Dishes
I don’t understand how this was put together. Firstly, it appears some of the pages were photocopied one-sided and then glued together. That is a mortal sin of zineing. Secondly, for no apparent reason, the zine was in two different sections which end and begin in the middle of an article. Ian, I do believe a lesson in layout and assembly is in order. The zine starts off pretty well actually with a comic/short story entitled “Please Release Me” about the frustrations of a DIY pop band caught up in corporate A&R reps. Then everything slides downhill. There are multiple, poorly drawn comics that appear between better drawn illustrations. Why the sliding scale of quality? Then at the close of section one (?) there is a sarcastic, multiple page article entitled “How To Draw Cartoons!” which takes jabs at poor cartooning which, among Ian’s own poorly drawn work, I’m not sure is self-deprecating or simply unaware. In the middle of this zine is a nicely written piece by a guest writer about her retreat to the cottage. Following that are more bad comics (both in content and quality) and nice illustrations, a Jonathan Richman concert review, and some well written book reviews. Unfortunately this zine varies too much in quality to make it worthy for a trip through its pages. The poor assembly also makes it a frustrating read. By the end of it I was exhausted and anxious to move on. (KJ)