Planet Verge #6 / :25 / $1 / Full-Sized / 20 Pages / 15 Albert Terrace, Bloomfield, NJ 07003 / [email protected] / Okay, Planet Verge is a zine that I can see getting better with every issue. This go around, the art is sharper, the text smaller (meaning much more in the way of reading), and the shameless promoting of the bands that they work with seems less prevalent than in earlier issues. Planet Verge lands interviews with some of the largest acts out in punk music today, dealing this issue with Motion City Soundtrack, The Bouncing Souls, The Early November, Millencolin, and Hoobastank. We also notice a much larger focus this time on music, instead of the balance between music and personal writings – I believe that this makes the zine a little unbalanced, but for those people that absolutely love a music-based zine, Planet Verge is probably one of the best out there in the current. Always hip and in the know about upcoming bands, Joelle and the crew have put their money and clout behind these bands, and only a few months later, you hear about these bands on MTV and Clearchannel radio. A few minor layout issues (there is some clipped-off text in one of the articles and a font is hard to read) are the only blemishes this time, but these are minor compared to the simple allure of the magazine. Planet Verge has rapidly become one of my favorite zines after first seeming to me to be a slightly immature publication. They’ve really settled into a place as a valuable resource for a style of music that is basically ignored by most of the punk zines.
