This zine reads like Grimm’s fairy tales, but with punks and robo-wagons instead of wolves and kings. The stories are from a yet-to-be-completed book titled The Outer Kalifornia Book of the Alive and are entirely handwritten on scraps of paper, but it is legible. The zine is text heavy with no illustrations, but it has a cut n’ paste style that really suits the stories being told. The first story is about punks living in a house called “Anything Goes” and begins with flushing a dead parrot down the toilet, backyards full of microwaves and stealing two-by-sixes to rebuild a wall, and ends with the most extreme DIY project ever. There are also stories about a hardcore DIY sword smith and a beer-fetching wagon with frying pans for hands.
All of the stories within the zine were entertaining with an offbeat sense of humour and a consistent use of foul language. While reading, I felt I was definitely not “hardcore” enough to fully appreciate the stories and I may not be getting all of the jokes and humour written into these tales. Even so, I was entertained and wouldn’t mind checking out another issue or the book, once it has been completed. (Elizabeth J.M.W.)
Litzine, Martin Hazelbower, dreamtoldbymoto.wordpress.com