Read #20 – This zine is incredibly glossy, but written in such a way that an individual reader will look past that and notice the off-the-wall style of the magazine. The first half of the magazine is really what does it for me, as the second half is just the typical reviews of movies, books, and the like. Two themes recurrent in the magazine are crushes and Rush, and both…
Razorcake #36 / $4 / 116M / http://www.razorcake.org / Razorcake is well worth the four dollar price on its cover. The font on each page is small enough to make this issue of Razorcake easily equivalent to a magazine with 250 pages. There are a decent amount of advertisements in this issue, but since the adverts are more in line with the topics covered by the magazine, it does not…
Razorcake #15 ($3,PO Box 42129, Los Angeles, CA 90042) With each passing issue, I get more and more attached to Razorcake. Having the pleasure to review the last few issues of it, I feel that this is probably the most cohesive that I’ve seen the crew at Razorcake. This issue finds them at a juncture between politics and the personal flair that they bring to each issue. The increased amount…
 Razorcake #14 ($3, PO Box 42129, LA, CA 90042) A strong 108 pages this time, Razorcake ratchets up the entertainment value with continued excellence with Nardwuar reviewing Elijah Wood, revealing the secret that Wood was the kid in Back to the Future II that could not operate the nintendo machine. Norb’s piece about the fifty hottest rock and roll chicks is useful for a few minor bits of humor,…
$3/ No Trade / Full Size / 100 Pages/ http://www.razorcake.com / [email protected] Razorcake, PO Box 42129, Los Angeles, CA 90042 Razorcake #11 – For a zine that seems to be one that fits into the Maximumrocknroll/Flipside mold, Razorcake has content that will let you read and read without getting tired. The material in the magazine has so much more personality and flavor than any of the other major zines, with…
Raw / Half / 18 Pages / Half Size / $1 / Vermicious Knid / Lupine Ladies Press, PO Box 543, Accokeek MD 20607. This is another zine done by Vermicious Knid, where ey talks about a very personal experience in being raped; the writing, not quite prose nor poetry, really embodies the disconnected, disjointed thought ey has on the matter. The title of the zine really just does more…
Rated Rookie (Vol.2, #4, 562 Park Place, #3, Brooklyn, NY 11238) Can you say white space? I’m sure you all can, and I especially know that the editors of Rated Rookie are very familiar with the concept. Where many zines will stick background images or textures to break up the tedium of the whiteness, Rated Rookie is bold in the sense that they don’t let anything besides very-sharp pictures detract…
Random Life in Progress #2 / :25 / 40M / $1 or trade / Alicia Dorr, 3729 N. Halsted, Apt. 3N, Chicago, IL 60613 / [email protected] / Able to put eir’s own personal bubbliness into each piece in Random Life in Progress, Alicia creates for eir’s readers an incredibly compelling zine. Starting out a piece with a comparison about how “Middle Eastern people are as crazy as…usâ€, Alicia quickly moved…
This is another zine that I had the distinct pleasure of copying for the editor, Foyle, who is in her own right an awesome girl. I feel closer to this zine than many others, as I was like a midwife to its birth. Zines like this really make me wish that I had a style of handwriting that I was pleased with, as Foyle’s handwriting is just so cool that…
Ragged #1 / Free / :15 / 32M / http://www.raggedmag.com / This is a combination magazine that was created for American Rag (which seems to be a Macy’s-only clothing brand). I’ve never heard of the clothing line, but then again, I’m never in a Macy’s. Filter Mini seems to be what individuals can compare this magazine to, and where there is a lot of advertisements in both magazines, American Rag’s…
Quixotic Potential #3 / $1 / 24 Pages / Half-Sized / Trade / [email protected] As Vera says on the first page of this zine, “this zine is run by, yes, you know it, SUBMISSIONS.†This cannot be more true, as every piece in this issue is one this is not written by Vera. Even though ey does not write in this issue, she does pick some pretty amazing pieces to…
I traded for this. It reads like a few poems and then winks off into nothingness. The writing in this zine, contributed to by a few talented writers, is really amazing, leaving me to wonder when the next issue will be out or if I can get it .The layout of the zine is such that a lot of the background shows through each pages, as each page has a…
Punk Rock Confidential #3 / :40 / $3.95 / http://www.punkrockcon.com /Â This is essentially what People would be like if it catered to punk music. There are so many fluff pieces in this magazine that Punk Rock Confidential should be relegated to shitter material status. At some point, who cares about who the individuals agitating for social change are in love with, or for fuck sake, what their pet looks…
Razorcake #30 / $3 / 1:15 / 116M / http://www.razorcake.com / Razorcake has their thirtieth issue out this month, and boy do they come out with a strong step forward this issue. Of course, there are the average gang of idiots (Rev. Norb and Nardwuar) writing in this issue, but there are so many extrabits in this issue that makes this a must buy. For example, the history behind the…
Punk Rock Loser #1 (Free, No address / [email protected]) (For Jersey Beat) This is what a zine should really be. A collections of pieces that a musician and journalist has collected for a number of years, and just dumped into print. While there is a lot of white space on each page (Jimmy divides each piece into its own section, as a result, some pieces have about 2/3rd of a…
Punk Planet #74 / $4.95 / 2:00 / 148M / http://www.punkplanet.com / Everyone should know Punk Planet by now. It’s the magazine that tries to keep people up to date on politics and music. However, there are some minor things done during this issue that either increase or decrease the quality of the read for all. First, the magazine begins weakly when the layout does not differentiate between pieces, and…
Proud Disgrace Fanzine #2 / $2.50 / :25 / Blueboy Productions, 4 Fox Run #1, Marshfield, MA 02050 / Waste of space. No, the writing isn’t atrocious, but the spacing of this issue is. With fonts that Helen Keller would find annoying large, there is a lot of trees that were needlessly sent to the mill for this issue. Proud Disgrace is a zine that discusses topics that aren’t necessarily…
Prometheus #5 / :30 / 36M / [email protected] / Another of the zines that I picked up at AMC 2004, Prometheus is a communal zine that is written and laid out by a group of people, instead of having all material being done by one individual. Thus, we have different styles, different layouts, and thus, the continual dynamism of the zine means that individuals will not necessarily get as bored…
Profane Existence #49 / $5 / 104M / http://www.profaneexistence.com /Â It has been quite a few years since I was lucky enough to come across a copy of Profane Existence (the last issue I got to review was #38). In the meantime, the issue has moved from a newspaper to a more traditional magazine style and the content has exploded into the post-100 page range. This is not just interviews…
Profane Existence #48 / $5 / 104M / http://www.profaneexistence.com / Profane Existence brings forth another strong batch of interviews (this time, making sure a wide selection of global bands such as Migra Violenta and The Dagda are covered), but it is actually in their informational articles that the zine truly makes its worth known. Specifically, the exhaustive discussion of the current genocide in Sudan by Dave Trenga is of a…