Complete Story of Assassination

Woah, this is a pretty epic group zine with lots of different types of content. There’s loads of different drawings and other pieces of art, 19th century smut (and an essay about it!), other types of smut, and lots of other stuff!

There’s very much a steampunk-y vibe running through the content here, and that can be seen in the opening story, which I kind of feared would fill the entire zine. It features a number of lesbian circus performers who are also engineers, music makers, and just all around amazing people. However, when walking through the woods with someone, listening to the birds and appreciating nature, I think I would run away if they started talking to me like this:

“We are at the end of a cycle of incoming legislation that has removed rights of access and use to commons previously enjoyed by anyone, and enables land to be titled to a single owner. This theft pure and simple results in many people moving to the factory-cities from which you escape, just in time to be exploited by the ‘Industrial Revolution’, and to land being used for cash crops such as cotton. We prefer rather a sufficiency in which people become their surroundings, not alienated figures in a landscape.”

I mean, what?

I felt there was very much an anti-urban/city/modern society feel to much of the content here, which isn’t something I’m really down with. I love cities! I mean, sure in theory I’d be fine living somewhere smaller if everyone there was super awesome, but the likelihood of that happening seems incredibly slim.

There’re instructions on how to make a spinning dream machine using your record player, poetry, weird found objects, tattoos, and an account of a weird encounter with a police officer in Holland. Overall a well put together and interesting group zine.