Zine Review

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.

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.

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.

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

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

This water-themed issue of MANIFEST (zine) makes way for text and art contributions from a number of “friends and fellow creative spirits” who all lived near the Connecticut shoreline.