In praise of a zine I very much enjoy.
I am often teased about once flippantly saying that "dollar zines" are trash. It is difficult to put a price on a zine. In an ideal world, zines should be free. Free to make, free to copy, free to read, but they aren't. Some of us have copy hook-ups. Some of us make fancy covers. Some of us spend hours stitching bindings or other cover details. Some of us can afford to sell/give away our zines at-or-below cost, while others can't. The cost of a zine, to a certain extent, is relative.
That being said I like to buy zines that are ideally in the $1 - $5 range depending on many factors.
What I really want to write about is a zine I unhesitatingly, 100% recommend to you and think is worth every single penny I spend on it (and more!) It costs between $2 - $3 and is often about 10 - 12 quarter sized pages. Each page is letter pressed and the zine has been produced bi-monthly since the 90s.
The zine is Ker-Bloom! by Artnoose.
Every issue takes the reader from the mundane to the profane. The last four issues have dealt with Artnoose's plan to become a parent and the results of this plan. If you know me (or maybe if you don't) you might know I could care less about someone's desire to be a parent or the logistics of getting pregnant. What makes Ker-Bloom! so inspiring to me as a reader and writer is that Artnoose's ability to write about a topic I have no relation to - from having a child to moving a 2 ton letterpress machine - and make me care and relate. I know that this isn't every writer (or zinester's) goal - to engage the reader, but it is something I look for and enjoy in the zines I list among my favorites.
At CZF 2012, after being blown away by Artnoose's reading, I bought a year subscription of Ker-bloom!. (YOU CAN BUY ONE HERE) The most recent issue (#97) arrived in my mailbox today. Here is a paragraph from it:
"It kills me to think that someday people will hurt you, possibly badly. The scratches you sometimes already get make me feel for you. Talk about your pain. Let it foster the humanity to understand the pain of others. Empathy will make you a better neighbor, better lover, and better friend. Trust me on that one." - Ker-bloom! #97. July August 2012
Actually it doesn't say "humanity." It says "humity" which is not a word and probably a typo, another joy of zines. I like this typo because it can be read different ways. Humanity? Humility? Good to have both.