurprisingly when shown a replica under cross-examination and asked whether they recognized the box, the witnesses all answered “yes.”

In CCCJB, Hoerger and Partlow write that the show trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were used to fuel public paranoia about communists and lefties in order to give the FBI and its leader, J. Edgar Hoover, greater powers to infiltrate and use extralegal means to quell any real or apparent leftist threat. If you read closely, you’ll see that the writers do raise the possibility of our late-defendants’ guilt, but it seems there’s a larger message in this zine—the unnecessary demonizing of the left or anyone who dares to raise the virtues of truth and justice.

Your inner geek will be tickled pink with reproductions of the now-declassified transcripts from the 1950 Grand Jury trial and a declassified CIA memo that supplies background material on how to counter pro-Rosenberg propaganda. The collage of period newspaper clippings and sensational headlines from both sides of the political spectrum with their scratchy and at times illegible letters give the zine a genuine 1950s look and feel.

CCCJB left me wanting to find out more about the Rosenbergs and the two children they left behind, and a link to further reading about the case would have been appreciated. But overall this was a well-planned undertaking and a lot of entertainment for just two bucks. I checked out the authors’ website, and they have other food-related political zines with their own declassified documents… excellent… excellent!

Written by: Heather Leighton, December 21st 2010

Scam: The First Four Issues!

payal — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 12:00:00 +0000

By Erick Lyle

Microcosm Publishing

Is it punk to drink when you’re flat broke? Is selling plasma or sniffing glue revolutionary? Is throwing shit off a Macy’s rooftop ever cool? Nearly twenty years after his zine was released in a series of diatribes about scamming the system and living on the edge of society, Erick Lyle’s writings as zinester Iggy Scam have been edited and bound for the masses. His collected works, Scam: The First Four Issues!, makes you question the very idea of “punk” and who gets to decide exactly what that means.

The best parts of Scam are the little things you don’t expect. Reviews of Beverly Hills, 90210; specific books, and generalized analyses—“Cars aren’t very punk. Roller skates are punk.”—are wickedly funny, provided you’re not taking Lyle seriously. Interviews with hardcore band Born Against’s Sam McPheeters or writer William Upski Wimsatt appropriately date the anthology and offer a window into the media Lyle was consuming in the mid-1990s. Pranks like Xeroxing 1,200 Starbucks coupons and handing them out are amusing, if only because you know Lyle didn’t get caught.

Much like Abby Hoffman’s Steal This Book, Scam is full of ways to rip off companies and The Man—most outdated and some more obvious than others. To get free unlimited copies at Kinko’s, swipe a paper clip in the copy machine credit card slot. To let loose free sodas and a bucket full of change, spray salt water into a vending machine dollar bill slot. Need new tunes? Sign up for introductory offers from now-defunct services like BMG Music. Hungry? Buy a soda at Wendy’s and hit the salad bar for free when no one is looking. Ask for a student discount any chance you get—whether or not you are one. Some of those little tricks were and are useful, if also deployed by not-so-punk suburban kids like me.

Some of Lyle’s exploits are awesome: house shows, hanging out at Food Not Bombs, and even protests are hallmarks of a youthful punk lifestyle. Running a pirate radio station and stealing electricity from street lamps can even be viewed as radical acts. Other aspects of Lyle’s so-called punk existence are markedly less glamorous, sometimes outright questionable, and littered with unquestioned privilege.

Take one of Lyle’s hitchhiking experiences, when the guy giving him a ride masturbated in front of him. Unhurt and not assaulted, Lyle walked away from the incident with a laugh—hardly what might happen if he were anything other than a young, white, straight male who thought it was more funny than frightening. In the same way, eating out of dumpsters, while arguably a way to reclaim perfectly fine discarded food, is also an act reserved for those not afraid of being harassed by law enforcement or arrested, as well as those who are well enough to risk food poisoning for a bit of free grub.

Some of Lyle’s stances, like his hatred for straightedge, are never explained. On several occasions, he advocates violence like smashing windows without particular purpose, seemingly because he understands violent acts to be related to anarchy, and thus punk. Granted, I’d never want anyone dissecting stuff I wrote when I was eighteen, but at times, it’s tough to read Lyle’s work as more than chaotic adolescent rants about how to destroy shit rather than effect change.

If nothing else, Scam is an interesting historical document from a time when eighteen-year-olds were listening to “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on the radio and watching the Gulf War on TV. If you can make out the scrawled handwriting, comics about graffiti and postage fraud, and care to read about hustling free condoms from STD studies at university hospitals, you’d do well to pick up Scam.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, December 18th 2010

Sick: A Compilation Zine on Physical Illness

admin — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 16:01:00 +0000

Edited by Ben Holtzman

Microcosm Publishing

It surrounds us. No matter how difficult, awkward, or painful, we will inevitably come into contact with it. But despite its ubiquity, physical illness continues to be one of the most challenging subjects for people to broach.

Sick is a compilation zine on physical illness that offers up the experiences and perspectives of individuals living with illness. Whether dealing with incurable polycystic kidney disease, coping with cancer, or struggling with an unnamed medical condition, each piece, no matter how distinct, explores common themes of support, communication, and community. Each writer concisely documents her or his personal struggle with illness and sheds light onto the stigmatization of sickness and deep-seated taboos that hinder dialogue. Apart from exploring the painful consequences of living in a society unaccustomed to discussing illness, the writers offer valuable tools that teach us to be considerate and helpful allies.

Sick gracefully navigates its way through a wide range of experiences as it aims to open the channels of communication and establish a collective voice for those impacted by illness. How do we respond when someone tells us they are sick? How many people in our community are transparent about having a disability or illness? What can we do to help each other feel welcome, equal, and supported?

The zine also considers exclusivity within radical/DIY/punk scenes. How does someone’s level of health determine their participation in a particular community? Riding a bicycle, marching in a protest, and dumpster diving, for instance, are activities accessible primarily to the able-bodied. To avoid being ostracized or dismissed, many sick individuals find themselves pushed into the proverbial closet of shame and isolation.

In our culture, sickness is a private affair. We have been socialized to fear or ignore it. Consequently, sick people must not only learn to manage their own disease, but are often burdened with others’ inability to openly discuss and cope with illness. Often racked with feelings of guilt, isolation, and alienation, it is essential that a sick person’s experiences are acknowledged and validated. This is what Sick achieves. It opens dialogue and validates experience. Perhaps we cannot understand what it means to have supraventricular tachycardia, but we can learn to listen and ask our friends how we can provide the support they need.

Though the accounts in Sick can be grim or downright disturbing, the writers’ warm resilience brightens every page with hope for opening discourse and dismantling entrenched social norms. It’s the writers’ heartfelt declarations and earnest desire to create a caring community that makes this read so compelling.

Sick is a compassionate, honest work and a necessary first step toward understanding the complexities of physical illness and building communities of support. It is challenging and tender; it is unprecedented and accessible.

Written by: Sofia Marin, April 15th 2010

Make A Zine!: When Words and Graphics Collide!

admin — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:01:00 +0000

By Bill Brent, Joe Biel

Microcosm Publishing

Remember when self-publishing didn't mean having a blog? Remember when you spent time proofreading your random scraps of writing and rearranging clips, when you felt like you had time with your work instead of longing for the compulsive, furtive click of the "publish" button? In a time when ubiquitous technology is rapidly replacing print media as we’ve known it, spending six months on a themed booklet of your own musings might seem odd. Yet maybe it is exactly the return to simplicity that we need.

Longtime zine makers and self-publishing enthusiasts Bill Brent and Joe Biel are the perfect folks to make a case for their media. The combined expertise of the authors and contributors—mostly notable zinesters who also happen to be friends with Brent and Biel—makes this one of the most useful compendiums I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Originally published in 1997, the second printing of Make a Zine!: When Words and Graphics Collide! is heavily revised and updated to include more examples of long-functioning and successful zines, tips on budgeting your projects, and a lovely resource section in the back that is full of zine distributors (often known as distros), zine reviewers, and zine libraries.

Quite frankly, after living with an angsty zinester as an undergrad, I was pretty disillusioned by what I thought the medium and the community has the potential to be. Only recently beginning to explore zines with real interest, this book has restored my faith in self-publishing and provided me with newfound hope. It pushed forward my backburner ideas onto the main hot plate. I’m proud to say my first zine is in the works, in large part because of the solidly helpful, inspiring advice of Make a Zine!

Like some zines, Make a Zine! contains a few spelling errors and mistaken URLs in the reference section (like, ahem, the one for this very blog). I actually don’t say this as a criticism, though. Like a zine, this book isn’t perfect, and you shouldn’t expect it to be. It remains a tremendous, well-researched and enjoyable resource.

Make a Zine! is an inspiring, easy, and digestible read for anyone, whether you’re already immersed in a cut-and-paste world, a graphic designer with a penchant for radical thought, or a newbie trying to find the best way to make yourself and your ideas known. You'll gain insight into your practice, find some new ideas, or get the motivation for which you’ve been waiting. Seeing your words instantly published on the screen can making blogging an appealing prospect for many, but if you’re someone who wants to hold the tangible results of your work in your hands, grab this small publishing manual to get started. The thing you'll need most are ideas and time.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, December 8th 2008

I Hate This Part of Texas #7/Keep Loving Keep Fighting #7

admin — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 11:36:00 +0000

By John Gerken, Hope Amico

Microcosm Publishing

Though you may not know from reading it I Hate This Part of Texas #7/Keep Loving Keep Fighting #7 is a split zine. Composed of journal style entries recounting the grief of losing a city, the introduction page of the zine calls itself “more of a splicing of two zines about...the city we still love, New Orleans.” A layered and much needed marriage of accounts, this zine offers the kind of material and insight needed is we as a community are to make ourselves available to the psychic dealing and repair so lost to the Gulf Coast and its fighting residents.

Deeply honest, the zine unflinchingly details the fears and anxieties of upheaval, intermittent alcoholism, things to be grateful for, resentment, and displacement. “I can walk into the house and there's my old life, wracked and wrought and strewn about, moldy and collapsed...an eerie and terrible reminder of what might have been, had we been allowed to continue.”

Dedicated in large part to their friend, Helen Hill, a woman, wife, friend, and mother who, shortly after returning to New Orleans post-evacuation, was shot and killed in her home, this “zine-splice” is a heavy fifty or so pages of mourning, as well as remembrance. An entry from Mardi Gras 2007 acutely describes the wearing of such loss. “Don and I spoke of the fog as souls returning to the city, all the souls who have died here. Perhaps all the souls up and down the serpentine length of this vast river, this artery of dreams and desire and struggle and loss.”

The love and fervor written in the pages of this zine are a small miracle of words that do not die, but lay to rest - breathe. This work embodies the fullness of survival and dedication, an imperative read if the feeling that ought to end up lain in the dirt - isolation, despair, alienation - may seed and flower into hope and continuity.

Written by: Sara Holy, June 12th 2008

The Chainbreaker Bike Book: A Rough Guide to Bicycle Maintenance

admin — Thu, 08 May 2008 11:55:00 +0000

By Shelley Lynn Jackson, Ethan Clark

Microcosm Publishing

This “rough guide to bicycle maintenance” is really two books in one. The first half is a bike repair manual, with which the authors strive to “serve many people, from the very beginner to a decent mechanic who just likes to geek out.” I found the how-to instructions accessible, written in a way that is easy to understand, not in “high tech or cool dude language.” Although both authors have been professional bike mechanics and stalwart volunteers at the New Orleans Community Bike Project, they come across as real people who just want to help other real people repair and maintain bicycles — no bike snobs here!

The illustrations — by Ethan, Shelley, and Happy, the title page proclaims — are really awesome. They are simple but informative, slightly cartoonish, but factual. For folks who need to know what different styles of bikes or different kinds of tools look like, there are pictures here to help. There are also drawings to assist with adjusting breaks, truing wheels, and replacing cables, as well as other repair and maintenance projects.

The manual ends with two appendices. The first is a directory of community bike programs in the United States and abroad, followed by a helpful glossary of bike terms.

The second half of the book consists of reprints from past issues of the Chainbreaker _zine. Shelley Lynn Jackson edited and self-published _Chainbreaker from 2001-2005, but was unable to continue after losing her typewriter, clip art, desk, drawing supplies, and home to flooding following Hurricane Katrina. Lucky for readers, she was able to collect some of her favorite parts of the old zines in this compilation.

Shelley’s excitement about bicycles shows in the articles she wrote and collected for her zine. In her introduction to the very first issue of Chainbreaker, in a love letter to bikes, aptly called “For the Love of a Bicycle,” she details all that bikes have to offer. “…[T]he bicycle shows a person that their [sic] are options, that there are other ways of living, new horizons undiscovered.” Romantic? Yes. True? Definitely.

Chainbreaker contains not only Shelley’s voice, but includes the art and writing of other folks too. There are instructions for making a bike tube belt from Spitshine the Eye zine, directions for constructing bucket paniers [sic] from Joe Biel of Microcosm, and art and words from long time zinester Icky Apparatus. Andalusia contributes an account of volunteering at Maya Pedal, a bicycle-recycling center in Guatemala, and Happy explains bicycle delivery New Orleans style. Co-author Ethan Clark has participated in the project from nearly the beginning as a contributor of stories and images to the zine.

This bike repair manual doesn’t just show how to fix things; it provides a lot of encouragement and inspiration as well. Shelley gives several pep talks to women throughout the book, cheering us on to ”stand up and be heard…get to know the tools and language…ask questions and look for guidance, but look to your own sense of logic as well.” That’s good advice, not just for bike repair, but for everything we do in life.

Written by: Chantel C. Guidry, May 8th 2008

My Brain Hurts: Volume One

admin — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 03:11:00 +0000

By Liz Baillie

Microcosm Publishing

Liz Baillie’s character Kate Callahan is everything that I wish I had been in school, as well as everything that I’m glad I wasn’t: a punk dyke; Mohawk-wearing, patches held on with safety pins-styling, multiple girlfriends-loving activist; and all-around New York City street-roamer. Think Diane DiMassa’s _Hothead Paisan _before she turned homicidal and got a cat. You could say that Kate’s a homicidal lesbian terrorist in the making—and in a good way, too.

While these character traits can be admirable in young queer activists, Kate is, at times, a little too rebellious for her own good, as she constantly teeters on the edge of getting kicked out of school. I’m inspired by Kate’s spirit, but I’m also aware of the grown-up in me telling me not to mess up my life. These are the complex reasons why I’m in love with My Brain Hurts.

Baillie’s drawings of Kate and her high school life are descriptive, ratty, fun, and what make up the intensity of story. A graphic novel compilation of the first five zines in Baillie’s series of the same name is both a harsh reminder of how difficult high school can be for queer youth, but the stories can also be a best friend for someone currently going through that struggle.

Aside from the rich drawings and Kate’s engaging personality, Baillie’s cast of characters is also amazing: Kate’s way-gay best friend Joey is fabulously flamboyant in a true but not mocking way, Desi is the Latina activist who can sway a crowd better than Barack Obama, and Verona is the older woman (yeah, she’s sixteen, and that’s old in this thirteen-year-old crowd) who digs polyamory. Through chugging 40’s and adventurous games of spin-the-bottle, Kate finds her sexuality in a tangle of identity confusion. Underlying this youthful narrative is a political beat that keeps a steady rhythm on each enjoyable page. My Brain Hurts is a great series for queer youth and older queer activists to relish together.

Written by: Chelsey Clammer, April 18th 2008