Posted on: December 9, 2007 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Doris #23 / $1.50 / 1:00 / 36M / Cindy, POB 1734, Asheville, NC 28802 / http://www.microcosmpublishing.com / 

This is the first issue of Doris that I’ve ever been able to read. I’ve heard so many things about the zine, and it ranked really high when I put together the zine ranking system a fewyears back. I can understand why so many individuals liked it. Doris is a blend of personal and political, although I’m not sure if you could successfully remove one from the other. While some of the pieces in the personal section are a little bit fluffy for my taste (just describing going out on a lake in a canoe), when Cindy gets into some form of politics the magazine becomes my only care until I get done wit the piece. Of particular import has to be something I was not familiar with in “Menstrual Extraction”, where (I hope I do this justice), it vacuums out all the material (fertilized egg, lining, ertc) in the uterus. The machine is pretty simple yet ingeniously complex; the interview that ey is able to find from an old zine works well by providing background information about the device. While the topic again becomes something that is personally-oriented, the discussion about the aerodynamics of the different forms of tents is enlightening, and so is the ingenuity that is shown by the inmates at a prison in regards to dying their clothes. The little drawings that break up the typewritten text are also a nice little flourish put in by Cindy. Regardless of whether I like the personal segments of the zine, Cindy has made sure that there is something for everyone in this issue of Doris.

Rating: 7.8/10

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