Posted on: August 18, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

The Book of Billy / ? / 12M / http://www.iknowbilly.com /

The Book of Billy is a bit of philosophy that as one can guess, very philosophical in tone. Billy Roberts, the zine’s creator, calls it a “book of religion”. Essentially, these are Billy’s musings about art, fame, baby dolls, expression, sleep deprivation, punk rock, pirates, money, orgasms, and inspiration. The layout of this zine is very simple and looks quite like a layout from a Bible or from an earlier bit of a philosophical tract. I believe that is what Billy is going for, so one cannot fault eir for really not saprucing up the pages more than ey does here. There are serious and goofy musings present in this zine, and Billy seems to vacillate between these two poles. Of course, the topics about “pirates” and “orgasm” are a little bit more stacked towards the humorous, which makes the plain layout sparkles that much more. One needs to go through this zine with a very open mind, as while a lot of Billy’s missives are couched in humor, they contain a good bit of a good idea here and there. Billy’s writing style is pretty impressive and includes colloquial terms and profits at points without using those as a crutch. I could see subsequent issues of “The Book of Billy” achieving success, or Microcosm picking up a collected version of these musings in a “Tao of Billy” type of work. Regardless, this is a zine that should be searched out.

Rating: 6.5/10

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