Zine Review: Grimm Memes

ZINES_Grimm Memes

 

Grimm Memes
Photo zine, Marx Grimm (author), 44 pgs, godblessgenerica.com, $3.50 + postage

Online gets offline within the pages of Grimm Memes. Interesting concept: a zine that compiles a “greatest hits” collection of Internet memes, prints them, binds them and distributes them via PO boxes
and whatnot. Billed early as “a collection of heavy-handed mixed messages”, Grimm Memes leans heavily on U.S politics and/or angst. Photos include military types, dead animals and assorted famous people, transposed with tongue-in-cheek proclamations. Cohesion is in there and then it isn’t. Again, there’s a political agenda but there isn’t one singular narrative that truly defines the collection—which is fine. After all, this is really a hard copy version of a Google Images search. This zine is portable at less than six inches long but still far more IRL than the 2D versions you’d find online. A quick peek at the God Bless Generica website reveals other Grimm Memes available via Etsy. It’s a bit unclear whether these are run in multiples or printed as a one-off but either way, Grimm Memes is an easy read with few barriers to entry. (Cam Gordon)