I’m not sure why I wanted to hate this right off the bat, but I did. Er, that is, I wanted to hate it. There was something about a zine called Spank! from Durham Ontario with the sub-title ‘adults only’ that made me brace myself for… for what? Well, for whatever untenable urban bias I had, I ended up quite liking this friendly, only a tiny bit raw, zine. Full page comics of yawning, barfing, other-wise crazed characters whoosh us through the first ten pages, where several pages of reviews of all kinds take over. Like Spank! gives the thumbs up to: the PBS Lou Reed home video, and to John Water’s Female Trouble, the (outstanding) Tom Green Show (not to be confused with the Red Green Show), the new Misfits album, Danko Jones… okay, ya get the picture right. Aside from the odd ‘free vibrator ‘ or ‘pussy comb’ clip bit it’s anyone’s guess why this thing’s called Spank! But why-ever its called whatever, it don’t matter. It’s a decent little zine that is in no way punishing to read. In Spank #2 art school reject and punk rocker Michael Elvidge goes to Toronto to see the Sex Pistols 1996 reunion tour. Four years later he recounts that hapless outing – High on ‘shrooms and pot and booze, something must have happened, though our pioneering author can’t seem to figure out what. Hey, that’s the way it is in zineland. You’re all hyped up to go somewhere, and you end up having a classic cartoon-Elvidge Big Frankie Close Encounter: A mini-Frankenstein doll runs for his life from a malevolent cigarette puffing teen. Run faster Frankie! You’re about to get Spanked. (HC and HN)
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