Latest address I have is: P.O. Box 45564 , Seattle Wa, 98145Welcome to the 7th group of inductees to the Musea Zine Hall of Fame. Our 2 part criteria in determining our choices is:
1. The zine must be published for at least 3 years (or 12 issues)
2. The zine has to be of the highest quality - and it is a plus if the zinester is prolific, and supports other zines.
This group of 8 brings our total to 57 members.
We salute this group of zinesters and their vast talents and solid achievements!
#50 Snackbar Confidential (Saratoga Springs N.Y.) Should zines be frivolous and silly? Well of course if they do it right. And almost 40 issues as of now, must be right. Snackbar Confidential is a zine about snacks and anything cheesy , like B - movies, fluffy TV sitcoms, quaint ads from the 60's and 70's etc.
Each issue is a catalog of kitsch. Ex. An ad for "Gorilla Milk Instant Breakfast" or the poster for the horror film The Conqueror Worm or a shot of a can of Holiday Inn Grape Soda. All this and commentary too!
Latest address I have is: P.B. Box 895 , Saratoga Springs N.Y. 12866
#51 Lynne Lowe & Mike Tolento (Santa Barbara, CA) These 2 are an item, so I'm listing them as a single item. Together they show what a wide range of skills 2 zinesters can have.
Lynne Lowe is known for the zines Java Turtle - mix of stories often on a theme. Ex. #5 has "The joy and heartbreak of zinester love. A compilation featuring Carrie McNinch, Mike Tolento, Kelli Williams, myself (Lynne) and others." And Blackgirl Stories, a mini perzine with 6 issues so far. She also hosts the annual Santa Barbara Zine Fest.
Mike Tolento is a first rate comix artist whose zines include: Empty Life , his comic zine, Assblaster , a comix review zine, and 1 shots like Hypothalamus a zine handed out at the Santa Barbara Zine Fest #4 which opens with "True
Zingers (1 panel comic stories) taken directly from the bratty little mouths of the dynamic duo of zines, Lynne Lowe + Mike Tolento."
Latest address I have is: P.O. Box 20028 , Santa Barbara, CA 93120
#52 Auto Free Times (San Francisco, CA) From the title and their website www.lesscars.org and their t-shirts for sale that say 'Alliance for a Paving Moratorium , you begin to see what this SF newsprint newsletter is about. It's about ending the devastation from cars citywide, nation wide, and world wide. Auto Free Times is the trademark of the Sustainable Energy Institute. It is free and readers are welcome to reprint most, if not all of the stories. It's clear they want to get the word out. And that word being hard solid news stories on the downside of urban sprawl with its traffic, smog, land paving, bike and pedestrian hating, environmentally damaging, ways. They cover what seems like every aspect of city traffic of any kind plus stories from activists for change and their activities, and some 1st rate cartoons to lighten up the message. Note their bicycle bumper sticker that says "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive".
Latest address I have is: P.O. Box 4347, Arcata, CA 95518
#53 Brooklyn (Brooklyn, N.Y.) Fred Argoff's zine is a loving tribute to his home town of Brooklyn. Each issue - 33 to date - is an insiders travel guide to his favorite Brooklyn sites, streets, and their history plus lots of black and white pictures to illustrate the text. For ex. There is a photo of Aufrichtig's Supermarket on Brighton Beach Avenue at night. It seems the store is owned by the father of sportscaster Marv Albert Aufrichtig!. Cross the Brooklyn Bridge and enter Fred's World!
Latest address I have is: 1800 Ocean Pkwy. (#B - 12) , Brooklyn, NY 11223-3037
#54 Ran Prieur (Seattle) Zines include : Third Hemisphere (3) Superweed, (3) Civilization Will Eat Itself (1), plus some short screenplays - all since '95. His nicely constructed zines are mostly his philosophy in a perzine type format. (Also note that instead of typewriter printing, he has page after page - often 50 pages long - of very tiny but flawless handwriting! And he only writes it once ".I write it only once because it makes me feel alive and transcribing feels tedious.")
And what is his philosophy? It is extremely innovative, methodical, and passionate.
While reading it, some of the time I was passionately agreeing, a few times I was passionately disagreeing and most of the time I was trying to catch up to his train of thought - it is far from cut and dried - it is novel and takes thinking from the reader too! "It's not about being a martyr, or a monk, or a star. It's about being a warrior, persistently taking positive action to change the world in your own particular way. My way includes my personal economy, and my writing, and also my attempt to save enough money to pay cash for primiitive land, and physically create a foothold of another world in this one." ( from CWEI)
Latest address I have is: P.O. Box 45564 , Seattle Wa, 98145
#55 U.L.A. (Underground Literary Alliance) (Philadelphia, PA) "Six members of the ULA met last October in order to plot out what course of action to take against the established lit realm. While there, Karl Wenclas pulled out a sheet of paper with a paragraph typed on it and told us it described how a well-known and already financially well-off writer was awarded a substantial sum of money by an arts foundation. Then he asked: "Who's against this type of thing happening?" The sheet did a quick round and each of us signed it." The 6 signing it were: King Wenclas, Michael Jackman, Doug Bassett, Ann Sterzinger, Joe Smith, and Steve Kostecke. Collectively they cover a lot of literary ground. All are inductees.
I'd like to spotlight 2 of them:
Karl Wenclas or King Wenclas - founder of the ULA and editor of the zines New Philistine (45 issues), Zine Beat, Pop Literary Gazette, Literary Fan Magazine, and numerous one-shots.
Michael Jackman -publishing and writing for zines for 15 years that include: Inspector 18, a zine of personal commentary, plus news editor for A Reader's Guide to the Underground Press
Also note that as the ULA has published zines that include The Slush Pile, and The Wet Firecracker both with their collective concern about the fall of the literary world and their positive attempts to put it on a firm foundation again. "The time has come for underground writers to walk out of the ghetto, to reengage a public that has lost touch with the world of literature, represented as it currently is, by dandified authors and pompous, out of touch professors."
Latest address I have is: ULA, P.O. box 42077, Philadelphia PA 19101-2077
#56 The Opera Glass (Tucson, AZ) Though editor Iris J. Arneson has only been writing her opera zine since Jan. 2000, she has produced 14 issues, and the quality of those issues qualifies her for induction. On every page she writies, you can see her fascination and love for all aspects of opera and music : opera synopses, books and literary soucrces of opera, musical history, articles on instruments of the orchestra, the art of the Lied, behind the scenes info and gossip, letters from the readers, and much much more. It is a tour de force that any music lover would revel in.
And here's a quote to show you her spirit and devotion (from Issue #14) "As my 'materials' (that is to say, issues of this publication) are still receiving the cold shoulder from the Arizona Opera Company, I will for the third year be standing out on the sidewalk in front of the Tucson Community Center Music Hall before each performance, distributing free copies of "The Opera Glass". Let us hope it doesn't rain."
(Also note the fine design and printing - my guess is its Fred Woodworth's work)
Latest address I have is: PMB 134, 1830 E. Broadway Blvd. Number 124, Tucson AZ 85719
#57 Ped Xing Comics Androo Robinson (Wyoming, MI). These mini comix - each one a single story - are not only well drawn, innovative art work, but well written stories in their own write. Here's an excerpt from these often autobiographical comix, "Success, yes? My work was acclaimed, and I was paid well for it. Living as an artist! For a long time I convinced myself that I could never want more than this, but again I was wrong. I began to see that the public's adoration was a kind of imprisonment. I knew what people wanted, or thought they wanted, and only as long as I gave them this (and nothing else) would they continue to reward me. With their money. With their applause." (The Whistleworks)
There's an atmophere of longing, and wistfullness, but also, in the end, a hope in all the issues that I've seen. And all that enhances his expressive and often very dark black and white, art work. Consistently well done work!
Latest address I have is: One Far Flying Fish! P.O. box 9781, Wyoming MI 49509
On to Part 8 of the Zine Hall of Fame or Main Page.