this is a little zine that tim & amalle made together. they have both been making zines for a long time. amalle used to do "rugburn spectacular," which always impressed me because the photocopies were so crystal clear, you could see every cut & paste mistake & it was like really sophisticated graphic design that way, & this zine is the same way. it's all cut & paste, messy handwriting, typewritten words attached with not-so-invisible tape so it has a sort of 3-d effect. sadly, the name of tim's former zine is misplaced in my memory. i remember like ten years ago, sometimes zinesters residing in different states would have sleepover parties with each other & make split zines where they wrote about each other & assigned themselves subjects & made little zines in like three days. that is sort of what this zine reminds me of, but more advanced. it took longer. & tim & amalle live in the same city. but they write about each other, & they each write about fall & families, family friends that wound up being spies or getting killed, tim's father's death & studying in cape town, a curry recipe, games to play in philadelphia.
eighth-legal * 32pp. * $1.35 (u.s.)/$1.75 (int'l)

justinn/grea mentioned to me that this is the first zine ze has ever done. & it's amazingly good! sub-titled "a queer zine," it is all about justinn/grea's experiences growing up queer & gender deviant in arizona. written on an old manual typewriter & laid out in a surprisingly appealing cut-&-paste design reminiscient of old-school riot grrrl zines, it opens with a "brief hirstery," detailing justinn/grea's coming of age experiences in the desert, assorted dysfunctional collective house experiences, troublemaking friends that helped hir develop hir radical politics, hir increasing interest in & relationship with the local queer anarchist communities, fighting back against queer bashing on the street, & basically a rundown of how hir got to be such a righteously angry queer. ze writes about masculinity manifesting itself as a problematic force predicated on reinforcing the further marginalization of otherwise oppressed people, & why ze has a hard time relating to men. ze writes about mainstream gay assimilation similarly hinging upon the invisibility of other oppressed groups, & asks fellow queers to stand up against racism, sexism, classism, & other forms of oppression while fighting homophobia & gender normativity. ze critiques pacifism & discusses hir experiences standing up against queer bashers & sexist assholes in a physical manner. ze writes about hir attempts to become comfortable claiming hir single status as an identity. & there's a lot more too. i was pretty blown away by this zine. it just showed up in my mailbox one day & it's one of the most exciting zines i have read all year!
half-standard * 28pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

some have expressed their frustrations with this zine, claiming that the incredible amount of information it provides pertaining to herbal medicine is irresponsible without the proper warnings & background to make sure people don't accidentally hurt themselves. so this is my warning: this zine contains a shitload of potentially useful information one can use to treat various STIs & vaginal infections, to deal with late periods, suspected pregnancies, painful periods, ovarian cysts, uterine fibroids, & more. it includes some information on procuring & preparing herbs as well, but it's not a book. the information it provides is not exhaustive & all of it should be checked & re-checked against contemporary discoveries in herbal medicine. i want to make this zine available to people because i think it does provide a service & is a good place to start, but i emphasize the word "start". i personally recommend seeking out other books on the subject of herbalism & d.i.y. gynecology, starting a study group with friends, &/or talking or studying with a trained herbalist. as this zine explains, herbal medicine has been suppressed by the medical establishment. we're lucky that this information is re-appearing & becoming more accessible, but a lot of knowledge has been lost & needs to be re-learned. this zine will not make you an expert on herbalism, but it might help you deal with a yeast infection.
half-standard long * 56pp. * $2.55 (u.s.)/$3.75 (int'l)

despite being perhaps the most common STI (sexually transmitted infection)--over 80% of sexually active people will contract it at some point--a lot of confusion & misinformation surrounds HPV. even medical doctors spread fallacious information & fail to accurately answer people's questions. to combat this widespread problem, the down there health collective (a reprodctive health collective in DC) compiled this detailed zine covering just about every aspect of HPV, from transmission to symptoms to diagnoses to treatments. this is an indispensable wealth of information. in easy-to-understand language (that manages to educate without condescending), the down there health collective explains what HPV is, how it can be transmitted to a partner (through all kinds of different sexual activities), how it can be diagnosed with the greatest accuracy, its potential symptoms in variously gendered bodies, the links between HPV & different kinds of cancer (cervical cancer being most prevalent), HPV & genital warts, treatments for warts & dysplasia (both conventional treatments & herbal remedies), how to talk with sexual partners about HPV, & gardasil, the much-touted HPV vaccine & how the public is being deceived. the zine is written to provide factual, non-judgmental information to everyone, regardless of gender, sexuality, partner status, or anything else. the down there health collective does an excellent job accounting for the many different ways people have sex, the many different ways people construct sexual relationships, & the many different genders that exist in the world. if you or someone you know is having some kind of sex, you need this zine.
half-legal * 52pp. * $3.05 (u.s.)/$4.25 (int'l)

oooh, i liked this issue even better than the first one, & i liked the first one a lot. tya has again brought us a personal political zine in the old-school post-riot grrrl vein, full of cute comics & typewritten stories about gentrifcation in brooklyn. issues of land development & neighborhood design in the park slope area where tya lived (until being priced out of the neighborhood) make up the larger chunk of the zine, as she explains the complications of gentrification & the apathy people suffer from when attempting to develop ways to fight against it. she also writes about a documentary she worked on about handball, mostly based around a local court that was sold in order to be turned into a track for yuppie joggers moving into new condos in the area. there is a handwritten piece about substituting alcohol for cigarettes in an attempt to quit smoking, & why she gets bored with parties even though she feels compelled to attend them. evocative photographs illustrate the pieces that are not adorned with drawings. a very cute, educational, & relatable zine. extremely good!only 4 copies left!
half-legal * 28pp. * $2.35 (u.s.)/$2.75 (int'l)

celia is back with a new zine, & this issue is completely hand-written, which is a refreshing break from all the text-heavy zines circulating with their relentless computer layouts. remember when people use to make zines in the little cracks when they had free time, just working with a pen & a blank piece of paper & not getting too fussy over the details? that's what this zine is like. celia writes about cleaning out her father's boxes of collections (cigar bands, baseball cards, used calling cards, etc) after his death, & wondering where a person's cherished possessions go after the person is no longer around to look after them. she writes about her son, emiliano, & having a day off from looking after him & working so that she could work on her zines, buy pie, & make delicious food. a big chunk of this zine is about food. she writes a lot about gertrude stein & alice b. toklas & the kinds of dishes that alice was famous for cooking, wondering what happened to all those old-fashioned ingredients & cooking techniques. this zine comes with a mini tucked inside that expands on the alice b. toklas/food theme even more, as celia speculates on what modern cooking inventions alice may have appreciated & what kind of food she would like to cook if she were alive now. i am impressed with celia's ability to keep making zines (she makes tons of mini-zines too) when she is working full-time & parenting a toddler, & she motivates me to cook delicious food with all of her sumptuous descriptions.
half-legal * 24pp. & mini * $3.20 (u.s.)/$4.00 (int'l)

ah! another issue of this zine that seems to come out so infrequently (though not as infrequently as mine...)! apparently the theme of this issue is the past. it is extraordinarily heavy on the drawings, including so many drawings of animals, which seems to be nicole's specialty. get in touch with her if you want her to do a pet portrait for you, no joke. there also a few brief re-prints from the very first issues of "invincible summer," for those seeking a blast from the past. topics covered include a eulogy for nicole's chicken, mabel, who passed on in the fall of 2004; taking the dog to the vet for a mysterious eye infection & observing all the other animals in the clinic; taking another dog to the vet because she got bit on the face, & this piece includes a brief essay on the importance of being responsible caretakers for the animal friends that rely on us; discovering that her biological father, whom she never knew existed, is alive & well; many many daily diary comics (like the ones she does for her annual comic split zine), illustrated with images of her jonesing for coffee, talking to her dogs, arguing with friends, etc...& a lot more, little impressions of what is happening. so many illustrations of animals & references to food! i think animals & food (but never animals as food) are the real themes of this zine. it's all very cut-&-paste & d.i.y., with so many drawings & most of the zine being handwritten or banged out on an old-fashioned typewriter. may inspire you to go write in your diary, & that's a nice thing, right? only 3 copies left!
half-legal * 48pp. * $3.05 (u.s.)/$4.25 (int'l)

wow. this is the fifth installment of nicole & clutch's annual split comic zine. every may, they sit down & record a set time period in fully-illustrated comic installments. that's the regular format for "clutch," & those readers familiar with "invincible summer" know that nicole's zines regularly contain a lot of drawing. so fans of either, or adherents to the comic form, or even devotees of diarist writing, will all find something that appeals to them here. for this issue, nicole & clutch document the first two weeks of may 2006. clutch's artwork is very simple line drawings that are still incredibly evocative. he has created solid character forms for the people who make regular appearances in his comics, & it's kind of hilarious to contrast the way he draws nicole against the way she draws herself. his comics are narrative-based, four panels each, covering topics like working at a zine library, being rejected for reading graphic novels, & the overwhelming process of cleaning one's apartment. nicole's drawing style is much more ornate & detailed, but she still has a tendency to draw people's heads too large for their bodies--that's just her style. & not a day goes by without drawings of animals, from baby chicks to daschunds. her layout is more chaotic & impressionistic, recording the most overwhelming impressions of the day in whatever way will fit on the page. the whole issue is printed on nice thick paper with purple ink, like it's been really well-mimeographed or something. though i doubt too many people reading this even remember mimeograph machines & how the ink was purple. alas.
5" square * 32pp. * $4.05 (u.s.)/$5.25 (int'l)

i don't even know how long nicole & clutch have been writing these annual comic diary zines together. five years? six years? this is the newest edition, covering the first two weeks of may 2007. "clutch" is actually a daily comic diary zine, utilizing four panels & very simple cartoon line drawings depicting the existential realities of the author. my boyfriend loves the pants off "clutch," & he sat with me & read this new split the second it came in, laughing out loud the entire time. the author does little but read comic books, feel hopeless, & lay around in bed, but somehow makes everything hilarious, usually by virtue of pithy philosophical one-liners that are even funnier coming out of the mouths of rubber-limbed cartoon characters. example: "oh, 'spiderman 3,' why did you suck so bad?" (protaganist is illustrated lying in bed, wearing glasses). nicole's drawing style is more complicated & photo-realistic. she actually draws the patterns of people's clothes & the light shining off their hair. her comic style is also more complex, as she draws boxes on top of boxes, with boxes of text explaining the images, & some of her daily diaries are one page long while others are two or three pages. the first few days depict the tail-end of her experiences on the sister spit ramblin' roadshow tour, sleeping in the car, interactions with randomoids at the tour events, eating dinner. may 6 & 7 report on the tragi-comic crisis of attempting to return home to portland, & the last half of the zine primarily revolves around nicole's drama with her former housemate jorge, whom she despises so much that she can only stand to draw him as a giant, evil carrot. she fights with jorge, uncovers his fiendish plot to steal money from her & mistreat her dogs, shops for shoes, & revels in misery for a little while. i always love these splits! clutch & nicole have very different drawing styles & very different lives, but their comics are both so funny & true at the same time. yay!
5" square * 32pp. * $3.35 (u.s.)/$3.75 (int'l)

as much as i enjoy nicole's annual comic diary split zines, i am always excited when she publishes a new zine on her own. this hefty offering is almost entirely autobiographical comics taken from nicole's journal over the course of six months, primarily deriving their dramatic core from the dissolution of a romantic relationship. nicole's drawing style is cartoon-ish but with a realistic flair that must come from keeping so much a diary in illustrated form. practice makes perfect! she writes about her partner deciding that she no longer wants to play music with nicole, caring for her ex-girlfriend's dogs even after they have broken up, having to have a tooth extracted, breakfast dates & drunken interludes with friends around portland, the occasional reference to dream symbolism, recipes for vegan pumpkin cheesecake & other yummy vegan treats, & getting new tattoos (& a bunch of other stuff too!). she also includes a hilarious advice column ("i have a beehive hairdo & i struggle with whether or not to wear a helmet when cycling. what to do?") & top ten list, in an effort to stabilize the drama ith some positivity. be prepared for many, many drawings of animals & strange illustrations, alluring references to food, inter-personal drama stories to satisfy your inner gossip hound, & amusing non-sequitors. a fabulous issue, as always, & i will also add that i appreciate what a unique visual & writing style nicole has. there is no other zine quite like it, even if others may address similar topics.
half-legal * 52pp. * $5.05 (u.s.)/$6.25 (int'l)

the 2009 "invincible summer" wall calendar has dropped, & this year, it's an ode to the queer animal kingdom! nicole has been making an annual calendar for several years now, & this year, she had them printed professionally at portland's own pinball printing (check out that alliteration), so we have nice forest green ink on thick white paper that will hold up quite well over the next twelve months. tack it to your wall & spend the year with all kinds of animals that have been documented engaging in homosexual behavior, such as long-eared hedgehogs conversing about their new year's resolutions, giraffes wearing frilly ribbons (as featured on the cover), & sika deer getting up close & personal with nicole's illustrator perspective. you may already be familiar with nicole's work from her zine of the same name, & if so, you are aware that she is a vegan & a devoted friend to all animals, which includes rendering them in beautiful, occasionally anthropomorphized portraits. this calendar is a bit smaller than the others she has done--it would look very stylish & discreet in a cubicle at work or on the crowded wall over your desk at home, amidst various budgets, to-do lists, & postcards (if you are anything like me). each month features a different animal & a full calendar with holidays marked & space to write in special dates of your own (if you have small-ish handwriting). get yours while you still can!
4" square * 28pp. * $9.70 (u.s.)/$10.50 (int'l)

hey, uh...you really need to order this zine. it is jessika rae's new zine. she used to write "do not file under manifesto," but that ended when she misplaced the flat for the last issue, & instead she created this zine, which was probably one of my most hotly-anticipated zines all year. the first batch she sent was lost in the mail, which made me very sad. but finally they have arrived & they are everything i hoped for & more. jessika rae makes these amazing zines in the old-school post-riot grrrl vein, all typewritten with rub-on letters & high-contrast photocopies of cities & big chunks of black breaking up paragraphs & important sentences written in script. it's all about moving away from detroit to attend midwifery school in portland, maine, & not really having a place to call home & transience & leaving friends behind. jessika rae & i have talked a lot about this zine, lots of late-night phone calls encouraging each other to finish our "depressing" zines, & we concluded that we have to write about how sometimes shit is hard, even if it means that we are not posi. in between stories about traveling & the pitfalls of punk house living, jessika rae writes about the repercussions of pollution on pregnant women & their children, & debunks dumb arguments about over-population. you can also get falling down drunk if you play the "i still believe (in fire)" drinking game, which involves taking a drink every time jessika rae writes about wildcrafting something. this is almost like reading someone's diary, but with less self-involvement. my favorite kind of zine!
half-standard * 52pp. * $3.05 (u.s.)/$4.25 (int'l)

ocean's newest zine is subtitled, "a zine about carpal tunnel, tendonitis, & how to keep your job from ruining your life," which about sums it up. in simple, easy-to-understand language, ocean describes her own experiences with hand/wrist problems & repetitive stress injuries. a common but mistaken belief is that repetitive stress injuries mainly afflict office workers or people who spend a lot of time typing or working on computers. most mainstream literature that exists for helping people cope with these injuries is directed at these kinds of white-collar workers. but ocean started noticing her injuries when she worked as a dishwasher, & she offers tips to folks in several more working class professions (bike couriers, construction workers, etc) on how to prevent repetitive stress in their jobs, & keep their jobs if injuries are already present. because these kinds of jobs rarely offer medical benefits, ocean also includes helpful hints for diagnosing & treating injuries in a d.i.y. way, including stretches, movement breaks, vitamin supplements, & more. this is a pretty indispensable zine for people who may have repetitive stress injuries but not a lot of access to traditional medicine. check it out & contribute to the next issue with your own stories, tips, & tricks!
half-standard * 20pp. * $1.35 (u.s.)/$1.75 (int'l)

this initial edition of the vegan cookzine is sub-titled "just desserts," & contained therein are 24 pages of vegan dessert recipes. i haven't tested any of them for myself yet, but i am impressed by max's stated goal of "improving the quality of vegan food," as more specifically detailed in the introductory notes on substitutions, which contains dire warnings that subbing arrowroot for cornstarch & carob for chocolate will make your baked goods taste like lumps of dried wheatpaste drizzled with all-natural unsweetened maple syrup. but max is here to prevent such a tragedy, & to guide fellow vegans in their quest to wow their friends with cruelty-free tiramisu, black forest cake, chai cheesecake, & pecan pie. non-vegans are welcome to substitute their death-dealing ingredient preferences & make non-vegan desserts as well: something for everyone! each recipe consists of measurements & ingredients, directions, a ridiculous name (ie, iron curtain cookies), a ridiculous story explaining the origins of the dessert (ie, "the abbreviation for the original name of these cookies was close enough to c.c.c.p. for me to feel the change was warranted. one taste & you'll understand why the west was so worried about the domino effect...comrade"), a few silly footnotes, & a small illustration. all handwritten utilizing max's hard-won skills in ambidexterousness.
half-standard * 24pp. * $1.35 (u.s.)/$1.75 (int'l)

max has created here a very charming vegan cookzine. everything is hand-written & augmented with really sharp-looking illustrations that he drew himself. it is broken into sections for breakfast, lunch, dinner, & appetizers, & includes vegan versions of some pretty hard-to-veganize concepts like boston cream doughnuts (!!!), french toast, samosas, pizza, bruschetta, carrot cake cookies, & more. each recipe is more than just a recipe, as it is introduced by some hilarious or ridiculous story. for example, for beer-battered barbecue tofu: "what could be more american than beer & BBQ? maybe a deep-fried, chocolate-covered, nougat-filled apple pie served with sparklers sticking out of it on a red, white, & blue plate shaped like a bald eagle's head to an obese child on the fourth of july while fighter planes scream overhead accompanied by the latest toby keith song." a pleasant read & a worthy addition to your vegan (or vegan-friendly) kitchen.
half-standard * 24pp. * $1.70 (u.s.)/$2.50 (int'l)

i fell in love with this zine the very first time i read it. hope moved to new orleans a couple of years ago, & when hurricane katrina happened, she didn't evacuate with most of the city. she collected friends & neighbors & they set up camp in a sturdy brick house on relatively high ground. she explains in this zine about hurricane season in new orleans, how the city is always threatened, residents are always advised to evacuate, other hurricanes hadn't warranted it & so they didn't figure this one would either. they all (including a 3-year-old & a bunch of animals) weathered the storm together & waded back to their neighborhood through the rising water, & eventually found their way out of the city when the second levee broke. she writes about how the experience bonded them all, even if they didn't really know each other beforehand, & about going back to new orleans five weeks later & realizing that although she was compelled to go back to a city that had offered her so many things she loved, many of those things might be gone forever because of the disaster & the reconstruction efforts. she writes about military ready-to-eat meal recipes at the bike shop, having both her bikes stolen from her within three weeks, trying to understand her place in a city where her presence has been a gentrifying force. she also writes about taking language classes in guatemala & in mexico, & includes the story of two punks who came down to new orleans after the hurricane to volunteer at the bike shop. every other page is text, interspersed with drawings & photographs of whatever she is writing about--wsding through the streets, kids outside the bike shop, leaves growing on trees in the spring after a long winter. this zine in general has been one of my favorites from the beginning, but this issue is particularly evocative & inspiring.
quarter-standard * 76pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

the intro claims that this is more a splicing than a split zines, per se. & so it is. hope ("keep loving keep fighting") & john ("i hate this part of texas") each wrote approximately half of this zine, & it is laid out in the manner of a normal zine, except that the fonts switch back & forth so the reader knows who wrote what. the theme is new orleans, a year & a half post-hurricane katrina. both hope & john lived in new orleans when the hurricane happened & evacuated. both returned to the city not long after the waters receded & attempted to reconstruct their lives & those of their friends & neighbors. this zine is a collection of their stories about the hurricane aftermath, post-traumatic stress, botched reconstruction efforts, rising rents & rising crime in the city, friends that have moved away or been killed. heavy on the text, hope & john allow the words to speak for them, & they do, poignantly, & sometimes with anger. hope & john explain why they stay on in new orleans, & the will it takes to make the city work, even in the best of times. hurricane season, humidity that makes a person feel that they are melting, brass bands busking for sidewalk change, teaching bike anatomy to local teenagers, constructing new living spaces with flood emergency plans, grappling with the dispersal & loss of trusted friends when one in unable to trust new friends. an emotional but recommended read.
quarter-legal * 64pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

hope is billing ths issue as the end of "keep loving keep fighting," since she has left new orleans & moved to baton rouge to attend college. this is kind of like the "goodbye new orleans" issue, which is pretty text-heavy & features a letterpressed cover over a blockprint design & hand-binding. hope writes a lot about preparing to leave new orleans, where she lived for several years & survived hurricane katrina, evacuating only after the city was already flooded. a lot of the writing here is about the PTSD she experiences, living in new orleans after the hurricane. not only are swaths of the city still not re-built, but many long-time residents who were able to move back to the city are working through some serious trauma, crime is escelating, standards of living are dropping, & hope writes that she is finding the possibility of "staying positive" increasingly difficult. i guess you could say that this is a zine about struggling & fighting through some very serious obstacles to make it out the other side still holding it together, even if you are a little bit patched & broken. over the eight issues of this zine's existence, it has deinitely grown into its name. there are stories here about bike lanes in montreal, building fences, chickens, growing closer to family, & more about getting through hard times, all tied together with an underlying theme of saying goodbye to new orleans. really well-written & evocative.
quarter-legal * 44pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

chris is calling this the "difficult" tenth issue: "despair, books, & songs." it's mostly about a trip he took to sydney, australia, a few years ago to visit his sister. he writes about what most of us have experienced when we're away from home for too long--falling into routines in the place we are visiting, trying to make the new environment fit even though it doesn't really, eventually allowing the awkwardness to become a different kind of comfort. for example, chris has major problems throughout his stay in sydney finding a good cup of regular coffee. included are letters he wrote to friends back home & later, once he's back in ottawa & his friends there have started to drift off into their new lives, letters from them about their new homes. the overall sensation is one of displacement & incongruity, which will be painfully familiar to anyone compelled to travel despite the drive to make a home. written in a detached narrative tone reminiscient of raymond carver. only 4 copies left!
quarter-standard * 56pp. * $3.70 (u.s.)/$4.50 (int'l)

chris subtitled this issue "nocturne," which is fitting, because many of the stories seem to revolve around insomnia & the things a person gets up to when they stay up all night. the layout is very simple, mainly with an emphasis on the typewritten text. small illustrations & titles written in rub-on letters divide the zine into nine separate brief stories. he writes about walking around the city taking photographs, sitting in diners with friends because they're all too broke to attend the nostalgia-riddled punk rock reunion show across the street, staying out all night getting into trouble with the punks, staying at the movies until the lights come on again, & more. chris's writing style is somewhat impressionistic, picking up threads of conversations that seemed to illustrate a broader point about human nature or political apathy or the role of youth in the industrialized west, but he doesn't go out of his way to make anything explicit. he offers ideas & lets the reader come to her own conclusions. he also includes an interview with adam tmomlison, about giving up playing music & book publishing to make zines, which is an awesome & inspiring reversal of the usual trajectory. this might be the most satisfied i have ever felt with chris's zines. this issue is really solid.
quarter-standard * 48pp. * $2.35 (u.s.)/$2.75 (int'l)