Dishwasher

By Pete Jordan

http://www.cityofbikes.com/

Hey! This isn't a zine! It's a book! What gives? Well, parts of it were originally published as zines, so it totally counts. Dishwasher is Jordan's tale of his life and the decade plus he spent washing dishes all over America in his quest to wash dishes in all 50 states. That sounds kind of horrible, but Jordan has a writing style that is incredibly enjoyable to read, which can be seen in the fact that I read this book in two days, and that the 16th issue of Dishwasher (which was never released) was going to have a print run of 10,000! (And I thought it was good that I'd printed almost 100 issues of Two Fisted Librarians...)

Throughout Dishwasher we follow Jordan from job to job, starting with his earliest teenage ventures up to, well really just dishwashing and more dishwashing. Jordan doesn't want any other jobs because he likes dishwashing. His reasons for liking this much maligned job are many and varied, and range from the free food he gets to eat (which in one place was actually written into the dishwashers' contract that had originally been created decades before), to the fact that he can quit at any time and get a new job doing the same thing somewhere else. Because while dishwashing is a job that nobody wants, it is a job that needs to be done, and so even when a dishwasher shows up to work late or drinks on the job people generally don't mind because any dishwasher is better than no dishwasher (or having to wash the dishes yourself).

In between tales of his own dishwashing jobs, Jordan tells about famous people who washed dishes in America, the early days of labour organizing and unions for dishwashers, and about his experiences and romances. From oil platforms off the coast of Louisiana to fish plants in Alaska, Jordan has covered a lot of ground in his travels, and has an incredible array of stories to tell.

One thing I liked about this zine is that it made my current travels seem totally tame in comparison. Some of my classmates were horrified when I said I was going to travel around for a few months this summer, and wasn't totally sure where I'd end up at various points. Sure there are events I've planned to go to, but it's not like I have a super strict itinerary. I mean, in the place I'm currently staying I've got my own room and an air mattress! I think it's actually nicer than the last place I was living because there I was subletting and the room was filled with things I didn't own, now this room only contains things that are mine. It's great!

Dishwasher is a really good read, and I can't wait to check out Jordan's next book, which is about cycling in Amsterdam.

Rise of the Videogame Zinesters

By Anna Anthropy

This isn't a zine, hell, this isn't even a book about zines. It's a book about the concept of video games as zines. And there are some interesting ideas in here concerning the video game industry in it's current form, how diversification of the type of people who make games would probably improve the industry, and how it's easier than most people think to make video games.

Anthropy brings forward the idea of DIY games that are distributed for free online as an equivalent of zines. They can be made by only one person, made with no commercial intent, and made just because you want to make something. In fact Anthropy says you don't even have to show people the games you make, but that by creating games (even terrible ones) you get a better idea of how games are constructed, and also become more creative yourself (something I definitely think is good!).

I think there's lots of really interesting stuff still to be said about video games, and while reading this book a quote from a video game creator came back to me: "a video game is the most effective way I can express myself." I thought that was really fascinating and shows a side of video games that most people don't realize exists.

Of course, there are also lots of problems with this book. It really stretches to hit two hundred pages, is fairly repetitive in places, and there are a lot of games (and ideas) it just completely ignores. I'm not sure I could really recommend this book, but at the same time I'm not sure of other books that cover similar areas. Are there any?

Mostly though I just wish that I encountered more zines about video games. If you've made one get in touch! I'd love to read it.

(I'd also kind of love to get a zine on a 3.5 inch floppy disk, but I would have no way of actually reading it...)

Afterhours

By Laura N-Tamara
www.explosante.com/dandy
strobolights.deviantart.com

The way this minicomic starts I was almost sure it was going to turn into porn. The library is closing, the (sexy) librarian is kicking everyone out, one person hasn't left yet, the librarian starts to take off her clothes and...

CREEPY!

And then we start getting bizarre Inception/meta-textual references as the story changes to almost self-referential illustrated text.

The story (and the stories within stories) reminded me somewhat of Jorge Luis Borges and Italo Calvino, both authors who liked to play with telling stories using non-linear styles, and narratives within narratives. I like some of the stuff they've produced a lot. Oh! And Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, it's a really good book that features nested stories.

Getting back to this comic, the art is very clearly influenced by manga (to the extent that several of the books have the covers on what we would consider the back). Some of the weirdness that shows up in here reminded me a bit of Shintaro Kago and other artists that I've seen on the Same Hat blog. The interior art is generally pretty good, and way better than the cover would have you think. (I'll try to scan some tomorrow! See below.) There are a lack of backgrounds, and I think the artist needs to work on their page layouts a bit, but I enjoyed the weirdness and the art and wouldn't mind reading more of their work in the future.