Elegant ain’t typically an adjective you’re liable to find in Zinesville but lemme tell ya: Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet is nothing if not elegant. Just check out the Victorian-era lass riding a tiger that adorns the front cover. And it doesn’t stop there. Lady Churchill’s is a beautifully produced zine, jam-packed with poems, short stories, features, film reviews and other curiosities. There is enough variety here to satisfy the most sullen hardback and, most importantly, Lady Churchill’s cocks the hammer in favour of the reader by keeping the pieces short, sharp and easy to read. In terms of highlights, Michael Northrop’s “The Beard of God” is definitely up there. A soggy tale of a camping trip gone to piss, Northrop does a great job of balancing the cynicism of adulthood with the wonderment of youth, all while saving the sappiness for the pine trees. Lawrence Schimel’s “A Well-Dressed Wolf” is another treat-and an illustrated treat at that. Through some nifty Sara Rojo’s supplied cartoons, Schimel picks apart Aesop’s atypical wolf one snout at a time. And he’s right-why can’t a wolf be a fox–I mean, a bird–um, a broad, a dame, a jezebel. Lady Churchill’s also earns brownie points for including full bios of all contributors to close things out. It’s a little thing but it’s a damn nice thing, and a damn nice zine overall. (Cameron Gordon)
Zine, #15, $7 ($5 US), 64 pages, Small Beer Press, 176 Prospect Avenue, Northampton, MA, 01060, [email protected], www.lerw.net/lerw