Many people have this early-’90s idea that all zines are written by twentysomethings with too much time on their hands and a nicely framed art school diploma collecting dust in some corner. This, of course, isn’t the case, and The East Village Inky #30 proves it. The EVI is a zine written by Ayun Halliday, a 40-year-old, married New Yorker with two kids. It reads as an earnest diary of everyday life, complete with indie-style Family Circus panel doodles that get to the essence of parenting from a sane, artistic and liberal perspective. Stories, like the one about getting caught reading explict zines by a nanny at the YMCA, or the one about a trip to the MoMA where the children interpret the “flying poo poo” of modern art right along with Louis Bourqeosis’s “Sleep II” (that her son, Milo, informs her “Issa Weenie!”), are simple but strangely touching. Halliday’s husband Greg Kotis’s rant about keeping his much-maligned beard, and about the great bearded men of history, made me smile-but hearing about his Valentine’s present was achingly adorable. Agreeing to skip presents, Ayun and Greg decide to meet for a movie. He arrives beardless (his gift to her), and she arrives with a homemade card with a fuzzy bearded heart that says “I love you in spite of it.” Sometimes 40 really is the new twentysomething-and anyone should be lucky to have parents this cute. This zine is an example of how to grow up and have a family without becoming something we’re all deathly afraid of: boring. (Mathew Thomas)
Zine, Ayun Halliday, #30, $3, 35 pgs, [email protected], www.ayunhalliday.com