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Room to Breathe
Kyle's Entry to the Perzine/Poetryzine market brings us Room to Breath, a wonderful mix of poetry and imagery.  With the blend of images, carefully selected that Kyle gives us, his terse, brief poems accent the work as a whole.  Instead of creating a sparse, barren environment, this technique in his hands allows us to have enough use of our own imagination, yet is carefully directed by the work.  Opening the zine is a piece about tattooing wounds, and the power of the human spirit.  It seems that almost all of Kyle's work is spirit driven, from "As the world turns" a commentary about oil and gas prices to "City" one of the longer entries that deals with the environment that a city creates.  Kyle's work is high caliber, and I'm looking forward to reading more of it.  He has two other publications, "And Education in Rebellion:Poetry by Kyle Van Heck and artwork by Mike Twohig" (Twohig's art has also been reviewed on our site, see ALL SKEWED UP for more) and "Knife to Neck" Poetry and Artwork by Kyle Van Heck.  $2.00
Slam Bang:The Explosive Comic Anthology

    Slam Bang is a collective comic containing text and images from a variety of sources in one tidy package.  With color covers and high production values, Slam Bang is always a good read.  Issues reviewed:#1, #1v3, #5v2

Slam Bang #1:

    Slam Bang #1 is a brilliant tribute to the comics of yesteryear, with high production values at a reasonable price.  The parody ads alone are worth buying this comic, from the interior, "Earn Big Money:Learn Brain Surgery and Advanced Nerosurgery AT HOME IN YOUR SPARE TIME" to the back panel "He looked for suckers that liked to draw" (pictured above/back cover), this comic does nothing but make you smile.  The intro story, "Unscary Monsters" is both entertaining and philosophical, while pointing fun at concepts in modern horror cinema.  Darby O' Studnuts follows with some brazen, off-color humor, in a nice comic/narrative hybrid.  Slacker "Antichrist" gives us a black and white omage to "The Omen".  Random Frog Children, Spanky the Ouija Monkey and Last Kiss round out this comic with a very Mike-Grell inspired Brad Foster illustraition in the back.  $3.00, 24 pages, Available from Fan-atic press: http://www.fanaticpress.com/

Slam Bang #1, Vol III

One word:
    WOW.
 Allen Freeman does it again, this time with a hefty trade paperback.  With 200 pages of pure comic goodness, Allen taps the rescources of indy talent to an incredible degree.  This omnibus of non-mainstream talent pulls no punches, and takes on all comers.  Stan Yan's Press Corps Whore alone is worth the price, making you laugh and poking fun at the current administraition all at once.  Who could ask for more?  Usually in larger anthologies, you'll have a few weaker artists and storytellers as filler, but not here, Allen has selected the creme' de le creme, with no filler.  Matjaz Bertoncelj's "Feed the Best" is dark, rich and powerful, hits you like a strong double expresso and leaves a bite and taste in your mouth.  John Lustig's nostalgic art style is unified by his commentary on 'standard' comic media.  Scott Nickel's single panel cartoons and zombie panels show the full gamut of his storytelling skills, from simple parody humor to advanced storytelling.  The list goes on and on!  Dean LeCrone's "Restitution" is a powerful story told one one single page.  Ron LeBrasseur's "Blood Moon" is not your typical vampire love story.  While there's far, far too many good stories to list them all, I can tell you this comic/trade paperback is definatly chicken soup for the independant soul.  Monster heavy, Zombie friendly, with lots of parody and biting social commentary, this is an issue you can't afford to miss.  Allen has graciously allowed us to distro this work, so please support independant comics and pick up a copy.  Only $9.95 DIRT CHEAP and worth EVERY CENT. 

Slam Bang #5 Volume II

 
Slam Bang #5 the Astonishing All Robot Issue with it's beautiful full cover artwork is a treat to the eyes.  64 pages, digest sized, $5.00, Allen has assembled a cornecopia of cartoonists and artists that's sure to please everyone.  From tales of the crypt parodies to a skyscape that looks like a transformer has taken up residence in the down town, this one is full of pure robotic goodness.  Redneck Robob is utterly hilarious, and then we have a true robot romance.  Funny, well drawn with high production values, this is a very enjoyable piece of independant comics.  $5.00
 

Soixante Neuf:

    Soixante Neuf is a text-only erotic story zine containing a variety of different stories that has an appeal to a variety of sexual orientations.  usually the stories are well formed and some have previously appeared on the web.  Issues reviewed:#1

Soixante Neuf #1:
  The Debut issue contains a scan of a piece of relief art on the cover and a collage on the back cover (with prints of both online).  Inside we find four stories, categorized by gender configureation and concept.  Two stories are termed, 'vanilla male/female' and from there, we go to a story reguarding ageplay with a transsexual and then toward the end a wonderful piece reguarding lesbian branding.  It's a wild ride from cover to cover, and a definate must read.  Available FROM THE AUTHOR ONLY, AGE STATEMENT REQUIRED. Click HERE for CONTACT INFORMATION

Soixante Neuf #2

Soixante Neuf #2 comes to us filled with various erotica goodies, most notably the inclusion of part one of the small novella, 'Violet's Tit' a six-part series reguarding two women whose friendship turns to a deep lesbian love.  Also included is, 'the chase' which is an interesting bit of horror/erotica, and a small vinette dedicated to taking care of business, oneself.  Available from the other only, click HERE


Sisyphean Task #8

Sisyphean Task #8
 Sisyphean Task, by Michael Faris is a powerful piece of perzine.  Michael’s writing is direct and powerful, and from the introduction alone, I found it no ordinary zine.  He speaks bluntly about his own lofty self-made mind games as a child, aspiring to be the archangel Michael – and yet tried to remain meek.  His own dichotomy of feelings and emotions provide fruit for his life.  This is Michael’s first zine as an Oregonian, and I wish there were more.  He leads with his most powerful of pieces, “Threads”.  This essay alone is worth the zine; it’s descriptions of growing up with his grandmother’s quilts, and how her life changes as she embraces certain pieces of technology is fascinating all own it’s own.  The “F” words poem is interesting as is the “Crossing Borders”.  Faris’ work is stable throughout the zine, with no less than nine separate entries of prose and poetry.  What I like is how someone so highly educated as Faris can make his words resound to a variety of people – it’s like you’re sitting down for coffee with an old friend that you haven’t seen for years.  Even the end piece – “On Mania and Melancholy” is powerful, yet accessible.  Filled with good stuff to make you think and feel, Sisyphean Task is a great read.  Digest sized, 40 pages, Three bucks.