this is sarah & sonia's recipe zine, & reflecting their immersion in organic farming & sustainable environmentally-sound farming practices, it is season-specific--winter, in this case. they chose winter because there are fewer resources for locally-grown food & a lot of the stuff that was plentiful in the spring & summer has been depleted to just the items that can be stored. that means coming up with good, healthy recipes is more challenging & it can be harder to get inspired to cook, right when it's cold & you need your strength & health the most. so sarah & sonia gathered (vegetarian & vegan, or those that can be veggified with a few simple substitutions) recipes from friends & family & compiled this useful & inspiring cookzine, to keep us all in apple crisp, carrot cake, vegetable pies, assorted comforting soups & more, until the spring thaw.
half-standard * 26pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

sarah has released the second edition of her winter cookzine, just in time for...spring. but okay. some of us have chilly springs & these hearty recipes might still be of use. & winter will roll around again soon enough. this issue includes recipes for garlic ginger lemon honey cayenne tea, ginger tea, immunity tea, many different ways to prepare squash, carrot beet salad, carrot & apple salad, coleslaw, chicken soup, basic kale soup, macaroni & cheese, baked beans, cornbread, veggie rice casserole, bread pudding, vegan chocolate cake, biscuits, the perfect flaky pie crust, apple muffins, ginger bread, & that's only about the half of it. there is recipe after recipe here, for meat-eaters, vegans, & vegetarians all. sarah made me some macaroni & cheese when she was here a few weks ago, & damn, it was fucking good. some of these recipes are hers & some were culled from halifax recipe share dinner parties where everyone has to bring a dish & their recipes. there are also places where the halifax dinner party kids contributed winter-themed drawings, like of their winter footwear. the cover is a two-color print of a pie & a wintry wooded area. even if you pick it up to glance through during the summer, you will find recipes you'll want to pursue & may find yourself yearning for cold snowy days when you can stay in all day, baking & knitting.
half-standard * 44pp. * $3.70 (u.s.)/$4.50 (int'l)

erick subtitles this zine "shadows in the streets: the stencil art of the new argentina". it was originally published as part of the book realizing the impossible: art against authority, a compendium of anarchist art available through AK press. but this is the zine version, the story of time erick spent living in buenos aires a few years ago, interviewing radical stencil artists & investigating the political motivations of street art in argentina's fast-changing political climate. argentina faced a serious recession & then an economic collapse at the end of 2001, a result if excessive borrowing from the international monetary fund (or IMF, an imperialist bank that claims to aid developing nations but actually mires them in debt, political instability, & dependence on superpowers like the united states). people took to the streets--all kinds of people. even the wealthy & middle class rioted. protesters developed stencil art as a way to spread their political messages, because stencil materials were cheapest & most accessible. erick interview about a dozen different stencil artists about their experiences during the protests (called "the crisis," & it stretched on for several years, until the argentine government was completely changed), the kind of art they make, their thoughts on the stencils becoming an atrraction for tourists, & the political climate with the crisis over & american chain stores taking over the landscape. the stories in here are really captivating. & erick has done a great job of breaking up the dense text with photographs on the stencil art in buenos aires. i'd recommend this zine to anyone with even a passing interest in radical art or radical politics in general. really thought-provoking stuff, like all of erick's zines.
half-standard * 56pp. * $4.05 (u.s.)/$5.25 (int'l)

sabrina put this zine together, sending a call out to friends & pen pals to get all kinds of different d.i.y. skill ideas. i organized a skillshare conference in boston every year for about six years, & one aspect of our original skillshare conference idea was a zine: all the workshop organizers would make zine pages explaining their skills to people, which they would turn into an organizer who would compile them into a zine that could be given away free to conference attendees, so everyone could have a written records of the various skills taught at the conference, to reference later, or to get ideas from workshops they weren't able to attend. that is kind of what this zine does, & the skills enclosed cover the gamut, from seed starting to making your own butter & cheese to stress relief ideas. each idea is explained step-by-step, with illustrations where applicable, & contact information is provided for all contributers, in case you want to get in touch & swap techniques or ask for more guidance. a complete list of all the skills covered: making butter, making compost tea (plant food), making lebneh & paneer cheeses, making play-doh, seed sprouting, making knit dishcloths (as an alternative to paper towels, sponges, etc), food preservation (freezing & canning), making applesauce, creating a baking soda & vinegar volcano, & stress relief techniques. with money so tight for so many people, some of these ideas offer really clever, simple, & low-cost alternatives to everyday staples. a tip on the volcanoes though: if you want the "lava" to be red, use food coloring & NOT cayenne papper. but if you want to make your own nerve gas, go nuts with cayenne pepper. i learned this lesson the hard way at a party several years ago.
half-standard * 20pp. * $1.35 (u.s.)/$1.75 (int'l)

this is a zine LB made when she came down with some horrible & mysterious illness no doctors could seem to diagnose. she was in the hospital for a long time & eventually found out she had a pretty rare infection that led to more & more infections & sicknesses, but before she was getting the right treatment, she thought she might be dying. & so this zine is made up of letters she wrote to people in her life, old friends, former tormentors, family, etc, telling them the things she wanted to tell them before she died. it also documents her time in the hospital & the time after she got out when she had to take lots of antibiotics & try to recuperate. i've never really read a zine like this before, the perspective of a person who briefly thought she might really die. it's incredibly emotional & sometimes makes me hate the mainstream health care system a lot. it makes me wonder who i would write to & what i would say if i thought i was dying. it stayed with me for a long, long time after i read it, turning itself around & around in my dreams. wow.
quarter-standard * 104pp. * $2.55 (u.s.)/$3.75 (int'l)

LB also writes the zine "truckface," but these two series are pretty different from each other. "susie is a robot" is more serious & more personal. this particular issue is mostly about different kinds of abuse & the cycle of violence it creates. LB writes about finding out that the person who assaulted her & went on to assault at least one other woman is back in the city & living a few blocks away, & dovetails her guilt for not turning him in with stories of the way her father abused her & her brothers when they were kids, & the toll some of those experiences have taken on her brothers. she writes about turning to alcohol & wondering if its self-medicating properties are creating another avenue for self-destruction. she writes about riding bikes drunk with a friend, flipping over the handlebars, & breaking her arm. the stories jump around a lot, from things that happened the night before to things that happened twenty years ago, but everything is tied together with this theme of "this happened & we need to find ways to take care of ourselves" that is pretty affirming. it is almost sort of in the spirit of the good, raw, personal zines of the riot grrrl days, not trying to sugar-coat anything or craft real-life experiences into some sort of non-threatening creative non-fiction. it's possible that some of the contents could be triggering for survivors, so take care & maybe try to follow LB's advice for avoiding panic attacks toward the back of the zine. pretty text-heavy, a mix of computer layout & old-school busted-down typewriters, with illustrations from 40-year-old yearbooks & LB's patented cracked-out illustrations. LB is one of my favorite writers & all of her zines are highly recommended.
quarter-standard * 104pp. * $3.05 (u.s.)/$4.25 (int'l)

this issue is something of a scaled-down continuation of LB's adventures ringing up customers at "ho foods," as is extensively chronicled in her huge novel-length zine "so midwest". so if you liked "so midwest" & want more, this is the zine for you. or if you are intrigued by the concept of "so midwest," but want to start smaller, here's your gateway zine. or if you just want to read a hilarious zine--this one contains an illustration of otis redding wailing into a microphone & saying, "hey, this is the big O. i thought i'd write a song about how i don't care about your dumb groceries." seriously, LB's writing just jumps right off the page. she chronicles her misadventures in hating customers, trying to responsibly slice up meat products in the deli, getting trashed, gender confusion, her boyfriend getting hit by a car, & more--with such cathartic exuberance, one worries they may not be able to keep up if they hung out with her in person. this zine is largely about working the deli counter at the grocery store, the kids she works with back there, the sleazy manager, the loathesome customers, & the perils of coming home at night smelling like chicken grease. it's almost like a more comedic the jungle in zine form. with lots of alarming illustrations of people with snaggleteeth & patchy facial hair. if this zine doesn't succeed in making you never eat meat again, it will at least stop you from ordering at the deli.
quarter-standard * 56pp. * $1.70 (u.s.)/$2.50 (int'l)

LB broke her right arm midway through finishing this issue, so much of it had to be typed & drawn with her left hand. but the chaotic drawings & unreliable typewriter only augment the chaos of a zine that includes a world map in which the u.s. consists solely of ohio & chicago, with new york city drifting off as its own little island. this issue may be something of a travel issue, as LB shares her adventures trying not to drink her liver to death in new york, attending a wedding in poland resplendent with alcohol-fueled language barriers, under-estimating the effect of readily-available sexcapades in amsterdam, & running away from lit dynamite at home in chicago. each section is illustrated with LB's hilariously caricatured renderings of life around her, including kids at coney island playing "marco porno". the writing itself is full-speed ahead & generally hilarious, but also thought-provoking at times. LB proves that she is writing for more than just comic effect when she ponders why warsaw might be one of the whitest cities she has ever seen, or describes how difficult it is to fit the ideals of mainstream femininity.
quarter-standard * 80pp. * $1.70 (u.s.)/$2.50 (int'l)

another edition of the often-imitated, never-duplicated zine, this time in the double digits & featuring two-color print gocco covers with a football theme! inside are more of LB's ridiculously frenetic stories, typewritten or handwritten & illustrated with portraits that make the whole world seem full of ugly people. stories about working at a gross novelty gift store where frat dudes make crass jokes about dildos & the boss tries to pinch LB's back fat, bike accidents, bar brawls & amateur bartending, taking the train to new orleans to see the post-katrina devastation first-hand, passing musings about celebrities, sad stories about dying friends, & so much more packed into a scrappy text-heavy zine. LB's writing oscillates effortlessly between being really serious, covering topics like body image & sexual harrassment, caring about someone with HIV, or coping with traumatized relatives, to being laugh-out-loud fucking funny. a selection from LB's story about visiting a street psychic in new orleans: "'you don't want babies. yes, yes the only babies i see you having will have four legs.' mouth dropped open & i had to interrupt. 'MONSTER BABIES?' i said in a combined scream & whisper. 'no, no,' he smiled, 'i was talking about pets.'" that one made me laugh so hard for so long that my roommates thought i was having some kind of fit.
quarter-standard * 84pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

LB has a new zine out! i really, really love LB's zines. in addition to "truckface," she also writes "susie is a robot" & "so midwest," & you really need to order all of them. she is one of my favorite zinesters who is consistently coming out with new issues right now. LB lives in chicago & is currently doing student teaching work in an effort to earn her teaching certificate. this new zine is a chronicle of her experiences student teaching in the chicago public school system, code named "adult times". LB explains that the chicago public schools are very segregated along race & class lines, & the quality of students' education suffers for it (still, in the year 2008). she writes about working with differently-abled kindergarteners & tough teenagers who managed to be passed from grade to grade, never knowing how to read. she addresses the complications of being a white student teacher in schools where most other white teachers are openly racist against students. she writes about students being criminalized when they come to school, resulting in an enormous fight at a high school where she taught, culminating in a few dozen arrests of students. she writes about struggling to teach the students curriculum approved by outsiders that the students find demeaning, trying to encourage her students to continue coming to school, trying to esstablish a rapport with them across the lines of race, class, & authority. i think LB has been a little concerned that the zine community will be wary about this issue, because it's about working & teaching more than it's about drunk bike rides & pantsless wrestling matches (though there is some of both, really), & it drops some harsh reality on people who want to pretend that racism is dusty & vanquished relic. but holy fuck, i think this zine is great & you should order it right now.
quarter-standard * 112pp. * $3.55 (u.s.)/$4.75 (int'l)

attention aspiring, current, & former teachers & pedagogues: you need to read this zine! LB has written another issue documenting her experiences as a student teacher in the chicago public high schools, a kind of companion issue to #11. no one writes zines like LB; she really tells stories & doesn't just recount the basics of some things that went down. she has such an amazing ability to bring the reader into the moment, with full dialogue (alternately hilarious & heartbreaking), setting, & characterizations. she leaves nothing out, not even the embarrassing, unflattering stuff that other zinesters might edit out in order to look a little cooler & more together. LB is very straightforward about the agonies & triumphs of student teaching, from her experience of constant anxiety that the kids are going to pick on her for smelling or looking funny, to breaking up fistfights in the hallways, to awkwardly running into students outside the school when she's out on a beer run, to trying to hold on these kids' attention & encourage them to complete their educations in the midst of the violence & poverty plaguing their lives. she also breaks things up with stories about hanging around with old buddies & getting drunk in new york city, & venturing out to eastern europe with her partner to visit his family & hear stories about world war two & life in sketchy hostels. LB's zines are generally heavy on the text, mixed with her incredible portraits. LB's zines are also some of my absolute favorites, because they're thought-provoking, moving, & laugh out loud funny all at the same time. if you haven't read her stuff yet, now is the time. & if you have read it, you know how awesome it is so you should be ordering this one too.
quarter-standard * 80pp. * $2.75 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

sarah is the master of cut & paste, this zine is absolutely beautiful to look at, which only makes the smart, sparky, positive writing that much more fun. her pretty photographs mixed with clip art from an old children's science book are the ideal background for a zine full of yummy vegan recipes (faux egg salad! choco gingerbread!) & thoughts on knitting. she also writes about the FTAA protests in quebec city in april 2001 & how things might be different if she sent all the letters she writes (written on the backs of postcards). a person who can bake a heart-shaped vegan apple pie is bound to make a sweet & inspiring zine, & most people who have seen it agree.
quarter-legal * 40pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

this is the zine i made while doing the writer-in-residence program at the anchor archive. it conists of 25 zine- & punk-themed logic puzzles, written from scratch, & let me tell you, puzzle-writing is not the easiest thing in the world. it took me as much as nine hours to write some of these things. but it all turned out great & the puzzles are challenging while hopefully still being fun & hilariously snarky. themes include drunken bike couriers, zinester romances, punk rock dogs, split zines, punk fest organizing, zine libraries, gimmicky punk bands, people starting distros for the wrong reasons, shitty tattoos, & more! there is even a five-puzzle "whodunit" mystery, where the first four puzzles must be solved & the information used to solve the final puzzle & solve the mystery. in addition to the puzzles, there is also an answer key & an introduction explaining how to solve puzzles & offering some helpful hints. the front & back covers are hand-drawn. the woman on the cover is NOT me, despite what everyone seems to think. but she dresses kind of like i do. (ps--logic puzzles are similar to the board game clue, except they are all done on paper, using word clues & a grid system. the goal is to utilize the process of elimination to match five signifiers with their partners. you don't need any outside information to solve a puzzle, & you don't even really have to know anything about the subject matter in order to solve a puzzle. they are really fun! kind of like sudoku, but a lot more interesting & engaging.)
half-legal * 32pp. * $2.20 (u.s.)/$3.00 (int'l)

encouraged by popular demand, i have written a second issue of my logic puzzle zine. if you don't know about logic puzzles, i will try to explain (though they are easier to understand when you actually have one right in front of you): a logic puzzle sets up a scenario with four sets of five variables each. then it provides clues & a grid. you use the clues to apply logic & the powers of deduction to filling in the grid & establishing the relationships between all the variables & the details of the provided scenario. i have been solving logic puzzles for over twenty years & they are a lot of fun. this zine contains 25 logic puzzles (none of them are brain-bustingly difficult, but i don't think any of them are really super-easy either) themed around punks, anarchists, zines. solve puzzles about dietary restrictions in a punk house, security culture names at a protest march, artzine layouts, serious distro business, stick & poke tattoos, reasons why people may or may not attend collective meetings, themed 24-hour zines, & the big finale: a five-puzzle mystery series involving hooking up at zine fairs, awesome tattoos, moving to a new city, & more. (you have to correctly solve the first four puzzles in order to work the final puzzle of the bunch.) each puzzle is laid out on its own page, so you can photocopy it separately if you don't want to write in the zine. there's a complete answer key & an explanation on how to solve logic puzzles for people who are new to the concept, complete with sample puzzle & a detailed explanation of its solution. i also included a few hints & tricks for successful solving. this is a zine that keeps on giving, perfect for rainy days, long bus trips, nights when you can't sleep, etc. & many of the puzzles are very snarky or include veiled commentary on the zine scene, punks, & anarchism, so keep an eye out for that.
half-legal * 32pp. * $2.70 (u.s.)/$3.50 (int'l)

kelsey's visually arresting personal zine documents her history with ballet dancing. at a young age, she told her