Clipper Guts Issue Five

By Joe9t
myspace.com/clippergutszine

This zine was sent to me by Zinemonger Distro, a distro that distributes free zines. Awesome! Go check out the site to find out how you can get some!

The idea that there is only one type of person who can makes zines is a strange one. I'm aware that they definitely seem to attract a certain type, but in reality that type is just people who like to produce things on print.

So when I came across this quote:

"I don't own any Black Flag records. I didn't know who Ghost Mice were until a couple of months ago. I'm not a vegan. I have an office job. I watch crappy daytime television if I can. I have no idea where my nearest radical boookshop is. I listen to Kraftwerk and Buddy Holly LPs. I am probably the least qualified out of all the people I know to be writing a fanzine on anything[...]"

It makes me sad. Anyone can make a zine! And they can be about anything! I mean, look at my newest zine, it is about crisps/chips! Everyone eats food! Everyone has at least one story to tell, or something they really care about, or a million tiny things that they think about. Try making a zine. You don't have to show it to anyone else (I have multiple finished and unfinished zines nobody has ever seen), but maybe you'll really like doing it.

Funnily I think the content of this zine is actually fairly standard zine fare. It's about music, complaining about the mainstream, and insulting people who like things different from you (rather like the internet really...). This isn't to say that it's bad. I enjoyed the casual style it was written in, and the brevity of all the writing (I don't think any piece is more than a single paragraph) means that it's easy to read.

This is the last of the free zines I've gotten from the Zinemonger Distro, and apparently the guy who runs it is ending it soon, so I encourage all of you (especially if you live in the UK) to go to the site and see if there's anything that interests you.

Evil Ed and Nasty Ted: The Geeky Bunch

www.eviledandnastyted.com

This zine was sent to me by Zinemonger Distro, a distro that distributes free zines. Awesome! Go check out the site to find out how you can get some!

The first of the two short comics in here is a little strange, it starts off as a Frankenstein parody, but then becomes a monster-bear character berating Nasty Ted (in scientist mode) for attempting to create a female who will cook, clean, and do other stereotypeical "female" tasks. This would be good, except that the female monster-bear also has the worst type of stereotypical shrewish girlfriend personality. Gah! Sexism plus sexism does not equal no sexism. Yeah, I know it's a joke, but...

Lettering-wise this comic is a mess. Everything uses these ugly rectangular boxes, some of which have multiple borders for no apparent reason. The font choices used for the text inside these boxes aren't that great either, and the text sometimes touches the edge of the boxes. Aaaahhhh. Awful!

Artwise the comic is a lot better. The art style seems to have been influenced by '90s style supeheroes, or perhaps just parodies of '90s style superheroes. The characters are incredibly stylized and exagerated with Ed not having any actual eyes, and a huge grimace/smile in pretty much every panel. Other characters include bikini girls with horrifying body shapes, and a police officer of some sort in body armour holding a ridiculous gun. It's practically a Rob Liefeld comic! Despite this, I do generally like the style of this comic as the above features are clearly used for comedic value. I think the character designs of Ed and Ted are pretty good, though I think Ed's creepy smile could be dialed back a bit.

Ripping Thrash #26 / You Can't Say No to Hope #13

Ripping Thrash by Steve
www.rippingthrash.com
PO Box 152
Burton-on-Trent
Staffordshire
DE14 1XX, UK

You Can't Say No to Hope by Jon
myspace.com/youcantsaynotohope

This zine was sent to me by Zinemonger Distro, a distro that distributes free zines. Awesome! Go check out the site to find out how you can get some!

Punk music almost seems like the default type of music for zines. Not necessarily because all zinesters listen to punk music, but more because fans of other types of music have seemingly abandoned zines and embraced newer technologies to a greater degree.

This isn't to say that there aren't other zines about other types of music out there, or that punk music doesn't have countless websites and blogs devoted to it, just that the lo-fi, diy asthetic that is embraced in punk and leads to bands releasing music on vinyl means that zines are seen as a more acceptable form of media for the genre.

I'd love to see zines about electronic music or hip hop, but I think in the case of the latter I've only ever seen them in a museum exhibit (seriously!). Can you suggest any?

From that intro you can probably guess that this split zine is about punk music, and while I like punk music it's clearly not my genre of choice, so while I will generally read through all the reviews of shows and albums they frequently don't really register with me and I rarely bother looking anyone up.

Thankfully this zine does have content that's not reviews. You Can't Say No to Hope... begins with a fairly amusing hatelist, and is followed by a pretty awesome section about rabbits! I really love reading a zine you expect to be about one thing and then discovering that whoever made it also really loves this other thing and is going to include it even if it's kind of jarring. These pages include how to follow rabbit tracks in the snow, and some disgusting rabbit facts, rad! Plus there's an account of how Jon's football team is doing. I really find it kind of bizarre how punks in the UK frequently seem to be into football and play in leagues and follow teams. Still, good on them for actually being active.

Even ignoring all that, if you enjoy finding new punk bands by reading reviews and interviews then this split (and other issues of both zines) is probably worth checking out.

R*E*P*E*A*T #32

www.repeatfanzine.co.uk
PO Box 438
Cambridge
CB4 1FX

This zine was sent to me by Zinemonger Distro, a distro that distributes free zines. Awesome! Go check out the site to find out how you can get some!

I have no idea what the Manic Street Preachers sound like. I’m sure I’ve heard some of their music at some point, but don’t ask me to pick it out of a crowd (of sound?). Do they play guitars? I believe so, but I couldn’t guarantee that (perhaps they just play multiple bass or something).

This zine, inspired by the Manics, is printed on a big (UK equivalent of 11 x 17, someday I will learn the proper terminology) piece of paper, and then folded down to quarter size. Inside there are drawings and collages presumably somehow related to the Manics. One of them has David Bowie in it I think.

There’s also a memorial piece about Steven Wells which made me curious about his writing and whether anyone still reads NME. Unfortunately this, and the brief piece below it, are rendered partially unreadable by the giant “Manic Street Preachers” printed over top of it. I can only assume that it looked good on the computer.

There are also the album and show reviews you no doubt expected from a fanzine about a band. However there are reviews of more than just the Manics, and I even looked up one of the bands reviewed! (I didn’t really care for them, but nonetheless amazing!)

Ed of the Dead

www.eviledandnastyted.com

This zine was sent to me by Zinemonger Distro, a distro that distributes free zines. Awesome! Go check out the site to find out how you can get some!

Evil Ed and Nasty Ted star in one of what is apparently a series of comics featuring them. Ed has a haircut I’m sure has a name but cannot describe (mostly shaved, two floppy “horns” at the front), wears ripped up clothing and is an idiot. Ted is a sentient teddy bear. Together, they fight crime!

Well actually, they cause it: beating up old people with a spatula, causing a ruckus in a supermarket, and being a problem for the police. It’s all a kind of ultraviolence that reminded me a little of something like Evan Dorkin’s Milk and Cheese.

The art is quite good, and there’s quite a lot of detail put into parts of it, even if Ed either has a giant toothy smile, or no mouth at all. So it’s a little bit frustrating to see that the lettering in this comic is so terrible. The fonts, the rectangular speech balloons. Urgh, it’s all pretty bad.
Still, it’s free, so you might as well check it out.