EAVES OF ASS #6, $3, 8 ½” x 5 ½,” photocopied, 34 pgs.
Craven’s tales of punk rock redemption blew me away. EOA #6 is subtitled “The Music Issue,” but there’s a lot more to it than that. After the introduction, the zine starts out with a reprint of Craven’s Razorcake column, “The Essence of Rock,” before plunging into stories about growing up white trash with Lynyrd Skynyrd and Creedance Clearwater Revival playing in the background. It’s easy for people who have grown up outside of the Deep South to dismiss its population as a bunch of racist hicks, but it’s not as easy to reject everyone as an ignorant redneck when they’re your only family and friends. Craven’s storytelling is captivating, raw, and unpretentious, making EOA #6 one of my new all- time favorites. –Lauren Trout (Craven Rock, 1627 16th St., Oakland, CA94607)

INVINCIBLE SUMMER #11 / CLUTCH #17, $3, offset w/ purple ink, 32 pgs.
In their fifth annual split, Nicole and Clutch draw comics about their lives for every day over two weeks. Both are veteran zinesters, and it shows. Nicole’s cute, detailed drawings and ability to make people look like adorable little monsters or animals is absolutely charming. On the opposite pages, Clutch’s simple cartoons lead the reader to fill in the context of his stories for themselves. No wild adventures or life-changing moments in these pages, but it is definitely a solid effort from two talented people. –Lauren Trout (Nicole G, PO Box 12763, Portland, OR97212)

MONK IN OGRE LAND #1, $3 or trade, 8½” x 7,” photocopied, 32 pgs.
The complex philosophical concepts and intricately detailed illustrations were too overwhelming to fit inside of my attention-deficit brain, but I imagine it would be cool to read Monk in OgreLand #1 in the middle of the night after getting stoned out of your skull, if you’re into that sort of thing. The basic premise is this: the title character philosophizes to his trusty companion, Yak, while the pair journey across a very desolate, Eastern-looking terrain called OgreLand. The coolest thing about Monk in Ogre Land #1 is in one panel, they’re talking about a book—“The Proverbs of Ogre Land”—and then the next panel has eight tiny pages of written proverbs glued onto that panel. It’s a nice touch; extra points for creativity on this one. –Lauren Trout (Celso, 3423 N. Commercial Ave., Portland, OR97227)

MUSEA #158, $?, 8 ½” x 11,” photocopied, 22 pgs.
Harsh truth be told, I find most poetry zines to be silly and annoying, but if you want to understand how disgusted I feel after reading Musea #158, then let’s do some math for a moment. Say this zine has been published bimonthly for 158 issues, 22 pages each—I’ll just guess the editor prints about 50 copies of each issue—that means that over the last twenty-six years, 173,800 pages of paper have been used to print poems that only take up about ¼ of the page, with the back of every page blank. What the hell?! In the name of the forest that had to be cut down to print this abomination, please, stop the insanity! –Lauren Trout (Tom Hendricks, 400 Hawthorne #5, Dallas, TX75219)

PI ALA MODE #1, free, 8 ½” x 11,” photocopied, 30 pgs.
Dear Todd,
Please forgive, but have you thought about implementing just a tiny bit of quality control up at Headquarters before you send review materials out? This isn’t as much a zine as it is fifteen pages of someone named Alex’s math homework that he doodled all over, and then photocopied. I digress. There’s not much I can do with this in the way of a review. In fact, I’m concerned that if I review this like it’s a zine, it’ll set a precedent and people will soon start sending Razorcake their school yearbooks and family photo albums to review as well. Thanks in advance for your consideration of this issue. –Lauren Trout (Moose Press, 701 Pine Street, Athens, WI54411)

PRISON FOCUS #28, $5(prisoner) $20(non- prisoners) for a 4 issue subscription, 8 ½” x 11,” newsprint, 16 pgs.
The nonprofit organization California Prison Focus prints this newsletter of firsthand accounts of the injustice and abuse faced by California’s incarcerated. Sexual abuse, prison labor, unhealthy conditions, and racial segregation are just some examples of what these men and women are subjected to. The strength and patience of the contributors who keep writing under such conditions is admirable, to say the least. This organization deserves your support for providing a creative outlet and vital legal information for California prisoners. –Lauren Trout (California Prison Focus, 2940 16th St, Suite B5, San Francisco, CA94103)

SIDEWALK BUMP #2, $5, 8½” x 7”, offset w/ color cover, 52 pgs.
This is a badass comic zine about skateboarding featuring nine different contributors. I was impressed by the full-color cover: a watercolor painting of a night time skater which has a striking effect. Inside, the well-done contributions include stories about first skateboards, people the artists have skated with, and the adventures they’ve had skating in different places. I wanted to make sure that Sidewalk Bump #2 wasn’t overly romanticizing skateboard culture, so I showed it to a friend (who has been a real skate rat his whole life and wouldn’t tolerate any cutesy shit) and he echoed the same thing that me and everyone else (skaters and non-skaters alike) said after reading it: “This is really cool. It makes me want to go skateboard now!” –Lauren Trout (microcosmpublishing.com)

WELCOME TO FLAVOR COUNTRY #12, $1 or stamps, 8½”x 5½,” photocopied, 36 pgs.
Kurt comes across as such a likeable character in his personal zine that I’ve really been looking forward to giving it a good review. Aside from a few poems and a piece about the people on his bus route, the bulk of WTFC #12 is made up of stories that give some insight to the author’s life as well as provide some political and social commentary. The highlight here is Kurt’s misguided attempt to “get right with god” by visiting the Mars Hill megachurch. The result is funny and frightening at the same time. The only downside to this zine is that it’s a fairly quick read—large font and a few blank pages for some reason—but other than that; hell yeah Kurt, keep up the good work. –Lauren Trout (Kurt Morris, 8820 Stone Ave N. #301, Seattle, WA98103)