Jessica Lewis, Aviva Cohen and Melody Lau, staticzine.com, $2
A 10-issue run is something worth celebrating, and the Static Zine crew does just that in this milestone-themed instalment. Three editors and 20 contributors is quite a crowd to wrangle, but Jess Lewis and company manage it, apparently having lots of fun along the way, according to the introduction.
Like previous issues of Static, the zine is comprised of single pages by each contributor. Featured milestones include tattoos, memorable vacations, supernatural experiences, overcoming childhood fears and more. Standout pieces include Robb Mirsky’s impeccably-drawn comic “Becoming A Man” about nervously surviving his bar mitzvah and Lily Pepper’s level-headed mini-essay “Fuck A Milestone; Be A Tender Baby.” Pepper invokes a hard-won and healthy ambivalence toward conventional life milestones and the stubborn tenacity supposedly required to achieve them. It is refreshing wisdom to re-convince me that the kids are in fact all right.
One milestone bonus: the Static Zine mixtape also returns, with a link in the zine, to songs representing milestones in the authors’ lives. (Joshua Barton)