Based on extensive zine research and surveying, The Most Unwanted Zine incorporates everything people like least in zines. Inspired by Russian conceptual artists Komar and Melamid and their genius creations like "The Most Unwanted Song," The Most Unwanted Zine is a true charmer for any long-time zine reader.
In Liz's own words: "The #1 thing people said they didn't want in a zine? Poetry. So there's that. The #2 thing people complained about zines? Shitty construction. So there's that. But also, don't miss a self-involved perzine rant, ridiculous font decisions with bad letting/kerning, a poorly laid out photo spread, the obligatory punk scene report, vague or meandering ramblings, lecturing with pedantically big academic words, whining and more!"
20 pages, half-letter sized. Covers risographed by Flatlands Press.
No Touching is a collection of poems that reflects on our pandemic year (a year without widely available reassuring hugs and shoulders to cry on). Edited by our own Gina Sarti, No Touching has contributions from Julia Edelman, Hannah Horovitz (Esoteric Bumper Stickers), Tatille Jackson, and V.Vale (RE/Search).
20 pages, half-legal size, cover colors vary. All proceeds donated to the Berkeley Free Clinic. Cover art by Wally Catton.
Told in a series of addicting little vignettes, the 36th issue of Martha Grover's Somnambulist is the tale of an 80-person Mardi Gras wedding party, all in blue onesies. Almost falling into a barbecue, a brief history of spectacle, news reporters without pants.
28 pages, half-letter size. Illustrations by Liz Yerby.
In the 18th issue of the annual joy that is We'll Never Have Paris, we are treated to all things blue. Frida Kahlo's house (Casa Azul), a polluted river, a Magic Genie organ, blue-as-sadness, blue-without-breath, and much more.
Essays by Liz Mason, Vikki Warner, Amy Bobeda, Scott Magri, Kim Cihlar, Dewey Sloan, Jaime Borschuk, and Ayun Halliday.
52 pages, quarter-size. Cover Art by Shannon Mack.
Out today on our label! Written over the course of a 20s spent in U.K. DIY scenes and spaces, Two White Cranes was the short-lived-but-beloved songwriting project and occasional band of Roxy Brennan (Radisson Blue, Joanna Gruesome, Trust Fund, The Nervy Betters). Seamlessly shifting between full-band indie-pop, solo bedroom-folk, and nods to post-punk and punk, Brennan imbued each song—regardless of genre—with a distinct, singular voice and approach.
For When the Future Rolls Around (Selected Songs, 2012-2017) collects songs from Two White Cranes' two studio albums, as well as home-recorded releases, a live album, a wide array of compilation tracks, and unreleased material. This collection aims to see Two White Cranes as a body of pop song-work worthy of recognition and celebration.
Released on Antiquated Future Records. Dubbed on metallic gold-foil cassettes, packaged in letterpress and offset-print boxes by Stumptown Printers Worker Cooperative, accompanied by Whatnow Press risograph-printed booklet with personal essays by Selected Songs series co-curator Joshua James Amberson and Two White Cranes' songwriter Roxy Brennan.
The fourth volume of our Selected Songs series, that seeks to shine a light on under-appreciated and overlooked artists from the present and past. Each volume serves as a curated primer to an artist’s catalog, or a hand-picked selection of an artist’s lost or forgotten songs.
Reading Cindy Crabb makes me remember that there are magic in words. How truths told simply, written with a certain level of reverence, can add up to something so much bigger. The Encyclopedia of Doris collects a decade of her zine, Doris. The encyclopedia has alphabetized dives into ideas, places, authors, beliefs, ways to imagine the world differently.
"I started writing a zine because I believed in the power of telling secrets. I believed that so much of our lives were closed up and hidden—the sweet things and the scary things and the small beautiful things and the ways we learned to survive."
322 pages, trade paperback. Illustrated throughout with Cindy's iconic comics.
The first ten years of Doris, one of the greatest and longest-running zines of all time. Much of what makes Doris so special is summed up by Cindy in the book's introduction, "Doris is about finding a life worth living and creating a world that will allow us to live: Creating a world full of meaning, that we can thrive in, that we can come together in, where we will be heard, where we will be able to believe in ourselves, where we won't think our thoughts and emotions are crazy. A world where we will know for real we are not alone."
315 pages, wide trade paperback. Illustrated throughout.
Looking exactly like a zine you might pick up at a punk show in the mid-'90s, Hit the Decks is a whole lot of fun. There's Katie Haegele's partial tribute to Headbanger's Ball, a discussion about mixtapes by Sommer from the Mixtape Museum, and a casual stroll through VHS collecting by Joshua James Amberson.
There's interviews with Murder City Devils frontman Spencer Moody, whiskey folk hero lauren.napier, and Dead Milkmen co-founder Joe Jack Talcum.
There's comics from Jay McQuirns, collage art from lauren.napier, a new painted illustration from Spencer Moody, intimacy from little stray & LJ Brubaker, Neal Langford's lo-fi photography, a page of recipes from Joe Jack Talcum, a photo essay by Jess Moncrief about seeing Lee Ving perform in a tattoo shop, and Craig Wenner on how to put on a DIY show.
30 pages, full magazine-size.
With a fancy full-color cover, Cat Party #7 comes dressed ready to party. Cat statistical data, kitten socks, lists, comics, bookmarks, games.
Contributors include: Tuan Vu Tran of Studio Kneetoe, Ally Shwed, Mel Rosato, Joe Carlough, Nicole and Nicole of the South Street Art Mart, and Anna Lehr Mueser.
24 pages, half-letter size.
An album of darkwave telephone-themed dance anthems made using pocket synths, KORG Gadget for the Nintendo Switch, and a homemade microphone assembled from a phone receiver. Comes in the form of a fancy art zine with a download code.
Listen on Bandcamp.