Posted on: February 16, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Genetic Disorder #18 / $3 / :30 / 68M / http://www.geneticdisorder.net /

Genetic Disorder was one of the few zines that I keep around after I review it. One of their earlier issues dealt with Satanism heavily, and brought to the table a great deal of primarly-source documents. For this issue, the size has changed (from a full to a half-sized zine) and the topic has changed (from Satanism to San Diego). The layout of the magazine is very simple and straight-forward. This works in Genetic Disorder’s favor, as individuals are not distracted by pleasing layouts or the like. This is a magazine that is chock-full of information, even though some of the articles end abruptly (specifically, “Royal Flush”, the piece about San Diego’s sewer system, and “Genetic Disorder Takes on Duke Cunningham”). The strongest piece is stuck right up in the front of the magazine, and it is “True Crime in San Diego”. In this, police reports are printed and artists are given carte blanche to imagine what these perps would have looked like on the day of their arrest. #18 is a solid read all the way through, but the shortness of this read makes me thirst for more pieces done in the way that only the individuals associated with Genetic Disorder can do. One other piece that would have been nice to see extended is the piece about Sambo’s; as it is right now, I’m feeling like the focus is much too brief and that there were at least three or four more pages that could be written about the restaurant change.

Rating: 6.0/10

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