A short, poignant piece on Walkerton opens the latest issue of Defiance! There’s political and satirical cartoons, reviews, wild ink sketches with giant dragons in gas masks bombing stuff, and wicked borders which are peppered with tiny corporate logos like GM, Ford, McDonalds, Exxon, Mobil, IBM, giving the zine a hieroglyphic flavour. Poetry with a serious slant and too many fonts swerves for my taste (stick to 2 different fonts for text, especially when it is so obviously well put together in content and in layout). Eric Drooker’s prison sketch is hypnotic – picture two hands calmly resting on the bars, one gripping a pencil, waiting for the guard to unlock/lock the door. D. Ammit’s Billy Graham Has A Posse was appealing both visually and for its accompanying article. Overall, I’d have to say Gripp and Barry have done a swell job at presenting London’s voice of the counterculture. E-mail ’em cause they seem to be on the lam. Defiance! also appears to have taken over a local radio station, which can only be a good thing. (NGM)
$2.50, Volume 3, Number 1, Issue 5, Andreas Gripp, Chris Barry (Eds) Afterthoughts / Harmonia Press, London, ON, [email protected]