Cough wins instant points by including a stained, torn treasure map stuck to the inside cover with sealing wax as its table of contents. This issue, edited by Tina Beast, isn’t so much a collection on a theme as it is a delicious slice of DIY culture. An interesting interview with the creators of Swingest magazine is followed by comics, a colouring page and articles on pirate radio, cheap silk screening and music reviews. Really good music reviews. The author, known to us only as Brent, seems to have written only about his favourite CDs. The result is a collection of positive, stream-of-consciousness reviews delivered as if on the exhale between drags from a cigarette. All the other topics in Cough are presented just as intuitively: windows into crafts and activities outside the reader’s experience. (J. Blackmore)
zine, Tina Beast, issue 5, $2, PO Box 604, Moss Beach, CA 94038