free, 12 pgs., half size, photocopied w/ yellow cardstock cover, 2 in stock

"You can't run and you can't hide, because your getaway route is lined to the horizon with signs," sums up the frusration city- dwellers feel towards those eyesores looming over every street. But the authors of this zine also see the potential for billboards to be "improved" to spread their own messages. The scientific component of improving billboards laid out here consists of things like getaways and figuring out how often a billboard will be updated, while the art aspect covers things like how to match the paint color on the billboard. The Billboard Liberation Front manifesto is also included. Reading this will definitely spark your imagination and change the way you think about outdoor advertising.

$3, 48 pgs., half size, photocopied, 1 in stock

The ten year anniversary issue of Avow contains a variety of contributions; mostly personal stories about drinking, living, and travelling, all laid out with Keith Rosson's amazing illustrations and graphic design skills. Also includes an interview with Mike Bukowski, (who is in my opinion, the most talented punk artist out there) and several images of record covers and the like that Mike has designed. Another highlight is the comic, "Punk Heroes, Punk Villains," which profiles scenester archetypes like "The Green Thumb" and "The White Belt." The way Keith Rosson incorporates classic themes about the punk lifestyle into his stories and articles is very conducive to reflecting on how those themes fit into your own world.    

$2, pgs., half- size, photocpoied, silkscreened cover, 3 in stock

"And the hits, man, they just kept on coming: Bad breakups, financial ruin, parents caught cheating on each other after twenty- five years of marriage, dead mothers, dead fathers, blossoming alcoholism, the suicides of friends. Sitting on Ben and Jacie's porch or in one smoke- ceilinged bar or another, one of us would regale the rest with yet another tale of our further descent into unadulterated bummerdom."

 I don't know how to explain how great od a writer Keith is, nor can I figure out how he manages to convey certain moments of his life so perfectly. This issue is about some rough times: He goes through a bad breakup with a longtime lover, drinks heavily, and relates some memories of the fuckups his mom dated when he was younger. Keith writes these stories with a lot of passion and emotion, and surrounds them with the same sharp graphic design that usually accompanies his work.

 $2, 100 pgs., quarter size, photocopied, out of stock

 In this issue of Blurt! Lew remembers leaving town to go to his first punk rock show, what his friends were like before they grew up, his first time visiting home after moving away, getting wasted in the city, and everything else that came along with a small town boy coming of age. Admittedly the writing style (he avoids using pronouns, and even articles like "a" and "the")takes some getting used to, but Lew definitely trims out the filler and gets right into the heart of the story.  This text- heavy zine is neatly formatted with small type, so you'll spend quite a while absorbed in Lew's zine.

$3, 44 pgs., half size, photocopied w/ silkscreened envelope, out of stock

"What if leaving meant losing your home and your job and probably a good chunk of your friends, and the possibility of future projects you always imagined your self involved in? What do you do when you know ending a relationship with someone viewed as influential automatically demonizes you and that such a socially skilled person can perform feats of damage control that leave your head spinning?"

 This is Alex's story of being married to a man who was emotionally abusive; you'll learn that he crossed her boundaries time and time again. Brainscan #21 is poignant, but not self- pitying; there's no angsty journal entries in here. Rather, it's a brave account of how she found herself feeling stuck in an abusive relationship, and how she found the strength to finally leave.

 $4, 48 pgs., full size, photocopied w/ color cover, out of stock

The intro to this zine does a better summary than I could ever hope to: "Welcome to issue #2 of Clip Tart, the zine that distills huge, teetering piles of printed material into one annual, free- forming collage of suddenly released consciousness! Within these photocopied pages, you will find a startling collection of exerpted passages from celebrated authors like James Joyce, Phillip K. Dick, and Aldous Huxley, as well as mind- bending tidbits about such fascinating topics as hypnosis, cults, and dreams... Note: this issue of Clip Tart features an added dimension. Along with exerpts, this issue also includes contributions from a host of visionary writers and artists who offer collages, essays, letters, and critical resonance to this issue."

$8, 52 pgs., 7" square, offset printed, full color cover,  3 in stock 

 "The drawings in this book are influenced by imaginary lands of plenty, paradise, and forgiven sin. I was inspired by Carlos Collodi's Pleasure Island, in Pinnochio, as well as the Hobo Paradise: Big Rock Candy Mountain, and Utah's own myth of the land of milk and honey. All tales spun from the medieval fantasy land of cockolgne. This is my first attempt to invoke the characters of this mythic land that so many have dreampt of."

Wow, Trent Call is an amazing illustrator. It is easy to get lost in the details of creepy characters and surreal surroundings when you stare at one of the mostly pen and ink illustrations in here. The really attractive cover and the fancy paper it's printed on would make this a standout art zine to add to your collection or leave out on your coffee table for friends to marvel at.

 $2, 36 pgs., half- size, photocopied, out of stock

"I began walking between worlds. Louisville might have accepted me as their own, but I knew better. My redneck roots lay in small town Indiana; I'd come up around all the stereotypes the rest of the country holds the South to, yet I did so on the other side of the Mason- Dixon. Everybody I associated with came up in the city going to magnet schools and hanging out on Bardstown road, the kind of arty Bohemian street that every city has. Just like I felt like an outsider in Crawford County, I often felt alienated in Louisville"

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.

 $1, 20 pgs., half- legal, photo copied w/ color cover, out of stock

"I'm so glad I found you Han. I thought I was the only firloy until I heard your song." "Me too Signa! I thought I was the only firloy" "What kind of firloy are you?" "I'm a climbing- digging- stone- skipping firloy!" "Wow, that's totally cool Han! Guess what kind of firloy I am... I'm a running- somersaulting- song- singing firloy!"

This zine is an amazing illustrated story of Han's first day at Elementary school. Han tries explaining that free is not a girl or a boy; free is a firloy, to the other kids at school and they just don't seem to understand; they want Han to pick one side or the other. Han starts to feel like being a firloy makes frim different from the other children, until with the help of fer singing, flying, rhyming invisible friend, Han meets another Firloy and they sing happily ever after. 

$4, 48 pgs. + 24 pg. mini zine, half- size, photocopied w/ silkscreened cover, 7 in stock

"I went to an arts high school where I played guitar in the jazz band. Not because at age 14 I was actually interested in jazz (I was much more invested in perfecting the buzzsaw guitar stylings of a Johhny Ramone or Phil Free) but because I thought an arts school might spare me the traumatic experience a typical high schoonl might shell out on a zit- faced, socially awkward punk rock kid."

 This sweet new zine by Kirke Campbell comes across like he's taking all these brief snapshots of what's going on in his life and trying to make them fit into one big picture. The anxious tone of the zine is set by the to- do list on the first page. Then Kirke moves on with some short pieces about bus stop observations and conversation snippets; looking insightfully at seemingly random occurences in his life. The out- of- print mini comic Giant Steps #2 is reprinted in here. The comic is made up of sketched portraits (reminiscent of the illustrations in Truckface zine) that are accompanied by deadpan one- liners. There's an interview with Buz Blur; a middle- aged man who retired from the railroad industry years ago, but continues to stencil his famous moniker on railcars that travel around the country. My favorite part of this zine is an interview with Travis Fristoe; creator of the America? zines. Kirke talks to him about the state of print zines, vinyl records, and Travis's job as a public librarian. This interview is fascinating to me because Kirke goes so in- depth with his questions; they're all "how" and "why" universals instead of just the "Tell me about what you've been up to" kind of interview questions. Giant Steps #3 is a limited edition zine; all hand- numbered out of 100.

free, pgs., full- size, offset newsprint, out of stock

"Sometimes I do believe in running things into the ground. Wearing the same clothes everyday, the shoes falling off our feet, putting the fourth or fifth patch on a bike tube. When I care about something, I tend to show it love until it falls apart, gets sewn back together and falls apart again."

This fanzine is done with a lot of love and enthusiasm for the punk and hardcore scenes. One contributor introduces his interview with a band by mentioning how his eyes watered with excitement the first time that he saw them play. There's also a dual interview with Philly's Pissed and Philly Stands Up, both groups that work toward putting an end to sexual assault in their hometown. An accompanying article is full of information on sexual assault/ rape like a vocab list, how to support survivors, what consent means, soundtrack for survival, and suggested reading. A few more band interviews, then interviews with a show organizer and an original web zinester round out the interviews section, then the zine finishes off it's first issue with some fantastic columns and reviews.

free, 64 pgs., full-size, offset newsprint, 20 in stock

"I have to lean my mattress against the wall so I won't be tempted  to go to sleep. And admittedly there were nights when I was found on my hardwood floor in my clothes and shoes with the light still on and the mattress still leaning, but I like to discover my own limits. As a roadie, the best tour to go on was always that first big one. Nobody knew what to expect, shit fell through, and the band had to fight every night to win over a living room full of kids." 

Give Me Back was started by some folks who used to write for Heart Attack magazine. It's geared to people who are into hardcore, and has all the usual punk fanzine features: columns, interviews, reviews, etc. Highlights include columns by Erin Tobey and Keith Rosson, as well as lengthy interviews with Hey Girl!, and Des Ark.

free, 56 pgs., full- size, offset newsprint, 20 in stock

"'You don't have to carry the weight of other people when you play music. You just have to play for you.' These words were spoken to me by one of my closest friends after our band played out of town. I had a poor performance coupled with my drum kit topplig over mid- set. For some reason, that night, far away from home, I had a breakdown of sorts." -From Katy Otto's column

This issue of Give Me Back contains some excellent columns: an anti- Myspace essay, information about the controversial new HPV vaccine, a school teacher's memory of a surprising gift from a student, subtle sexism in the punk scene, a misleading job description; bands interviews with Margaret Thrasher, Ultra Dolphins, Seasick, and No Age; articles about punk sound engineers and "Keeping Your Van Alive: A Punk Rock Primer."

$0.50, 16 pgs., quarter size, photocopied, out of stock

I wrote this zine over the summer when I got restless from not having enough projects to fill up my time. How I miss those days now. Greasespot #3.5 is about my first time tabling a show and punk rock hangman. There's a few pictures of art projects I did over the summer; my favorite is one where I drew a waterfront scene with pen and ink, then used polymer resin to make it transparent, and pasted it on top of a design in a magazine advertisement. There's a how- to page for each of the projects in the zine. Greasespot #3.5 is a quick read, but I'm proud of it, especially the layout. 

$3, 48 pgs., half-size, photocopied, 7 in stock

"It's a sense of belonging. An air of confidence. The idea of saying 'These are my streets, these are our streets, and no one is going to tell me what to do on them but me.' There I was in the same town that I swore I'd find a way out of all those years I thought I was missing out on real life. And I was thriving."

In this issue, Justin Sayingso has adventures as a pizzapunx delivery driver,  I put on a punk rock breakfast show and remember being fifteen, Bryan Ohio warns us about the FBI and corporate scams, Aaron Downbeat goes to California, and Mitch Clem illustrates the MTX song "Checkers Speech." Also includes killer illustrations from several people and various creative layouts. Overall, this is a great personal- punk zine and I'm really proud to be a part of it.

 $2, 44 pgs., photocopied, 4 in stock

"Maybe not much has changed in those nineteen years of the cicadas absence. I've only traded big wheels, 'Roos, and cribs for two- wheeled vehicles, electric guitars, train tracks, school, and jobs. The desire for freedom remains; digging, running, and flying upwards."

Griot #6 starts out with Brian's recollection of the first time that swarms of cicadas overwhelmed the suburban town where he lived as a smalll child. When his mom tells him that they will come back in ninenteen years, he tries to imagine what his life will be like as a twenty- two year old. When the long- forgotten cicadas finally come back as promised, he thinks about what has changed and what hasn't during that period of time. It's a beautifully nostalgic, hopeful story. The other longer piece in this half of the zine is called "My Nemesis," and it's about becoming what you hate. He talks about how he a coworker both find regular customers who represent the future selves they fear; Brian's is a psuedo- intellectual jackass whom he calls "Young Steppenwulf." There is also an interview with a Malain percussionist and a comic about homeless people and dogs. This half of the zine was a great first introduction to the zine Griot for me.

"But looking back on it I can see that the music was always secondary to me. I'm proud of the songs we wrote and the way we taught ourselves to play our instruments. But I think what mattered more than the music back then was the friendship and community we built."

Puddnhead #5 is about Mike having the time of his life playing in his high school band Red Menace. You might remember me raving about the last issue of this zine (which sold out after a few days every time I ordered more copies) and this new issue is full of the same sharp writing and smartass observations. Mike spills his guts about his first best friends, girlfriends, and shitty jobs while telling the story of his band coming together. They practiced in the town's gazebo, had shows while their parents were out of town, and entered a high school battle of the bands. More than just reliving the "glory days," this story is recognizable as an exciting tale of the experiences and influences that helped shape Mike's world view.