AYTD Mailorder

This catalog features a few of the zines that AYTD has reviewed over the past year. The zines here cover a wide range of subjects and are all recommended. What's a zine (rhymes with "bean")? It's a self-published work with a small circulation that's more concerned with content than profit & substance over style.

Ordering Info

Foreign orders: Canada/Mexico, add 50¢ per zine; overseas, add $1 per zine. Sorry, but postage is expensive!

Discounts: 15% off orders $10+ / 20% off $20+

Catalog Guide:

Amusing Yourself to Death #10 Feb/March '98. Your guide to the wonderful and wacky world of zines. Another big issue filled with 150 reviews, zine news and resources, columns on media censorship and old-school zines and much more! $3 / 8.5x11 / 36

Angry Young Woman #5 Best description of AYW is from this issue's cover: "NOT inside: Beauty tips, 'miracle' diets, guy-snagging suggestions, dating do's and don'ts, summer fashions or advice for the lovelorn." Gloria takes on white supremacists, contemplates suicide and quits her jobs at an arcade and a newspaper. If you're pissed off about something, order this and live vicariously through articulate, engaging writing. $2.50 / 8.5x11 / 43

The Assassin & The Whiner #7 Carrie's personal comix chronicling her life's events (often with beer in hand, which always earns points in my book!) are an absolute delight. I love her cool and distinct art, which features tons of facial expressions and different angles. She feels bad about getting drunk, has a crush, takes a walk and feels spooked, recalls a drive-in in the San Fernando Valley and her eight-year relationship with Sarah and remembers the Silent Movie theater in L.A. that recently shut down. Finally, Carrie's tribute of her cat Kerwin was touching and will have even the most jaded zinester a bit teary-eyed. $1 / 5.5x8.5 / 16

Concave Up: an illustrated dream anthology #5 I always enjoy Jesse's comic book late at night before Mr. Sandman visits and I take off to Never-Never-Land. For each issue of Concave Up, Jesse researches the selected theme/topic and finds a dream in literature or history then illustrates it. This time around, he looks at religion and puts his spin on "perhaps the first heroic poem written by humankind, the Epic of Gilgamesh." It's the highlight of this issue, as Jesse uses cartoon cereal characters to tell Enkidu's story – absolutely brilliant! Also inside: the creepy "Damned," the engaging "Chen and I," Amy's "Dinner With the Devil" and the collection of Slow Wave comic strips that are showing up in many other publications. A trippy, thought-provoking comic. $3 / 7x10 / 24

Gerbil #8 Another excellent issue of this queer culture zine. Lucy Lawless fans will love the "Confessions of a Xenaphile," an intriguing analysis of the show's "fascinating and frustrating ... never-fulfilled lesbian desire." Also in this edition: Brad hangs out with Quentin Crisp, Tony gets to know the band Pansy Division, poetry, photos, reviews, resources and fiction by Bo Huston and Kevin Killian. Always a top-notch publication – entertaining and educational. Includes a bonus toy airplane! $3 / 7.5x9.5 / 30

HeartattaCk #15 A great punk/hardcore zine with a couple of exceptional columns: Chris Jensen's reflections on his school camping trip is engaging and downright inpiring and Kent's piece on becoming an adult punk is revealing and a must-read for anyone closing in on the big three-oh, punk or non-punk. Rick of the environmental group EarthCulture discusses forest and rainforest desctruction and Richard examines international free trade policies and the World Trade Organization. Also: tons of record and zine reviews, an interesting letters page and the results of the '96 readers poll. $1 (only 25¢ with orders $5+) / 8.5x11 / 39

Java Turtle #1 Lynne's friendly and accessible zine is a medley of the entertaining and thoughful. I was moved while reading about a few heartbreaking moments of racism in Santa Barbara. She writes openly and honestly about trying to find "black" make-up in town (the ignorant store clerk suggests going to L.A., since "that's where all of your people live") and an encounter with some psycho idiots. There's also stuff on coffee, turtles, bookstores, office politics and much more. An excellent debut issue of a zine that will speak to a lot of people. $1 / 8.5x11 / 37

Limousine #4 Libby's fascination with old-school Hollywood movies and stars makes for some great reading. I loved the piece on "The Wild, Wild SATANIC World of Jayne Mansfield" that delves into the buxom star's relationship with Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan and has a couple of great photos. Libby also looks at teensploitation flicks of the '50s and '60s, interviews Tina Luchessi of The Trashwomen ("I love the look of the women in all Russ Meyer's movies ... [we] were a Fashion #1, Music #2 band!"), the Throwing Muses' Kristen Hersh and Exene Cervenkova was especially interesting. Top-notch writing complemented by a nice design.$2 / 5.5x8.5 / 32

The Match! #92 You don't have to be an anarchist to appreciate Fred's honest, insightful and, at times, cranky writing. Unlike other political publications that bore the shit out of you with tired dogma or intellectualspeak, Fred and his contributors concentrate on showing us, through well-crafted and thought-provoking articles, the absurdities of our society, from government coercion to the ongoing brutalities committed by our police forces. A good chunk of this issue is devoted to the story of anarchist Ammon Hennacy, reprinted from his autobiography, The Book of Ammon. Also: a reprint of "What Is Anarchism?", Fred discusses the attempts to enact a flag desecration law, Ronald Del Raine looks at inmates' frivolous lawsuits and Fred examines fingerprints – and DNA – as evidence. The entertaining letters section (which by itself would make a helluva zine), anarchist reviews and news round out this edition. $2.75 / 7x9.5 / 104

Nancy's Magazine #13 The Mark issue – tons of fun! All things Mark (from guys named Mark to markdowns to birthmarks to supermarkets and more) are covered in this quirky and interactive zine. Loads of funny and well-written articles by Nancy and her many talented contributors. "The Mark I dated had the smallest penis I've ever seen on a man," one writer recalls. "I stopped dating him ... I can't remember why." Also included is a poster ("Landmarks in Lawn Care") and a pullout poem (reminded me of my beloved childhood pop-up books). $3 / 7.5x8.5 / 32

The 1996 Zine Yearbook HUGE collection of the past year's bright spots in zinedom. Jen and her crew have done an stellar job of producing the yearbook, with close to 30 zines represented, broken down into categories á la Factsheet 5: work, sex and relationships, politics, music, punk, do-it-yourself, youth, personal and zines.This assemblage of top-notch zine writing is best savored over more than one sitting and it's an endless source of inspiration during those frequent writer-block spells. $5 / 8.5x11 / 112

The Palindromist #4 A palindrome is a word or phrase that reads the same forward and backward, like "kayak." This issue focuses on palindrome poems. Richard contributes a section on charades, a.k.a. redividers: "A charade word is one in which the larger word can be divided into smaller parts that are themselves words" (examples: abundance – a bun dance, and prosecute – prose cute). Also: "mystical magical" charade words whose smaller words are related to the larger word, such as "A BARRAGE of beer bottles often accompanies a BAR RAGE." There's a section on palindromes and genetics, calculator words, the Palindrome Puzzler and a trippy section on upside-down poetry. Hours of fun here for all you word-game junkies. $3 / 5.5x8.5 / 32

Plotz #8 Barbara's zine of Jewish life in America is fun and friendly, with just a touch of seriousness to make you think after putting it down. This is the "Jews in Hollywood" issue. She interviews Ethan Coen (Fargo, etc.), Jerry Stahl, Janet Weiss (drummer of Sleater Kinney) and Harmony Korine (Kids). Jeffrey talks about kosher foods, Gregg looks at Jewish stereotypes and Barbara remembers being "The Invisible (Jew)Girl." Also: Jean remembers her childhood obsession of wanting to be a Jew, Jenny ponders the question "Was Elvis a Jew?", Barbara outs a few Jews and talks about her favorite knisheries. Comes with Plotz Lite, which features Barbara's encounter with Ben Stiller. $1 / 5.5x8.5 / 23

SemiBold #3 One of the most enjoyable personal zines being produced today, SemiBold features two things that always lead to quality zine making: excellent writing and an eye-pleasing layout. I dig Kathy's easy-going and friendly style. In this issue Kathy documents her trip to London (a gift to herself for her 30th birthday), with a few handy hints for would-be travellers, offers a retrospective on the late comedian Bill Hicks and reviews a handful of zines. An entertaining publication from start to finish. $1 / 5.5x8.5 / 27

Slug & Lettuce #51 Christine Boarts has published her punk paper for over 10 years and consistently offers one of the best places to network. I meet at least one new zinester after each issue is printed. S&L offers free classifieds, lots of reviews of zines, music and books, and thoughtful columns. Christine finally moved to Virginia (thankfully, she notes that "S&L will continue most definitely") and talks about leaving New York. Reviews of books, music and zines, columns on the changing season, attitude in the scene and protecting life and earth and, of course, tons of classifieds. 55¢ / 11x17 / 12

Steamshovel Press #15 A must for conspiracy buffs, Steamshovel Press will have you questioning your beliefs and checking your house for wiretaps. Saab Lofton examines similarities between the American Nazis and the Nation of Islam and the U.S. government's involvment with both groups. Publisher Kenn Thomas and Jim Keith look into the mysterious death of Danny Casolaro, a man who was investigating "a secret intelligence community cabal he called the Octopus." Dr. Cantwell, Jr., examines the facts behind HIV and AIDS; whether or not the former causes the latter has been sparking some heated discussions lately. Other highlights include an unpublished interview with Dr. Timothy Leary, "The University and the Ghetto Mind" and various book reviews and reader letters – all with a healthy touch of paranoia. A provocative if not downright creepy publication. $4.50 / 8.5 x 11 / 64

Temp Slave! #11 Another outstanding compilation of "Work Is Hell" stories, with a killer cover by Clay Butler. Bob Thompson's history of the hobo was an excellent and informative piece. Michelle of Trailer Trash recalls a couple of office temp jobs, there's a reprint of a temp agency president defending temping (and the not-too-friendly responses from readers), Joe Horne sticks it to a racist and homophobic company and Dishwasher Pete tells us about working for UPS. My favorites from this ish were Sam Adams' (great name) piece on longing for a black leather jacket, Keffo's in-depth interview with Xtra Tuf's Moe, who works on Alaskan fishing boats and Poppyland's Brendan recalling his favorite temp job as a driver for an escort service ("my primary function was security and intimidation ... in actuality I was a skinny white guy with thick glasses and a bad dye job who would sit there writing poetry or reading a book"). $2 / 7x8.5 / 50

Thrift SCORE #11 The thrift-store culture is magnificently covered by girl reporter Al Hoff. This issue features thrift-store dreams, thrift karma, part three of the history of denim jeans and various thrift scores, stories and anecdotes. There's a love and respect for the thrifting life and the zine's easygoing style is complemented by neat clipart and photos. One of zinedom's most popular titles, and for good reason. A real bargain! $1 / 5.5x8.5 / 19

This Document Will Self-Destruct in 30 Seconds Brilliant! This is a copy of Fred Wright's master's thesis, "Personality on Parade: A Psychoanalytic Analysis of the Zine Revolution." It's cool to see zines being researched and documented by some of our more scholarly brothers and sisters. Hardcore zinsters will appreciate the work Fred has done and it's a lot more accessible than I thought it would be. I dug his first section, "History and Characteristics of Zines." The recent deluge of zine books has, for the most part, been inadequate on this topic, but Fred offers a more detailed look at zines before they were zines. The last two sections, "Reasons for Zine Publication" and "The Effects of Zines on Readers and Society," are also intriguing. Fred certainly did a thorough job by speaking to a wide range of zine publishers and has some great insights and observations on these crazy little things called zines. $2 / 5.5x8.5 / 48

Time's Up #7 Great collection of comix focusing on relationships, which, after following much of this title, seems to be Patrick's strength. "Poseidon & Medusa" is the feature story in Time's Up and looks at the awkwardness that love produces ("Perhaps you should read a non-response as her response"), "Susan Wakes" is a brief tale of interpreting dreams and "As November Became December" deals with high-school self-esteem. Patrick's artwork is easy on the eyes; he has a terrific knack for using different angles and shading in each panel. What I love most about Patrick's work, though, is how he captures the inner obsessiveness that most of us possess, which makes for a more subtle and contemplative read. $1 / 5.5x8.5 / 36

We Like Poo #4 Loads of doo-doolicious fun that makes for some mighty fine bathroom reading! Simultaneously hilarious and gross, Tara's homage to the most universal of subjects is a fun-filled romp through dookie, defecation and diarrhea. Her appreciation of a good dump is apparent throughout We Like Poo. "If you've never had a crap that sent shivers down your spine or made your hair stand on end, what are you waiting for?" she says. "Go get a Guinness and a falafel and get ready for the ride of your life!" This issue contains a story about the crap that almost killed Tara, ratings of a few San Francisco toilets and tips for using someone else's bathroom. $1.50 / 5.5x8.5 / 34

Wishbone #7 I love how Bunnigrrrl and her contributors mix politics into the handful of personal stories throughout Wishbone. Rasta Bunny discusses Angry White Males, Shrike looks at designer clothes and the power that clothing and makeup companies have on dictating editorial content in major magazines and Shrike also shares a "Bad Burger Bulletin." Highlights, as always, are Bunnigrrrl's rants and employment stories. This time, she describes an awful job as an HTML programmer for a small business run by two morons. It's terrible reading what she has to go through in order to pay the bills and by the end you'll want to kick her bosses' asses. I really dug the "Things We Can Learn From Bunnies," which included this "nugget" of wisdom: "If you are bored, try pooping in someone's living room." An honest and intelligent publication. $1 / 5.5x8.5 / 26