Baby Beef Heart Volume 2

From what I got while reading Baby Beef Heart, the underlying message of this zine is to beat the nine-to-five grind and get backto-basics with Mother Nature. This is a great message to convey, but not if all you do is bash the nine-to-five and don’t bother to offer realistic alternatives to it.

This zine gives off a distinctly naturalistic vibe, one that urges the reader to read the labels of the things we buy and to grow our own food. It also talks about finding joy in the simple things, and that sometimes a mental detox is the best medicine.

It’s also a collection of beautiful drawings and delicately mastered digital paintings made of nothing but pixels. I think the artwork is the best part of this zine (although I wish I had skipped the doctor-pizza comic and kept that minute of my life to myself). The artwork makes this zine great, and it could be greater if that was what it focused on, as well as offering realistic solutions to everyday problems instead of angsting and moaning about them. Or, better yet, do the angst and moan part, and then offer realistic solutions hand-inhand with it. (Tara Blackmore)