Posted on: August 29, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

This zine is pretty far off from the ones that I usually pick out. Not personal at all, the zine reads like a more serious version of READ magazine, with a number of political pieces (Arnold being governor, Solar housing, Palestine vs. Israel US spending), while throwing some other random pieces, including writing to McDonalds and reviewing Nickled and Dimed by Barbera Ehrenreich. The zine goes even more quickly than one would think a 16 page zine would go, probably owing to the slightly larger-than-normal font used and spacious layout. The covers include a landscape with a Coors billboard, which is also pretty much the only continuous topic in the magazine. Focusing heavily on alcohol advertising, the figure that over half a million people are seriously injured in alcohol-related wrecks is bandied about a number of times. Some humour isn’t present in the typical places one would see it – the “Ask Denise” piece, long a place for parody, is actually serious, and so is the extended metaphor from “Who’s the Boss” to the current ruling administration in the United States. Starleen is definitely good at being a tease magazine, running a serious line but towing the line of comedy a number of times. Overall, Starleen is a zine that is benefited from some solid reading, concise enough to only need to take up a page. Starleen avoids the typical faults of zines: either having bad writing or trying to squish information into a one-page thing, not really capturing everything. Overall, while Starleen looks to be just another copied-zine to be forgotten about, I would whole-heartedly recommend the zine to anyone who could put their hands on it.

Rating : 7.0/10

Starleen #3 / Free / Half-Sized / 16 Pages / [email protected] / Released 15 October 2003 / Reviewed 06 January 2004

Leave a Comment