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Zine Scene: The Color of Night

Madison Smartt Bell: The Color of Night (Vintage, 4/15/11)

The term “revelry” has fallen out into disuse. When you hear it, you think of the Marquis de Sade or Dorian Gray, of a debauched immersion of oneself in the darker yet still pleasurable parts of life, but rarely of something immediate to your own life.

In Madison Smartt Bell’s new novel, The Color of Night, we are made to feel just how current the word still is. When we consider the American public’s obsession with fear, violence, anarchy, and the excessive attention that the news media gives to all of these topics, it’s unsurprising that Bell’s story of revelry rings as true and cuts as deep as it does.

The Color of Night tells the story of Mae, a blackjack dealer in Nevada who develops a strong and immediate obsession with the events of 9/11. She tapes the images of the chaos and blood from news programs (already repeated ad nauseum by the media itself) and, between working at a dead-end job and wandering the desert at night, revels in the endless replaying of so much suffering — for, as Mae tells us, it’s only natural to try and pass your own suffering onto someone else.

Zine Scene: Faesthetic

Faesthetic is changing the way zines are marketed and redefining that for which they stand. Much more than a high-quality art showcase, Faesthetic has grown into a taste-maker for the 21st Century art scene.

This glossy, invitation-only art zine began as a magazine showcase for established talent and up-and-coming artists, but it has since expanded into the areas of gallery shows, T-shirt design, and poster art, and it has even lent its name and style to a New York Fashion Week event. Exclusive, high-brow, and part of a growing media empire characterized by artistic partnerships — is this the future of zine culture?

Created in 2001 by Dustin A. Hostetler, Faesthetic has only produced 12 issues so far, but its involvement in cultural events and its highly active blog lend it influence beyond a few dozen pages of actual printed product. Hostetler intends to continue producing one issue per year and to add an Internet-based supplement in the near future. However, the focus of Faesthetic remains squarely on its glossy, high-quality print issues.

Originally, Hostetler’s idea was to create a tangible product in response to the boom in PDF zines during the past few years. The fact that Faesthetic is a polished, collectible art book is obviously important to his aesthetic. “I wanted something I could tuck away in a box, put it in my attic, and that my grandchildren could find some day,” he explains.

Zine Scene: Lynd Ward

Before Daniel Clowes and Adrian Tomine, before Frank Miller and Alan Moore, and even before Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, there was Lynd Ward — America’s first, real graphic novelist. The terms “visionary” or “pioneer” could be applied to Ward, but the truth is that he was making graphic novels way before it was cool, and probably before it was even thought possible to create such a thing. Between 1929 and 1937, he dared to tell dramatic adult stories with just a series of woodcut images and his own vision.

Born in 1905 in Chicago, Ward lived through some of the most tumultuous moments of the 20th Century, most of which found a way into his dynamic, wordless picture books, now widely regarded as the origins of the modern graphic novel. His stories included sociopolitical commentary on the inter-war atmosphere of dread — the sinking American economy, the meteoric rise of European fascism, and the effect of swift industrialization on the self-hood of the worker — as well as more thoughtful matters, such as the whether or not the soul could survive in the modern age, or the price of artistic ambition and greed.

Zine Scene: The F-Bomb

Looking for a little anti-holiday cheer? Tacoma-based zine The F-Bomb might just be the ticket. Since January of 2009, The F-Bomb has gathered submissions from writers into themed issues (seven so far, with topics like “Music,” “Sex,” the paradoxical “Unthemed,” and now “Holiday”) that incorporate comics, slice-of-life tangents and charts, interviews, fiction, and even an advice column.

The “Holiday Issue” features such gems as the “Boo For You” column, which recounts a freewheeling conversation about Nilla Wafers, Jesus, and stealing cheese. Other columns include descriptions of favorite Christmas memories in 10 words or less (sample memory: “I unwrapped a box for a phone. It wasn’t.”), and comics featuring adorable, demented animals using and abusing the titular “F-bomb” to discuss Thanksgiving.

On the opposite page of this irreverent story, you can read a chart diagramming all of the winter holidays, who celebrates them and why, and various fun facts and names for Santa Claus. The juxtaposition of the bizarre and mundane — the prurient and the informative — goes a long way in describing just what The F-Bomb zine is.

Zine Scene: Mosh

For those who think that the zine is only a recent, Western phenomenon, look no further than the Malaysian zine Mosh to have your expectations demolished. This political, punk-rock zine out of southeast Asia is celebrating its tenth anniversary and thirteenth issue this year, thanks to creator Nizang and an increasingly organized zine-writing community in and around Kuala Lumpur.

Zine Scene: Rummaging through Nostalgia (guest column and playlist by Katie Haegele)

Zine creator Katie Haegele is author of the found-poetry publication Word Math and The La-La Theory and has been a contributing writer for Bitch, Adbusters, Venus, and a number of major newspapers. She discussed her witty wordplay for a previous installment of Zine Scene, and now the language-centric writer is back to pen this guest column.

Rummaging through Nostalgia
by Katie Haegele

I’ve been thinking a lot about nostalgia lately. Actually, I’ve thought about it in one way or another for years, since I was old enough to want to buy my own clothing but didn’t have any money and started hunting the Salvation Army for the grandma jewelry and waitress uniforms I turned into outfits.

I love old things, especially kitschy, outmoded, and obsolete ones, and I spend a fair amount of time digging for them at rummage sales and thrift stores, even in the trash. These things call to me, and I have spent a lot of time trying to understand and articulate exactly why that is, but it’s hard to grasp the feeling. There’s something about the sadness of castoff things that touches me, for sure, but it’s not only that. It’s also the feeling that each object has a story, a history that’s not my own. That history is both loaded and freeing at once. For next to no money, you can buy the thing and take it home. That coffee canister or wicker handbag or owl figurine will be yours, but it will never feel like it’s only yours.

More than an owner, you’re like a caretaker. In exchange, you get to borrow the thing’s history and have a piece of its ready-made comfort — a comfort like the feeling you had in the cozy living room in your grandparents’ house, or the kitchen of a friend from grade school who’s grown fuzzy in your mind over time. You can, in fact, feel nostalgic for something you don’t even remember.

Zine Scene: Eugene S. Robinson’s A Long Slow Screw

With his band Oxbow, Eugene Robinson has become known for his simple, primal lyrics howled over increasingly complex arrangements and for his fearsome live performances. But with his first novel, A Long Slow Screw, the howls have been translated to a new format, and live readings take the place of the concert hall.

Zine Scene: Be Good or Be Good At It — A Celebration of Zines, Touring, and Community

Every other week, Zine Scene uncovers writers’ and artists’ adventures in the world of independent publishing. This guest installment comes courtesy of Rad Dad creator Tom Moniz, who was previously profiled here.

I’m not good at a lot of things. I tend to dabble, try something for a minute, then move on to the next one. I also balk at bureaucracy, at jumping through hoops, at following rules. Now, being good is subjective, I admit, but I can say that writing is something that I enjoy. And performing — yes, I can honestly say that there’s something about it that feels better than drugs (and it’s healthier too). And making friends — I like that too.

So whether or not I am good at the aforementioned activities, one thing I know is that I’ve committed to them. That’s why in order to celebrate the recent ninth-annual San Francisco Zine Fest, I concocted the idea to do a zine tour of Northern California. And why not? Zines involve all the things I like to do, that I hope to be good at: writing, or drawing, or even taking photos. They can involve performance, and they are absolutely meaningless without community.

Zine Scene: Pink Noises

For the past ten years, Tara Rodgers, a.k.a. Analog Tara, has dedicated herself to studying female electronic musicians and the evolving dynamic of gender, creation, and community. With her website, PinkNoises.com, she publishes interviews, investigates the supposed dearth of women in electronic music, and develops collaborative relationships with the many fascinating women that she finds.

In a new book, Pink Noises: Women On Music and Sound (Duke University Press), Rodgers republishes and expands 24 of those interviews (including Ikue Mori, Le Tigre, and DJ Rekha), along with some striking black-and-white photographs and academic meditations on the meaning of her project. Along the way, she tries to address some of those big questions of gender and music with what she has learned in the past decade.

Zine Scene: Shortcomings

When I first read Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel Shortcomings more than a year ago, I was struck by two things: the comic’s sensitive and honest portrayal of modern race relations, and the wonderfully clean art style. The former proceeds mostly from Tomine himself, a fourth generation Japanese American. The latter is strongly inspired by modern masters of the medium like Daniel Clowes and the Hernandez brothers, and it results in evocative illustration that recalls classic comic art of the 1950s and even Roy Lichtenstein.

Zine Scene: Starlite Motel on the necessity of independent publishing

What is it really like to be a zine writer in today’s world of megacorp publishers and big media?

Amber Ridenour, who also writes under the name “Starlite Motel,” answers a few questions about process, creation, and reputation. With her husband Chris, Amber is the author of many zines, including Autobiographical Alley Map and Night Bomb.

Zine Scene: The mundane treasures of John Porcellino’s King-Cat

At 20 years old, John Porcellino’s hand-drawn comic zine King-Cat is a veritable dinosaur of the industry.

When publication began in 1989, King-Cat was doubtlessly viewed as just another perzine. Over the years, the scope has increased, and, perhaps remarkably, each issue still has something new to say. By the time he released King-Cat Classix, a collection, in 2007, the zine had officially become a phenomenon.