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The Factsheet Five Zine Reader: The Best Writing from the Underground World of Zines
Zines, those hip, alternative, self-published magazines, have broken out from the obscurity of the underground and found themselves in the spotlight. Zealous readers are turning to zines for smart writing on everything from cutting-edge music to radical politics. With all that's been said about zines, one question still Where the heck can you find them? And even if you dig them up, who has time to read through them all to get to the good stuff?
R. Seth Friedman, super zine sleuth and the head honcho at Factsheet Five magazine, does. Culled from thousands upon thousands of zines, this book features seventy of the best stories, essays, and rants that have appeared over the past few years. These selections are intensely personal, unconventional, and sometimes completely out of this world.
More than just a simple anthology, The Factsheet Five Zine Reader includes original art and covers from the zines, descriptions and histories of the zines, and complete ordering information so you can start exploring this exciting new world on your own.
R. Seth Friedman, super zine sleuth and the head honcho at Factsheet Five magazine, does. Culled from thousands upon thousands of zines, this book features seventy of the best stories, essays, and rants that have appeared over the past few years. These selections are intensely personal, unconventional, and sometimes completely out of this world.
More than just a simple anthology, The Factsheet Five Zine Reader includes original art and covers from the zines, descriptions and histories of the zines, and complete ordering information so you can start exploring this exciting new world on your own.
192 pages, Paperback
First published June 24, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 17, 2007
I'm in this book!
July 20, 2016
Back in the heyday of Factsheet 5, I read it religiously, as well as a stack of 'zines, as many as I could. They were the small, photocopied and stapled lifeblood of my comic loving, punk rock-worship, cult movie fanatic, sex-obsessed youth. Where they went in my reading habits, I don't know.
Blogs? YouTube? Regardless of the answer, nothing quite captures the surreptitious feeling of finding a 'zine at the downtown pizza hovel that became a zealous obsession.
If you were there, this book brings back fond memories. If you weren't, either too square or too young, this one will reveal a smidgeon of the ink stained bliss that 'zines were.
Friedman was the voice of that time and he did a wonderful job of curating the collection, highlighting luminaries as well as digging up some weird old stuff.
www.well-lightedetcetera.com
Blogs? YouTube? Regardless of the answer, nothing quite captures the surreptitious feeling of finding a 'zine at the downtown pizza hovel that became a zealous obsession.
If you were there, this book brings back fond memories. If you weren't, either too square or too young, this one will reveal a smidgeon of the ink stained bliss that 'zines were.
Friedman was the voice of that time and he did a wonderful job of curating the collection, highlighting luminaries as well as digging up some weird old stuff.
www.well-lightedetcetera.com
March 17, 2014
Damnit, so good. These are notes for my reference so apologies to my 'feed'.
-From an essay on the rainbow clown wig/ "John 3:16" guy: "Marooned and frustrated in Los Angeles, Stewart put aside John 3:16, much as he had put aside the Rainbow Man almost ten years before, and created a new character: the 'Backslidden Christian'. With the Backslidden Christian, Stewart proved the old adage that genius rarely strikes twice."
-From "Thus Spake Cinderfella," an essay about Jerry Lewis & one of the best essays I've ever read: "Indeed, 'The Day the Clown Cried' takes what is one of the all-time classic images of kitsch- the sad clown so often seen painted on black velvet and hanging in your cousin's depressing rec room- and forces it to mean something."
and elsewhere from the same ssay,,,
"'Do you think it's normal for God to put children in steel cages?' asked Jerry, 'If it is, then I say God goofed!' Told that he would lose viewers and station affiliates all over the country, Lewis then responded, 'I've been told that I have offended a lot of people... but I still say God goofed!'
In the '70s, Woody Allen seemed to be whining about God as if God wouldn't return his phone calls: does He like me? Why the silence? I never hear from Him! But here was the out-of-favor, supposedly-no-longer-funny, cultural dinosaur Jerry Lewis... announcing the death of God before the whole continent, refusing to apologize for it, and still asking for his viewers' hard-earned dollars."
-From another essay about 'going out': "The whole part of you that exists outside yourself keeps getting murdered. This murder of the Social Self is not some rare event, like, say, banishment from a village for crimes against the community. It happens all the time. Every time you are down or depressed. Or desperate for intimacy, sex, or conversation. or tired from work. Or fight with one or two key people on the phone list. Or there's nothing to do. Or your friends start marrying and moving off to the 'burbs. Or you just have bad luck, everyone's busy, and you didn't call enough. No one escapes the failure to go out. For most people, failure to go out is the ordinary condition."
Cripes, what a breath of fresh air.
-From an essay on the rainbow clown wig/ "John 3:16" guy: "Marooned and frustrated in Los Angeles, Stewart put aside John 3:16, much as he had put aside the Rainbow Man almost ten years before, and created a new character: the 'Backslidden Christian'. With the Backslidden Christian, Stewart proved the old adage that genius rarely strikes twice."
-From "Thus Spake Cinderfella," an essay about Jerry Lewis & one of the best essays I've ever read: "Indeed, 'The Day the Clown Cried' takes what is one of the all-time classic images of kitsch- the sad clown so often seen painted on black velvet and hanging in your cousin's depressing rec room- and forces it to mean something."
and elsewhere from the same ssay,,,
"'Do you think it's normal for God to put children in steel cages?' asked Jerry, 'If it is, then I say God goofed!' Told that he would lose viewers and station affiliates all over the country, Lewis then responded, 'I've been told that I have offended a lot of people... but I still say God goofed!'
In the '70s, Woody Allen seemed to be whining about God as if God wouldn't return his phone calls: does He like me? Why the silence? I never hear from Him! But here was the out-of-favor, supposedly-no-longer-funny, cultural dinosaur Jerry Lewis... announcing the death of God before the whole continent, refusing to apologize for it, and still asking for his viewers' hard-earned dollars."
-From another essay about 'going out': "The whole part of you that exists outside yourself keeps getting murdered. This murder of the Social Self is not some rare event, like, say, banishment from a village for crimes against the community. It happens all the time. Every time you are down or depressed. Or desperate for intimacy, sex, or conversation. or tired from work. Or fight with one or two key people on the phone list. Or there's nothing to do. Or your friends start marrying and moving off to the 'burbs. Or you just have bad luck, everyone's busy, and you didn't call enough. No one escapes the failure to go out. For most people, failure to go out is the ordinary condition."
Cripes, what a breath of fresh air.
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October 12, 2008I have a piece in this book which was reprinted from my zine Holy Titclamps. I also contributed my queer zine reviews to Factsheet Five.
December 6, 2008
How I learned to pay bills late to maximum effect, among other amazing counterculture (read "slacker") skills.
November 26, 2014
I would have given the book 5 stars, if he had included Lizzengreasy, our zine written in Japan in the late 80's. :-)
December 4, 2014
really bad
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews