A packed full funzine of reflections on education, from pre-school to high-school. Since this is the second last issue, I feel as if maybe these kids are at the end of their immersion into public education ie. somewhere near graduating high-school or maybe a few years outta school and looking back and thinking about finishing up their zine and basically putting some of this frivolity behind them. The fact is, even the funny and mean stories come off as kind of reverential and nostalgic. The best days of their lives? Josy’s description of skating lessons when her legs were still too short to be able to walk was pretty funny, as was her bubble-ingesting vomiting companion in pre-school. There’s also an under-current of tension concerning racial integration running through the zine, with Josy telling us about her racist teacher, and J.S. Gill suggesting a quota on white males in pop music and even using Brit-pop band Echobelly to demonstrate the point system that might be used. Anyway, I could certainly relate to a lot of the school stuff and it’s probably worth checking out Pop Gazer just for the varied accounts of that high-school retard, the drooling, locker-licking Natalie. Good zine that makes me wonder if there is a book of high-school confessions out there, I’m talking the best high-school stories ever all packed into one great volume.
zine / #8, 46 pages / main creators: Josy and Judy / $2 / 11131 Chickadee Court, Richmond, BC, V7E 5Z5