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Friday, November 20th, 2009
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3:53 pm
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order received
sladjana in il
wooden shoe in pa
order mailed
sladjana in il
wooden shoe in pa
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(comment on this)
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| Thursday, November 19th, 2009
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9:55 am
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orders received
grace in oh
meredith in ca
shane in australia
orders mailed
grace in oh
meredith in ca
shane in australia
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| Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
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2:28 pm
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new in stock
arts & crafts revolution #2
this was another find from the portland zine symposium. i was really excited to find this thick, detailed, & exciting zine all about crafting. terri comes at crafting from a pretty radical perspective, acknowledging in her intro that although the internet is teeming with crafting websites & blogs, photo shares, exchanges, & marketplaces, crafting has historically been a disparaged necessity for marginalized members of society. while rich women embroidered & tatted doilies to beautify their homes, working class women salvaged & re-used out of economic necessity. the point of this history lesson is to contextualize terri's goal in making the zine: she says that she wants to write about thriftcraft, which involves re-purposing materials as much as possible, & creating alternatives to store-bought mass-manufactured goods that may not be environmentally & ethically responsible. she starts with sewing, offering tips on where to find sewing machines you can use without having to buy a new one, & giving background of different kinds of cloth. there is an explanation of different stitches used in embroidery; a basic knitting tutorial (how to cast on & off, how to purl); different types of yarn, where to find them, & their pros & cons. she writes about making stamps out of potatoes, cork, & lioleum; dyeing with kool-aid; making a homemade silkscreen & the various methods you can employ to burn your screen; the pluses & minuses of various thrift store chains & what kinds of materials you can expect to find at each one; ideas on cutting up old sweaters to make new clothes, or felting wool sweaters to make new felted goods; & ideas for re-purposing practically everything you find in thrift stores. the "enviro-crafts" section is all about re-using & re-purposing--everything from using bits of old yarn as dryer balls to replace store-bought dryer sheets to melting down old stubby crayons to make new ones, from making a lantern out of an old tin can to turning an old pair of jeans into a craft apron. "damn the man crafts" include a pattern & detailed instructions for making re-useable cloth menstrual pads, a recipe for wheat paste, & a gender-neutral rag doll for your favorite child(ren). "d.i.y. kink" explains how to make your own restraints, floggers, nipple clamps, & pasties. this zine is chock-full of ideas, with detailed instructions & illustrations--great for beginning crafters or seasoned pros in search of new ideas & techniques!
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| Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
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2:50 pm
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orders received
anne in va
brit in va
cortney in or
megan in ca
sandra in ca
sarala in canada
stacia in or
orders/trade mailed
anne in va
brit in va
cortney in or
LB in il
megan in ca
sandra in ca
sarala in canada
stacia in or
permanently sold out
invincible summer #13
may cause dizziness
ration #5
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| Wednesday, November 11th, 2009
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11:51 am
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orders received
bri in oh
patricia in canada
orders/subscription mailed
bri in oh
meg in nh
patricia in canada
permanently sold out
mute as bottles
phases of the moon #3
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| Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
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1:43 pm
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orders received
emma in australia
jeff in canada
julie in ca
tukru in the united kingdom
orders/trade mailed
emma in australia
hope in la
jeff in canada
julie in ca
tukru in the united kingdom
back in stock
when language runs dry #1
new in stock
when language runs dry #2
meredith & claire have again brought their editorial skills into collaboration for a second issue of their compilation zine for people with chronic pain & their allies. in the introduction, they address the fact that compiling the second issue proved much more challenging than the first, which is a familiar with reality to many people who live with chronic pain (i speak from experience on this). with new & acute pain, or a new diagnosis, there is a sense of urgency to record experiences, try new medications, see new doctors, try new therapies, just as there was a sense of urgency in putting together the first issue & finally giving voice to the chronic pain experience that had been building up for so long. but eventually pain becomes a part of life& describing it or putting energy into trying to manage it becomes scarce. nonetheless, the comp came together & it is fabulous. far & away my favorite piece is a lengthy comic by annie murphy, about going on disability & living life as a person with a serious but invisible disability. this is almost exactly my experience of being disabled (although my specific health issues are different from annie's). it was awesome for me to finally see my experience committed to print by someone other than myself! i'm not usually big on comics, but this was genius & much-needed. other contributers write about how difficult it is to put the daily effort into self-care when chronic pain is always present, coming out of crisis mode & trying to deal with daily health management, growing up with chronic health problems & the toll it takes on a person as a child, the difficulty of staying present with self-care when there are good days with little pain & bad days with lots of pain, & how people without chronic pain find it difficult to understand that chronic pain isn't something from which a person can magically "recover". there is also a resource list for further reading on living with or supporting someone who lives with pain, & tips on being an ally to someone with this experience. i want all my friends to read this zine! i love it!
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| Friday, November 6th, 2009
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3:25 pm
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orders received
ann in oh
anne in va
helen in me
jami in il
jessica in pa
kari in ca
melanie in oh
michele in ma
vanessa in australia
orders mailed
ann in oh
anne in va
helen in me
jami in il
jessica in pa
kari in ca
melanie in oh
michele in ma
vanessa in australia
new in stock
invincible summer 2010 calendar
nicole georges, queen of animal portraiture, is back with a new calendar for 2010. it is small enough to almost be pocket-sized, with a ready-made hole for hanging on the wall without disturbing the beautiful drawings, printed on thick storudy paper & printed in navy blue ink. inside are pages with small squares for each day of the month & a different animal to keep you company all year long. from unicorns with beards to cows cuddling with one another, from a small dog wearing an old-fashioned clown costume, to a herd of ostriches sporting party hats & bows around their necks, every animal has been known to display homosexual behavior in the wild (well, the jury is out on the unicorn). nicole says that she didn't plan to make a queer animal calendar, but sometimes when you do what comes naturally, it ends up being queer-inclusive & -celebratory (yay!). from a dalmation ready for a party to a hungry seal hanging out with a killer whale, from a cheetah looking out a picture window to a horses wearing wigs, nicole's animal drawings are whimsical but nearly photo-realistic in their technical execution. she is also careful to make note of important holidays (not discriminating according to religion), the beginnings of seasons, daylight savings time, & heritage months. other animals included in the calendar are cuddling opossums, a nurse shark wearing a winter scarf, a koala comforting another koala that got some bad news by letter, & a happy elephant taking a bath. whether you are queer or straight or vegan or vegetarian or just like cute animals & supporting d.i.y. artists, this calendar is a welcome alternative to another fluffy kittens-of-the-month from the discount bin at barnes & noble.
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| Monday, November 2nd, 2009
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10:52 am
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order received
maria in sweden
orders mailed
jennifer in nj
maria in sweden
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| Sunday, November 1st, 2009
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1:22 pm
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| Saturday, October 31st, 2009
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2:22 pm
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order received
corinne in or
orders mailed
alaina in ny
alicia in wa
corinne in or
danny in fl
natasha in ca
wooden shoe in pa
temporarily sold out
root #5/stab #7
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| Thursday, October 29th, 2009
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8:12 pm
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orders received
alaina in ny
anne in va
danny in fl
m in canada
wooden shoe in pa
orders mailed
anne in va
emily in ny
m in canada
permanently sold out
toothworm #2
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| Saturday, October 24th, 2009
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3:14 pm
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orders received
alaina in ny
ariana in ca
danny in fl
emily in ny
erin in canada
jessica in pa
nicole in va
orders mailed
alaina in ny
ariana in ca
danny in fl
erin in canada
jessica in pa
nicole in va
permanently sold out
root #2
toothworm #1
toothworm #3
new descriptions
spokes of hazard #2
jared, my boyfriend, discovered this completely genius zine. jared used to work as a bike courier in boston, & cait, the driving force behind this zine, worked as a courier in portland, oregon until recently re-locating to missouri. this issue is a collection of a baker's half-dozen hilarious bike touring stories by cait & a few other portland couriers. it opens with cait's tour diary from the time she decided to bike from portland to san francisco with her friend lance, on a tandem. anyone who has ever ridden a tandem already realizes that we are in for a wild & woolly tale, because riding a tandem is no picnic. i've only ever done it in detroit & i thought i'd surely meet my maker as semis whizzed by at sixty miles an hour & i attempted to pedal without being able to see anything but my pilot's back. also tandem-related was a story about cait deciding to spice things up at work one day by riding the tandem instead of a regular road bike, & bringing a friend along to help deliver important packages & documents. things didn't pan out because the boss said the extra cyclist was an insurance liability, & so cait was stuck cycling around downtown portland alone on a tandem while her friend raced home to retrieve a more sensible bicycle for her to use. the premise of this story is hilarious enough, but cait's writing pushes it over the top, as she recounts numerous interactions with witty drivers asking if her passenger fell off & the physical exertion required to single-handedly bike a big heavy tandem bike up some of the steep hills in downtown portland. there are stories about biking through the deserted & unchanging kansas landscape, fixing a broken derailleur with a shoelace, & felling a bully with a stick to the spokes. this zine is pretty brief, but quite text-heavy & completely hilarious. highly recommended!
spokes of hazard #3
this issue features a cover drawn by nicole georges (she specializes in animals & making people look like animals--a cycling sloth, in this case) & is a little heftier than the last one, but the format remains basically the same: a collection of text-heavy & extremely humorous stories about bikes. cait opens the proceedings with a piece of the "unsung heroes" that make working as a bike courier in portland so much more bearable: an elevator with an emergency stop feature for on-the-clock make-outs, fancy bathrooms in the office towers, & the diversity of cuisine offered by the downtown food carts. cait spends two entire pages expounding upon her love for s'mores & basically presenting a business plan for a s'more-centric food cart. a contributer contrasts his life as a messenger against his new job as a cucible drone, & another cyclist remembers her first ever long-distance bike trip at age 17, seeing fireflies for the first time. cait writes an expose of he seedy underbelly of life as a long-distance tour guide for people who want to bike down the coast but also want the guidance & safety of having everything planned & organized. a contributer writes about biking around eastern europe, & another recounts the generosity of a small-town bartender who found her a nice camping spot when things looked bleak. one contributer writes about how she came to embrace life as a cyclist (partially to impress a girl) after a lifetime of being terrorized by the idea of physical activity. another writes about being on the clock & losing his u-lock, an indispensable element of working as a courier anywhere. cait's zines are generously speckled with references to dungeon's & dragons & "america's next top model," & the writing in engaging & entertaining without being intimidating to folks who don't bike that frequently. excellent stuff!
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| Monday, October 19th, 2009
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11:17 am
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orders received
gavin in mi
kate in pa
katie in or
orders/subscriptions mailed
alain in ny
alice in the UK
alicia in wa
caitlin in fl
camille in ct
carolyn in pa
celia in il
chris in canada
courtney in al
dan in ma
EA in australia
elena in germany
ellisa in ny
emma in the UK
eric in ma
gavin in mi
jacqueline in canada
JEI in the UK
jen in canada
jeremy in ny
juliette in nm
kate in the UK
kate in pa
katie in or
katie in pa x2
kyla in ny
lori in mn
mark in nc
mieke in canada
natasha in ca
nina in ca
robert in australia
sarah in canada
sarah in ny
thomas in mi
torie in ca
yuliya in fl
permanently sold out
phases of the moon #1
phases of the moon #2
back in stock
lacewing #1 (i found three more copies!)
new description
take care #5
sarah's newest zine is a strange size somewhere between half-standard & quarter-legal, with screenprinted striped covers (red & gold or blue & gold), bound with thread. the pages inside are mostly text, sprinkled with a few photographs & artwork appropriated from alice in wonderland, as sarah explores the meaning of the word "home" through exploring her foray into homelessness & desperate travel as a teenager. she writes about her mother's difficult reckoning with being a woman, struggling to find solace in a family that has been through a wringer of disappointment & neglect, working hard to value your own stories & confront your own history. she writes about coming to terms with her own anger & pain & the way she was expressing her emotions in a way that was alienating friends & straining relationships. all of this is told through the prism of stories, about attending an alternative punk weirdo wedding in maine, helping set up a show for why are we building such a big ship in asheville, road tripping to new orleans with an ex. sarah writes, "curses are blessings. failures are the best teachers except maybe enemies. i hold them all in my heart & keep pushing forward." it seems like the story of growing up & trying to put back together a life that has sustained a lot of breaks & fractures, learning how to put one foot in front of the other & strive to find the beauty in even the hardest of times.
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| Tuesday, October 13th, 2009
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7:12 pm
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orders received
alicia in wa
celia in il
jacqueline in canada
kate in the UK
katie in pa
mark in nc
natasha in ca
new description
doris #27
of course i was psyched to hear the news about a new issue of "doris"! this issue wraps up the encyclopedia series that started with issue #19. maybe it's time to compile the entire encyclopedia into a collection? until then, read all about cindy's experiences packing up & moving to portland, oregon as a teenager. she says she wants to come clean about her reputation as an adventuress & admits that she moved to portland because she was accepted to reed, & because she was running away from a difficult home life taking care of her mom in minneapolis. school didn't work out & she hated the apartment she'd found, so she started cooking for food not bombs & slowly learned how to talk to people & make friends. there is a comic about her desire to think of herself as a "real writer," in which she explains what her writing process is like & why she still works in the zine medium. "vamoose" is a long story about going on tour last winter with her band, sister shuffle (now snarlas), & all the cicties they visited & the interesting projects people have going on in their hometowns. the boston stop included a little aside about the time my boyfriend & his older brother moved to asheville, which was cute & funny for me to see. i knew the story already, of course; i just didn't expect to read about it in "doris"! cindy writes about how snarlas is her sister's first ever band & how everyone should be in a band. she writes about catching up with friends she has known for ten or fifteen or twenty years & the fascinating stuff they are getting up to know, still living according to a value system shaped by their political beliefs, & how growing up is not giving up. she writes about when she first moved to athens & how difficult it was to make friends, how it became a full-time job to try to talk to people & become important in a stranger's life. this issue is more stories & less self-help-y than the last issue, but still full of thought-provoking ideas & wisdom, cute drawings, misspelled words, & typewriting. can't recommend it enough!
temporarily sold out
when language runs dry
permanently sold out
dangeresque
fairytales in the supermarket
hoopla #3
idle tuesday #2
lacewing #1
motor city kitty #11
next stop adventure #3
no better voice #30/marked for life #2
rum lad #4
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| Friday, October 9th, 2009
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11:36 am
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orders received
ashlee in mn
louise in the UK
orders mailed
ashlee in mn
louise in the UK
new in stock
doris #27
new descriptions
show & tell #4
the summer issue of rachel's brilliant quarterly comics, dreams, & stories personal zine opens with a story about running into an acquaintance at the coffeeshop & discussing the need to simplify & let go of material possessions, which she connects to her love for the little prince & explains her decision to get a tattoo of the little prince's asteroid on her wrist. she includes a friend's story about being chased down on his bicycle by an out of breath cyclist asking for a cigarette, sings the praises of day-old bagels, recounts her unhealthy childhood relationship with the automatic dial tone voice, & reports on the news that a former high school classmate of hers was busted for impersonating a doctor (complete with hilarious comics imagining the hijinks the doctor impersonator got up to before he was caught). she writes about going to the thrift store & trying on amazing dresses & playing settlers of catan with the neighbors, illustrates a dream about having a younger brother that is more efficient as just a head, writes about calling radio stations & requesting songs (a dying art with the advent of internet radio), addresses the possibility of death with her talking cat, & draws a comic about her dad's bromance with a friend he invited out on his new boat, & there is still more besides all this. i am a big fan of this zine. there's so much weird, unexpected stuff in here, but it's all really clever & well-written & the illustrations couldn't be more charming. it's funny, but thought-provoking. rachel seems to have a zest for life that translates really well into this medium.
where you from?
this comp zines was edited by hope, formerly of "keep loving keep fighting" zine. she put her zine days behind her when she re-located to baton rouge for school, but living in a new town made her start thinking differently about how to answer the question, "where are you from?" she writes in the intro that most of her classmates in the printmaking department grew up in baton rouge, & she doesn't have easy answers to give about her hometown. she grew up in new hampshire & left when she turned 18, traveling all across the country & back again before settling down in new orleans, where she survived hurricane katrina & forged a bond with the city that lasted until she couldn't handle the crime & desperation anymore & decided to study art in a different part of the state, not so well-known as an exciting metropolitan destination. in an attempt to explore the concepts of "home" & "community," she invited friends from zines, printmaking, & other connections to write about where they are from & what it means. the essays include thoughts about staying put in your hometown & bumping into old high school classmates at the grocery store, applying for canadian residency after growing up in new york city, fleeing new orleans in the wake of the depression & anxiety engendered by the hurricane, the pros & cons of living in an urban hipster enclave versus a city that is more off the beaten punk path, growing up & trying to recover from post-adolescent wanderlust, & more. i have moved so many times (32 so far, including at least a few months in seven different states), i don't even know how i'd answer there question, "where you from?" but this zine gave me a lot of food for thought, about linking the culture you come from with the future you want for yourself & making home where you are. the covers art artfully printed in two colors on greenish-yellow stock.
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| Wednesday, October 7th, 2009
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10:19 am
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i'm sorry i haven't been keeping this updated! i have been unbelievably busy in the last couple of weeks. jared & i had to precipitously pack up & move when the city housing inspector declared our apartment uninhabitable, & it was a mad scrabble to pack boxes, find a new apartment, take care of ending our previous lease & starting a new one, organizing a crew to help us load the truck, etc. the new apartment is really small (but unbelievably cute & comfortable), so we really had no choice but to spend the weekend unpacking. there was no space whatsoever for lingering unpacked boxes. but we are finally settled in (more or less), our internet is working again, i've re-installed my computer's hard drive (i think it got a virus or something when i was searching every corner of the internet for a new apartment), & hopefully i'll be back on track from here on out.
october marks SIX YEARS since i started the distro, & to celebrate, everyone who orders this month gets a free zine (of my choosing...but i'll try to make it something good that hopefully you don't already have) & a distro pin with a dinosaur on it. great new zines are coming in & once i catch up on all my distro-related work, i intend to sit down & finish up "up the logic punks!" #3, opening the door to some free time that i can spend polishing an essay i am writing on the failings of latter-day riot grrrl discourse for some zine girl reunion book, along with another issue of "love letters to monsters," possibly themed around home, cooking, physical disability, & anxiety. fall subscriptions will (fingers crossed) be in the mail by the end of this week (this is contingent on the nice folks at the copy shop downtown letting me make my own copies behind the counter as opposed to forcing me to bus it out to iowa & 6th, the second-closest reasonably priced copy shop). & i'll do my best to get the last few descriptions written up by the end of the week as well. on with the show!
orders received
anke in the UK
annette in ia
colette in the UK
jennifer in nj
samantha in ct
sarina ca
timothy in pa
orders mailed
anke in the UK
annette in ia
colette in the UK
jennifer in nj
samantha in ct
sarina ca
timothy in pa
new in stock
spokes of hazard #2
spokes of hazard #3
take care #5
where you from?
new description
hirsteria #2
greanne calls this an "anarcha-feminist queerpunk zine," which is a very accurate description. i carried the first issue of this zine as well (now sold out) & it was wildly popular. this issue is perhaps even more unforgiving & brilliantly written. greanne opens with a story about hitchhiking around the midwest & the difficulties of finding a ride when you have a big dog with you & your gender/sexuality presentation isn't obvious (or is objectionable) to homophobic, transmisogynist highway drivers. ze writes about the difficulties of feeling comfortable & social at punk houses & visiting with hir mentally ill, possibly closeted grandma in the midwest. a fairly large chunk of the zine is an essay about the struggles trans people face in being born into bodies that do not reflect their gender identities, & the multiple obstacles that stand in their path to realizing sexual autonomy in their bodies & developing a positive body image, whether or not they choose (or have access) to pursue hormones or surgery. ze writes about the conflicts inherent in even admitting these kinds of discomforts & asks if this is something ze should be able to just "get over," as a radical & a feminist. ze writes about walking as an antidote to anxiety, forming a posse to stand up to sexual abusers & assaulters, struggling to set a good example of feeling comfortable in one's own skin, & coming to the defense of the so-called "PC menace". in short, required reading.
show & tell #3
comic lovers, take note: this issue is a little heavier on the autobiographical comics than issues have been in the past. it opens with a comic about rachel & her boyfriend making BLTs for dinner (rachel using veggie bacon & her boyfriend opting for the real pork swine) & then arguing because her boyfriend wanted to save the bacon fat to make bacon candles, or perhaps bacon soap. rachel writes a scathing review of the hilary swank vehicle "p.s. i love you," which includes a hilarious illustration of her watching the film with a disgusted look on her face & an alternate ending to animal farm. there is a comic about getting pulled over for running a red light while trying to mimic the dance routine to beyonce's "single ladies" in her car. she & her boyfriend write a letter to the pabst blue ribbon company under an assumed identity, trying to get free beer or money (they got beer cozies instead). there is a comic about a family ping pong tournament & rachel's cat throwing up on her boyfriend. she writes a story about her hatred for pantyhose & her doomed attempts to find a new job after being laid off. there is a love letter to the local thrift store & a comic about jesus christ hulking out on some girl scouts for selling girl scout cookies in the church foyer. & more! the comic stylings are similar to those of the esteemed "cat & girl," minus the big anthropomorphic cat. plenty of laughs, & perhaps even a few pearls of wisdom (for example, i think it's pretty smart to say everything you are grumpy about out loud so you can hear it & realize how silly it sounds).
permanently sold out
glossolalia #10
motor city kitty #11
your pretty face is going straight to hell #3
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| Saturday, September 26th, 2009
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10:02 am
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orders received
ashley in fl
mark in nc
violet in wa
orders mailed
ashley in fl
mark in nc
violet in wa
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| Thursday, September 24th, 2009
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1:58 pm
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| Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
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12:16 pm
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| Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009
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1:39 pm
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orders received
jo in co
katherine in the UK
sarah in mn
orders mailed
jo in co
katherine in the UK
sarah in mn
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