At the end of this zine, Marilyn says that she “was considering writing a zine for a few years” but that she hasn’t had the chance to do it until now, which explains a lot. The Amazing Adventures of Mr. Cocoa and Crappy Dog looks and reads like a first zine, but I mean that in the best way possible (seriously!). There’s text haphazardly glued overtop of pictures cut and pasted from magazines, everything’s in different fonts, there are cartoons of (you guessed it) the two titular dogs hanging around in the margins and commenting on everything through little speech bubbles. The articles are about stuff like libraries, the history of stamps and the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2. This zine is super charming– almost everything about it made me smile. It’s pretty short, and the writing and art are simple, but all in all, it’s a great first effort, and I look forward to seeing Marilyn’s second (and third and fourth) zines. (Emma Healey)
Zine, Marilyn Douglas, $1, 3509 Lenox Ave, Youngstown, OH, 44502, US