Super Aids

By Hyena

So a while ago I got an email from someone asking if I'd like a copy of their zine. This wasn't that unusual, what was unusual was that the persona asked me to "write a few bad comments" about their zine, because they "love bad reviews".

That was kind of weird, but after getting their zine I can understand why they expect me to write bad things about this. So let's get that out of the way first: I did not enjoy this zine.

Why? Because, as the cover says, it's full of offensive material like sexism, xenophobia, necrophilia, and lots of other stuff. It's satirical of course, and just because there are characters who are cannibals doesn't mean it's promoting that sort of thing.

I actually just read a pretty long piece about a Japanese animated movie (and the comic it was based on)  that featured (amongst other stuff) a dwarf psychic's violent sexual relationship with a twelve year old school girl. That story is apparently a reaction to the idea that tradition and the past were better and more moral than our current society, and I can definitely see that being true. At the same time I'm already aware of the evil that humans can produce, and I don't really see any need to be reminded of that sort of thing (such as the reproduction of news stories in Super Aids of people doing horrible things). To reuse a Hayao Miyazaki quote from that aforementioned article “If the world were truly filled with such hate and destruction, if that were how history was made, then everyone would surely have been dead by the Edo period.”.

But just because all of that applies to a movie, doesn't mean it applies to this comic. However, while this comic is produced from a very different society and culture, you can see parallels in it's parody/rejection of traditions like family and religion. The author uses characters from The Simpsons acting extremely out of character, and the repeatedly desecrates religion just to offend people who believe in that stuff.

The author even goes so far as to repeatedly insult any of the readers who actually enjoy this comic by questioning their intelligence. So I'm sure there is an audience for this sort of thing (including some who will find it hilarious), it's just not me. The one paragraph Kraken rum review in the back was pretty good though.

First, a story I call...

So last fall I was one of the organizers for the Halifax Zine Fair (hey look, you can already apply for a table for this year!). It was pretty fun making sure everything was ready in time, though a little stressful too. The most stressful part was when we asked one of the people tabling at the fair to leave.

This wasn't an easy decision to make. The other co-organizer had heard multiple complaints concerning the items this person was selling. We took a look at this zine, which was being given out for free, and several of us discussed the content and what we thought we should do concerning the creator.

Asking them not to have the work in question on display wasn't an option, as they only had a few things and I think they would have had nothing left if they removed what we'd heard complaints about. So we made the decision of asking them to leave the zine fair. Thankfully they left without any real fuss, and the rest of the zine fair went without any other incidents. You can read the creator's take of the day (including several complaints they received about their work) on their blog (http://dmgermain.blogspot.ca/2012/10/too-hot-for-zine-fair.html).

So this zine has sat in my review pile ever since with me wondering what I should do with it. Except for later issues of a zine I really didn't enjoy due to it's humour style I've reviewed every single zine or minicomic I've received for this site (or if I haven't they're in my review pile and I will get to them eventually). Should I review this one? Just write a post about it? Ignore it? Not quite as hard as asking someone to leave the zine fair, but still a question I thought about a lot.

Now firstly I think there's definitely an element of irony involved in asking someone to leave a zine fair based (in part) on a work that says "always read a book before forming an opinion of it" (which we did on the day of the zine fair). As for the content, I think some of the characters depicted within are definitely offensive, and claiming the work is satirical doesn't make that go away. Even excluding that the art, writing style, and design don't appeal to me, and the final few pages are, to me, gruesome and gross in a completely unnecessary way.

So did we make the right decision? Yeah, I think so. I'd prefer not to be the organizer of an event that contained material such as this. So I'll stand by what we did, while hoping that I don't have to deal with a situation like that again.