June 2005
A Million Birthdays #5, 36 p, quarter-legal,
$??
In this fifth issue (completed in late December 2004), Kathee writes about
how she's been out doing other things instead of publishing. This issue includes
short, charming stories about driving to Pittsburgh with friends and visiting
the Andy Warhol museum, her relationships with her friends, French class and
her last year in highschool (and being apart from her boyfriend), seeing Le
Tigre play live and thinking things like "I always fall in love during
winter. I'm not sure why, but as soon as it starts to get cold and frosty
I find myself dreaming and searching and suddenly everyone becomes a potential
love interest...I fall in love with people who are quiet. I fall in love with
people who are smart. I fall in love with people who are shy." Cute pictures
and Peanuts cartoons are interspersed throughout, along with one page about
body image which includes a small article called "The Case of the Fat
Pictogram." Parts are twee, parts are serious, but overall, you get a
real sense of what's going on with Kathee through this issue.
Kathee Terrell
PO Box 777
Willoughby, OH 44096-0777
USA
A lso available through the following distros: Bottles
on the Sill, Girl
+ Distro, Gluestick
Distro, Help Me Distro, Mad
People Distro, Parcell
Press, and Sew True.
--Anne Thalheimer
"Good Old-Fashioned Wisdom," 24p,
odd size (3"X3")
This oneshot mini-comic, written by Ryan Matthews and drawn by Harold Penis,
is short, but weirdly wonderful. The story concerns how the one-eyed Cyclops
character lost his eye, retold at the very bar where it happened. Harold Penis's
drawings as usual are gross and perverse, which happens to be their main charm
(check out my August '03 review of Klempner 214).
If you like your mini-comics weird and disturbing, Harold Penis is worth checking
out.
feebletude@hotmail.com
--AR
Ephemera #1: Space-Time Continuum, 14p,
quarter-size
As the subtitle suggests, this zine is concerned primarily with time and space.
In each brief vignette, Stacey Marie tells stories of places she's lived in
and memories that meant a great deal to her. In "Old Uncle Hawkeye,"
her first tattoo recalls her first visit to a tattoo parlour at the age of
8: "At the time, I was unaware that tattooing could be a legitimate profession,
so it was only natural for us to be parking the car in a weed-choked yard
surrounding a run-down shack. I asked no questions while I gazed in awe at
the flash sheets taped to the wood-panelled walls of...some guy's living room."
She tells more stories, of love and growing up, with a rambling stream-of-consciousness
style that manages to be engaging and lyrical, though sometimes lacking in
focus. The briefness of each passage makes for quick reading overall. This
is text-heavy and the quality of the photgraphs included is rather wanting
(I suspect printing issues), but the intimacy and strength of the writing
makes for good reading.
S.M. Piotrowski
House of the Rising Moon
207 E. Meyers St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15210
USA
aburninggirl@whiskey-rebellion.org
thirdiye.whiskey-rebellion.org
--AR
Ephemera #2: The Angels Have Been Drinking, 22p, quarter
size
A trip to New Orleans for Mardis Gras serves as the primary focus of this
issue, which gives us a clearer picture of where we're going. With her rambling
style, Stacey Marie tells stories of hanging out on the French Quarter, getting
drunk with friends, watching bands play, and seeing the vibrant local color.
This reads very much like a travel diary, and the attention to detail adds
a great deal of richness. The photographs also add a great deal in conveying
the experience of this trip. Stacey Marie's zine lives up to its title, encapsulating
ephemeral experience into memories for the reader. For those who like reading
of others' travel, this zine is very much worth a look.
S.M. Piotrowski
House of the Rising Moon
207 E. Meyers St.
Pittsburgh, PA 15210
USA
aburninggirl@whiskey-rebellion.org
--AR
Hoax: The Early Years #1, tabloid size,
12 p, $1 (Sept. 2002)
Hoax #1 is a political paper, in that it's full of comix like "Conspiracy-o-Rama"
(asking questions like, "Would most consumers be delighted by a coded
microchip implanted into their bodies?") and articles such as "The
Six Horsemen of the Media Apocalypse." It takes McDonalds to task, feeling
disgusted with the fact that (at the time of writing) McDonalds had 30,000
restaurants in 121 countries. But at the same time,it's sort of also satire
but maybe a bit too pointed; in that same McDonalds article Ben Carrico wrote
"McDonalds has 80 restaurants across Isreal, the first opened in 1994
in a suburb of Tel Aviv. When one gets hungry and needs to replenish the energy
that was spent throwing gasoline bombs you can enjoy a 100% kosher patty and
a Coke." The article's followed by a satirical "Polls & Surveys"
entry that reads " In a recent survey, 1000 average size people were
asked their opinion about fat people. 43% said fat people are disgusting and
57% simply vomited. In a related survey of 1000 fat people, the same question
was asked, but we couldn't underestand their responses because they were all
feeding their fat fucking faces at the time." I found it really difficult
to enjoy this issue because of this dichotomy; I know it's supposed to be
satire, but I like reading personal political writing when it isn't full of
barbs, especially because things like that throwaway dig at "fat people"
end up eclipsing the good points in the articles and the solid satrical bite
of the comix! Kind of a shame, really, and fortunately later issues don't
have that same kind of issue.
www.mentalnotepress.com
mentalnotepress@hotmail.com
--Anne Thalheimer
Hoax: The Early Years #2, full size, 16 p, $1 (October 2002)
In Hoax #2 it seems as if the editors and contributors really pulled things
together and created a much sharper, focused issue than their first. The comix
are astute and on point, the articles maintain a good balance between political
writing and personal narrative (with the exception of an otherwise solid article
about the evolution of art which unfortunately ends with "What hasn't
been done should not neccessarily be done simply for the sake of doing it.
If you're going to choose a carrier [sic] don't put up with the bland cock-sucking
critiques" followed by "But I really know nothing"--which isn't
wholly true, given the preceeding article. Kind of chopped the whole thing
off at the knees, sadly.) Still some typos, which isn't uncommon, but a marked
improvement over Hoax #1.
www.mentalnotepress.com
mentalnotepress@hotmail.com
--Anne Thalheimer
Hoax: The Early Years #3, tabloid size,
12 p, $1
More political writing and comix in the same vein as earlier issues, and more
joke horoscopes (which seem kind of not so funny anymore by the third issue).
But my very favorite thing in this issue is a comic by Nat called "How
Jas is Going to Quit Smoking" which seems to have been created as encouragement
for Jas to quit. In Hoax #2 Nat published a comic detailing his own attempts
to quit. It's a standout moment that's poignant and somewhat out of character
for Hoax (at least what I've seen of it so
far), which I greatly enjoyed.
www.mentalnotepress.com
mentalnotepress@hotmail.com
--Anne Thalheimer