Sturgeon White Moss #4
White Moss Press
This underground comic quarterly just won the Best Fanzine Award at France's Angouleme Festival. And while that may not sound like much of an honor, when put in perspective it's similar to winning Best Spock Impersonation at a Star Trek convention: geeky, for sure, but still somehow really impressive. A modest black-and-white zine of 52 pages, Sturgeon #4 is stuffed with new work by comic icons such as Marc Bell and Martin Cendreda, as well as dark and dingy drawings by incredible unknowns like the 16-year-old Kez. There's even an ultra-cute comic by children's book illustrator Simone Lia. It's essential reading if you need to get your cartoon on but don't want to scour those boxes of Archies and Spidermans at a flea market in Pennsylvania for hours with the hopes of finding some classic R. Crumb illustration of a naked lady.
MADDY EEBS
Slept in Beds
Evil Twin Publications
A three-way collaboration between designer Stacy Wakefield (she designs Artforum, too), photographer Nick Zinner (he plays the guitar in some band), and poet Zachary Lipez (he has a band called Fresh Kills). Nick's photos are all of beds he slept in on tour, hence the title. He ran some similar photos in Vice's Photo Issue a couple years ago. They are nicely printed here, and fun to look at. Stacy gave the book a handmade feel that is great, complete with little pieces of cloth and a silkscreened cover. It's a grown-up zine. I'm not a poetry girl, so don't ask me about Zachary's parts. I have to plead the Fifth on that one.
JAN PEOPLES
Fair Situation Photographs
Patrick O'Dell
Patrick's pictures are in Vice sometimes, and Thrasher sends him all over the fucking planet for free so he can take pictures of his friends having fun. This is his new photocopied zine, and for someone who is as totally fucking out of touch with skate culture as me, it brought up a couple of questions. First, what's with all these skaters freaking out over Guns ‘N' Roses, Hanoi Rocks, and Motley Crüe? The kid on the cover is wearing a Crüe shirt, there's another guy inside with a tattoo of Duff as a skull from the Appetite for Destruction art, and then there's a shot of the crowd at a Hanoi Rocks show in Finland. These three bands are great, no question, but why such a passionate rediscovery? I even heard about a pro skater who is so fucking obsessed with Hanoi Rocks that he stalks them and dresses up like Andy McCoy.
JIM MCGILLICUTTY
