Pizza Lovers ZOMG: ‘Za the Pizza Zine, Special Issue’
Zine, Nicki Yowell, 27 pgs Quimby’s, quimbys.com, $4.00
I relate deeply to this zine’s passion for pizza. When I had braces, each time they were tightened I knew I had three hours before I’d have to eat smoothies for about a week due to the pain. Fortunately, I lived next to one of the shadiest local pizza joints. Almost immediately, I developed a personal relationship with this pizza place. The employees knew that when I came by I had just had my braces tightened and being aware of the situation, would offer up several free slices for me to gorge on. Every time I went was like my last (shitty) meal, and I grew to love the reliably plastic-like cheese and multi-textured crust that always waited there for me.
This edition of Pizza Lovers recalls the various pizza places Nicki Yowell has visited in her life, including all the sizzles and all the fizzles. She equates different pizza places with different types of lovers — including the college love, the creative type, and the late night tryst. Nicki searches for that match made in heaven, but along the way has certainly settled for far less to appease her needs.
Honest, graphic and a little lewd, pizza becomes so much more than a mere food in this zine; it gains a life force and personality that us pizza lovers have sensed all along, whether we knew it or not. I can assume that when Nicki passes a new untapped pizza joint, the words of Charles Barkley must resonate in her head: “Jones… an obsession… a burning desire.” (Andrew Melanson)