I’ve received new issues of some favorite zines and comics the past few weeks worth your time and interest. It seems as if I’m always writing about the same titles, but they deserve all the press and orders and hugs and puppies they get.
You Don’t Get There From Here #14 by Carrie McNinch
In this issue of her diary comics (spanning 8 October 2009 to 2 January 2010), Carrie works through the death of her beloved, 15-year old cat Jesse. She travels to Oaxaca and makes an ofrenda for Jesse during Día de los Muertos. There’s also dental stories (including a horrible sounding procedure called a “frenectomy”), lots of running (rattlesnakes!), good food, supportive friends, library trips, music (she lists a daily song with each comic), and the lovely (if sometimes maddening) backdrop of L.A. I’ve said it before: Carrie makes L.A. incredibly appealing. (And I totally covet the books and music she finds at the library!) You can’t go wrong with YDGTFH, and you can start at any issue.
Available for $2 from Carrie McNinch, PO Box 49403, Los Angeles CA 90049, or through Microcosm Publishing.
Clutch #19: The Lost Years by Clutch McBastard
Clutch has been a little delinquent in publishing his diary comics (although they occasionally appear as a split issue with Invincible Summer), so this thick (320 pages) collection spans from July 2003 to September 2006, and it covers a lot. “A lot” being: house buying, house selling, moving, the IPRC, Portland, making stuff and doing things, zines, hair (he lets it grow long and shaggy), zines, creative discontent, the definition of ninja versus samurai, more Portland, more creative people, and more library trips. (Portland is another place I could move just for the libraries.)
Available for $8 from Microcosm Publishing.
Fish with Legs #13 by Eric LydenEric Lyden was one of the first people to order I zine I published, way back around 1999, and we’ve been trading ever since. He’s a long-time contributor to the compilation zines I do, and I deeply admire his honest writing style. In the latest FwL, the “theme” is “Fun Facts and Loony Lists”, including “Things I Will Never Do”, “Things I’m Ashamed to Admit Made Me Cry”, and “Movies I Have Never Seen”. Eric has a really natural writing style, and it reminds me a bit of the late Mitch Hedberg*.
Some of my favorite observations from Fish With Legs #13:
“I long for the days when calling someone a “jive turkey” was a grave insult.”
“The other day I woke up thinking of a particularly amusing episode of MY THREE SONS I once saw. I bet that hasn’t happened to anyone in years.”
“A meal without bread is not a meal. If you think otherwise you’re only lying to yourself.”
Available for $1 from Eric Lyden, 224 Moraine St., Brockton MA 02301-3664. (Send him a couple of bucks and ask for some back issues!)
* Here’s my favorite Mitch Hedberg observation, ever: “I opened up a yogurt, and underneath the lid it said, "Please try again" because they were having a contest that I was unaware of. I thought maybe I opened the yogurt wrong. ...Or maybe Yoplait was trying to inspire me... "Come on Mitchell, don't give up!" An inspirational message from your friends at Yoplait, fruit on the bottom, hope on top.”
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