Comic, Heather Wreckage, 5867 San Pablo Ave., Oakland CA 94608, USA, [email protected], $2
“This shit still doesn’t get old for me” says Heather Wreckage on reaching her 20th issue. She still gets stoked when she exists the copy shop with a steaming pile of her photocopied comics depicting her life as a west coast punk kid trying to get by. This issue sees her move back to Oakland after some heartbreak, take a small, curtained room in a punk house, and illustrate her life in a style that – if I was forced to make a comparison – resembles the work of Fly of Zero Content fame, while still very much being its own thing.
What I love about this zine is the way that Heather is able to relate the day to day with a spot-on social criticism. For example, the “burning man chic” prospective roommate who presents himself as a chauvinist is critically dissected by Heather with the conclusion that, “his attitudes towards women is a flesh eating bacteria in not just a punk or whatever other counter culture, but to society as a whole.” But not all observations are autobiographical. Take her reviews of ‘80s action movies. Her take on Predator 2 (4 out of 5 donuts) concluded, “the aliens only hunt people with guns, & not kids ever. Aka predators hate the cops as much as we do.” Heather gets it. This zine? Get it! (Chris Landry)