Zine, W. Carroll, #28, rochesterteenset.storenvy.com, $1 (US)
Apparently, the punk youth of Rochester love their comics. As proof, #28 of Rochester Teen Set Outsider is the comic book issue, filled with impressive coverage of the local comics scene and beyond. Editor W. Carroll reviews the experience of representing Teen Set at the local Roc-Con comics convention, interviews Life Is Posers creator Mike Kadomiya, reviews the longstanding local comic shop Comics Etc and interviews a local librarian who is also a comics addict. The zine is padded with a few crude homegrown comics, but the interviews and articles are the real draw to this issue. Contributors are multi-generational. Greg Prevost writes about comics he grew up with in the 1950s and 60s, while the mysterious creeper Mr. Ski Mask writes a slightly sexist and lengthy history of women characters in psychedelic era comics, coming off more titillated than critical. The black-and-white, cut-and-pasted
zine packs more content than one would expect into its quarter-size format, mostly by using miniscule type. Nevertheless, comics fans with a magnifying glass should like this punk-curated guide to the Rochester comics scene and comic fandom writ large. (Joshua Barton)