Zines!: v.2 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0965046923 ISBN 13: 9780965046923

Publisher: V/Search Publications,U.S., 1997

Synopsis

Zines, Vol. Two has been used as a textbook in
university classes for cultural studies, journalism, and media
criticism. It includes a fantastic, in-depth interview with
Dishwasher Pete, whose goal was to wash dishes in every state of
America. Keffo of Temp Slave talks about very funny pranks on the job,
and advocates restoring the I.W.W. (International Workers of the World).
McJob continues the analysis of the workplace and its perils. John Marr
discusses his favorite bizarre murders in Murder Can Be Fun.
A history of proletarian novels is featured, plus reviews of many
independent publications.

About this title

About the Author

Johnny Brewton, interviewee:

Johnny Brewton produces X-RAY, a publication which
must be seen and touched to be fully appreciated. It features different colored
papers, inserts, found photographs, color xeroxes and objects such as
matchbooks and Chinese fortunes--each issue is a hand-produced artwork, with no
two copies exactly alike.

Growing up in Ventura, California, Johnny got involved in
the Los Angeles punk rock scene at the age of fourteen. A decade ago, he helped
produce a zine, Sixty Miles North, and then published Kandykorn
Jackhammer, all the while playing bass and drums in bands such as M.I.A.,
Missiles of October, the Screaming Things, Frankenstein and Big Biscuit
Express. He has a small collection of early punk records, sixties Mexican
punk/garage band recordings, and odd jazz, jug band and unclassifiable vinyl.
As a hobby he plays the ukulele and musical saw. In his wanderings, Johnny is
always on the alert for found materials to incorporate in his outstanding and
amazing X-RAY...

From the Back Cover

More self-expression obsession coming at you: in-depth
interviews with 12 more unusual publishers. From a 15-year-old suburbanite
former punk, to a filmmaker and "tracker" (8-track collector/expert); a French
self-publisher of art books (in the original meaning of the word), to the
dishwasher whose goal it is to wash dishes in every state of the U.S.A. Also, a
history of proletarian novels, zine reviews and much, much more. Read all about
it in Zines! Vol. 2!

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Precursors of the current zine explosion include allpublications classed as “proletarian”: novels, nonfiction, short stories,magazines, pamphlets, poetry, plus related genres such as tough-guy,freak/carnival/sideshow books, writing by people of color, early feminist writing—inshort, all the voices of the social underclass. (from essay)

Excerpt from Bruno Richard:

Q: Did you make any money off your publishing?

A: A little bit, but it was never enough. Over the past 20years we managed to produce 45 books. Recently somebody asked me if I’d like todo a book with them for no money, just a copy of the book, and I agreed. That’soften the way it works. All the books are different—we change the size, thetype, the topic, every time. It’s all done just to do something before dying.It’s more interesting to do something when you’re alive than just living!

Q: Well, one of your rewards is meeting people all over theworld—

A: Everybody I ever liked, I would send them a free copy ofmy book. I would write, “I like what you do very much. This is what I do. Isthere something you could send me in exchange so I could see more of your work,because it is not readily available to me?” When I travel, I look at magazinesand find things that interest me; then I try and meet the people who producedthem…

I draw three to five hours every morning before I go to work(4:30-9:00 AM) and sometimes I draw at bedtime if I’m alone. That’s all I cando. For me, work is a kind of “regularization”—if I didn’t work and stayedalone in my room drawing all day like a monk—! That’s why I need a regular job,and that’s why I hate weekends! Besides, my job pays for all my publishing…

I like to destroy pictures. Often, I’ll find a photographand then redo it in a drawing my way—only then am I completely satisfied. Whensomething touches me, like a photo of a girl—even if she’s not nude, I’ll makeher nude. When I find a picture that touches me very much, I’ll do it my way,like “Guernica” was for Picasso…

My drawings depict the awfulness and comedy in this world,like George Grosz who did biting drawings of the bourgeois, the military,prostitutes, etc… I also show the bad side, the dark side of “true love”because I don’t think true love exists!

Edition details

• Publisher: V/Search Publications,U.S.
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0965046923
• ISBN 13: 9780965046923
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 184
• Editor: Vale Vivian