you can't give it back

By Mary Karaplis/Mei K

tiny-vices.com

Late again? What's my excuse this time? Why, Mass Effect of course, the science fiction RPG from years ago. I needed to finish it! Needed! (And I actually did, I am going travelling for the rest of the summer in just a few days, so if I didn't finish it now I wouldn't finish it until September. And I was right at the end guys! I had to stay up until 4am to defeat the evil aliens and help the good aliens and...)

I can't even give this comic a bad review if I hated it (though I didn't), because the artist was nice enough to draw a token for Magic the Gathering for my friend and I when we were at the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival a while ago. Corporate ghost!

I think it involves some sort of talent to get three paragraphs and an image into a review before even saying anything about the thing you're reviewing. Well, maybe "talent" is the wrong word. Sometimes I wonder why anyone ever reads this blog...

"you can't give it back" is filled one one panel/page comic strips mostly about the ideas of love and being heartbroken. While some of the comics are pretty funny, what I really enjoyed about this comic was the art style that Karaplis used. The illustrations seem simple, but manage to contain a lot of emotion and character with just a few lines. Plus they're really cute and there's a robot _and_ a sea monster _and_ a space pirate. Great!

Paper and Ink: Broken Hearts and Broken Bottles Vol. 1

Edited by Martin Appleby

www.inpursuitofexpression.com

Reading the introduction to this lit anthology I realized I was the wrong person to review it. Appleby writes that "The theme of this issue is heart break. A subject that most people can relate to and empathise with. I find something extremely cathartic about tales of lost love, of hearts being ripped out and shattered into a thousend [sic] peices [sic]."

And sure, I can relate to heart break, I've been in relationships, they've ended, sometimes sadly, sometimes not. But that doesn't meant I want to read about relationships, functional or not. Romance in fiction generally bores me to tears, and I frequently try to avoid it. I mean, it's not like the concept of romance is a complete anathema to me, I've read stuff that I've enjoyed, but I generally find it trite and banal.

I'm sure all of this makes me seem like a horrible person (or at least a horrible person to be in a relationship with), but it's not like I ignore the idea of romance in my own life. I guess I just find most portrayals of it to not connect with either my experience or my ideas concerning the topic.

Layout-wise I found the fonts that changed for each piece somewhat jarring. I personally prefer zines to have a more consistent design style throughout, though I can understand why people might feel otherwise. Some of the margins are too close to the edge of the page, but I did think the cover was pretty good.

So yeah, this zine has some poems and short stories about heart break. They're fine I guess but, as I've said many times in the past, poetry isn't something I'm really a fan of reading, and I find it pretty impossible to judge its quality. If you're into catharsis and heart break maybe you'll like this zine, but I can't say it did much for me (which is perhaps more of a failing of my own interests and views than the zine in question).

Piltdownlad #2: Women Got Me Drinking

By Kelly Dessaint
www.facebook.com/piltdownlad

There's a website I spend too much time on called Reddit. It acts as a place where people post links about various topics, and comment on them. It is filled both with people embracing and rejecting the myth of the nice guy. You know, the one where if you're best friends with a girl, and never express your romantic interest in her, she'll eventually reveal that she loves you and wants to sleep with you without you ever having to be proactive. (You can probably already tell I think this is stupid.)

Now it's clearly unfair to equate Women Got Me Drinking to this idea entirely. The main character isn't pining after a girl he's known since he was a kid who he thinks he loves. No, instead he's pining after a girl who sits opposite where he works, that he's never talked to, and yet he's completely convinced will be his "inspiration to write".

Which leads us to another cliche, the main character as struggling writer. What does it say about writers that one of their favourite characters to write about is a writer? Are they just using the idea of "write what you know", or are they being incredibly egotistical? Part of me thinks that you can't become a good (or at least well known/published) writer without being at least a bit incredibly egotistical. You have be able to convince others that you can write things for them, and it's unlikely that you'll be able to do that if you're not confident in your own writing skills.

None of this actually tells you _anything_ about this zine in question.

This zine is a (fictional?) account of living in New Orleans at some point after Hurricaine Katrina. The descriptions of poverty, living in shitty parts of town, the people that live there, and how the lower class manage to survive were all interesting, and I'd have much rather read a zine about those things then a story about one person's search for the 100% perfect girl.

Though it says on the cover it's a love story, so I should have known what I was in for from the beginning.

Deary Beloved

By Amy

My history of relationships isn't great. Not that the people I've gone out with haven't been awesome, and I still talk to most of the people I've been involved with, it's just that my longest (consecutive) relationship ever was about six months, and that was years ago.

I've never been dumped or dumped someone, in fact most of the relationships have ended by mutual agreement or because someone was moving somewhere else. So reading about someone's five year relationship, and the way it ended is both kind of intense and kind of confusing.

Here Amy tries to deal with being "just Amy" instaed of part of "Amy and David" after her relationship of almost five years finally ends. The zine is a collection of random thoughts and memories. Thinking about the good parts of the relationship, wondering where it went wrong, and hoping that the other person is as miserable as she is.

It's not the happiest of stories to read, and when it turns out that Amy was basically dumped so that her boyfriend could go off and be with someone else it makes him seem like kind of a dick. Though with only one side of the story I guess you never know everything that happens.

Overall I found this kind of hard to get to grips with, and to be honest I hope I am never able to properly understand the opinions and views that Amy has here. Lets keep our fingers crossed for that one.