Zine Review

Review: Cryptic Love: Vampire Edition

K.G. Wehri drums up fear largely in service of amplifying the sexual tension. None of it is gory but at some point, the fangs do come out. These stories yield themes of loneliness, hope, staying the course and the flexibility of time.

Review: New Mythologies

The stories in Kym Cunningham’s poems literally grow from women’s bodies. It takes time to connect, to unpack the rearranged speech and to try and find meaning that goes beyond the surface stories.

Review: Considerations

In the grand Oulipo tradition, Considerations sees Montreal’s Fortner Anderson undertake a constrained writing project: 1,000 numbered sentences, each with only one verb. Treat it like a daily Far Side calendar, serving yourself to a gag or observation when you feel like it.

Review: Maria

In just a handful of words, Andromeda skillfully sketches Maria as a brash teenager, in a Puerto Rican family in New York City, and then as an equally brash ghost haunting the halls of their old apartment.

Review: How To Say Hello

Max Morris’ Gary Panter-esque edu-comic should resolve all of your greeting related problems in the post-lockdown world.

Review: Café 24-hour Loneliness

No need to flag down a server — your bill has arrived. This zine’s six poems come stuffed inside an authentic leather restaurant bill holder. They’re typed on thin strips of paper that mimic receipts, and all end with “CUSTOMER COPY.”

Review: 3 Essays on Late-Career Jack Kirby

Andy Brown, a scholar of Kirby and founder of Conundrum Press, has collected three of his essays regarding Kirby’s work after the ‘King of Comic’ bitter departure from Marvel.

Review: Houseplants in Horror Films

Paul Cooke’s fanzine makes you ask yourself: Did the houseplant witness the horror? Do its descriptive factors foretell the torture in the final act? Or am I creating sinister campfire stories in my own mind?

Review: Pixel Dog’s Purgatory in Hell

Pixel Dog discusses a wide range of topics from capitalism to lo-fi music in a playful and often dark critique. A snarky satire that will resonate with the left-leaning and jaded across generations.

Review: Delightful Garden

An anthology consisting of pieces inspired by Hieronymous Bosch’s delirious triptych, Delightful Garden is a heavenly sight.

Review: The Butter Lamb News

The Butter Lamb News stakes out a delightfully bookish zine niche, championing print dictionaries over their digital conquerors, even while acknowledging the battle is lost.

Review: Bad Apples

Bad Apples describes itself as an audiovisual zine, but it feels more like a street-level, sensory experience of Philly in crisis, as witnessed by Kara Khan and Matt Williams in the wake of George Floyd and the 2020 BLM protests.