I READ ZINES [#2]

Necronomicon Issue #29

This is a UK horror fanzine by a chap called Neil. Neil watches a shit load of horror movies and then writes about them. It is nice to read the opinions of horror movies from a 'fan' perspective rather than a 'critics' perspective. And it was especially nice to see that someone else enjoyed The Purge as much as I did (It got shat on by 'critics'). I think this zine would benefit from contributions from other fans as it seems to be solely Neil's opinion. However, Neil has put out 29 Issues so far so who the fuck am I to tell him how to run his ship.

Lights Go Out Issue #26

This UK punk fanzine has been has been running since 2008, edited by the mysterious Mr T with contributions from punk fans from all over the place. The zine mainly consists of band interviews, which are ace, but can be a bit of a chore if you're unfamiliar with the band in question. The best part of the zine are the music reviews. They review anything that is sent to them, regardless of who it is by or what genre. This leads to some comical and rather blunt reviews of crap like Ellie Goulding and someone out of Glee. Why record companies send shit like that to a DIY punk zine is beyond me, but it's fucking hilarious.


Gut Feelings Issue #4 'England'

Gut Feelings is one of my random pay day Etsy discoveries. It is a zine about 'food and everything else' by two young ladies from London. It is full of recipes, illustrations, facts about England, and other bits and pieces. All hand written. It really is pretty awesome. My favourite part was the 'How to Kill and Eat Mythical Creatures' which was both charming and utterly sadistic at the same time. 



 

Gut Feelings Issue #5 'America'

Because Issue #4 got lost in the post the first time they sent it, they sent me Issue #5 as well to apologise (even though it was entirely Royal Mail's fault). This time the theme is 'America'. I wasn't quite as taken with this issue as I was with the last one as it feels a little rushed. Some of the pages are computer typed, which is fine, but they didn't even use a nice font (!). My favourite part was a piece about Bukowski's disdain for Disney. The accompanying illustration of Buk throttling Mikey Mouse almost warmed my cold dead heart. Almost.

The Best Friend I Never Met

This zine by Soft Skeletons is about a long distance friendship. It contains quotes and snippets of conversations, from e-mails, from letters, etc. to form a narrative of sorts and it is truly, truly beautiful. I am fortunate enough to have met some pretty amazing people online, people that I would never know existed had it not been for the internet, and this little zine made me cherish those connections more so than ever. I can't recommend this highly enough! Go buy one, right now. Go, GO!