Zine Reviews
By Mike White
Bad Lit. #6
As I walk down the streets of Riverview I often get wiseacres rolling down their car windows and yelling, "Hey, Mike, a movie zine - how fucking original can you get!" before they pelt me with water balloons or rotting vegetables and squeal off.
I guess I should have tried harder and came up with something no one's ever done before.
Maybe that's what happened to Mike Everleth. I don't mean the vegetables part, but coming up with an original zine concept and pulling it off.
When I first read about this ultimate screenwriting zine I thought that it'd be a really snooty/academic tract. But no! This is very down to earth and Mike is a really cool cat.
Every issue features a short script of about 15-20 pages, zine reviews, and various articles. I hear Mike is looking for submissions of either scenes or articles so drop him a line and ask him for more details. Maybe include $2 and ask him for a copy while you're at it. P.O. Box 32, Abington, PA 19001.
femme flick #4
Like Bad Lit., this is a zine that was needed. As Bad Lit. might be a support and inspiration to screenwriters, femme flick might be the same to women film makers/aficionados.
Like CdC, femme flick tries to cover a good amount of movie- related ground; book reviews, zine reviews, and a lot of funny, poignant, and/or off-the-cuff articles. The differences between Tina Spangler's zine and ours are many, though, with the biggest being that everything in femme flick related to women and femme flick is a much better looking zine (but we're trying!). Very entertaining and informative. Send your $2 to 99 Hancock St. #4, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Psychoholics Unanimous #26
This zine's editor must feel as out of place being a psychotronic film fan as a pretty girl at a Star Trek convention. Because both Star Trek and "cult" movies tend to attract the same kind of people - nerdy guys who tend to be cruising for boobs and blood. Out of the misogynistic dung heap crawls Joni Lee, PU's editrix, to show that it's cool to be a girl and enjoy drive-in dreck. This cool sixteen page zine comes to us out of the up- tight Dutch Christian populated, right-wing Grand Rapids, Michigan - another set of odds overcome.
PU boasts an eclectic collection of movie reviews, tv high-lights, drive-in theater tales, zine reviews, and articles. Just a buck will get you your monthly fix. 309 Quimby NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505.
Kung Fu Girl
Readers of CdC will remember that our writer, Clifton Howard, has been waging a one man battle against sexist Asian zines. When he got this thick package out of our P.O. Box I expected a five page tirade on my desk before the afternoon was over. I was amazed to talk to him a few days later and hear him say that KFG was "pretty good." I feel it was only his semi- bruised pride that kept him from saying how good KFG really is, with- holding praise to keep his ego in check.
KFG is a big ole xeroxed zine with over eighty pages per issue! It concentrates mostly on kick-ass women in kung fu movies (hence the title) but keeps the T&A to a minimum. Praising these literal femme fatales for their talent and ability and not for their knack for causing one's penis to harden. Bravo.
Sure, there are a lot of cheese-cakeish photos but in the case of Asian starlets, the press offers little else. But, again, in the second issue there is not one bikini clad babe!
Our hero, Keith Allison, covers a lot more than just Asian women, however. There are also articles about Steven Chow, Jackie Chan, Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun Fat, Godzilla, and Tomisaburo Wakayaka; star of the ever-popular "Lone Wolf & Cub" movies. Allison also high- lights Asian pop stars, Japanese tv shows, and Anime. Very cool. Submissions are wanted but pick up an issue first before you start writing about RAPEMAN or other "Asian Trash Cinema" fare. Four dollars will seem incredibly reasonable once this huge, fun, and informative zine darkens your doorstep. 718-201 SW 16th Avenue, Gainesville, FL 32601.
When writing to zines it is best to send cash. A lot of editors do not use their real names or have accounts in the name of their zines so you can imagine what a pain it's got to be having pile of uncashable checks laying around the house while your wallet gets a work out at the post office. I know, I know, Mom always told you not to send cash through the mail, some postman somewhere might take a shine to an envelope with an outline of a greenback in there as clear as day. And it's not a good idea to go into your local post office and start pointing fingers at disgruntled workers. It's a better idea to use a secure envelope or maybe a few extra sheets of paper to hide the cash inside. All the zines we've reviewed seem to have their business in order, for the most part, and are pretty speedy when requesting a copy. If a month goes by, write them again, and if another month passes without hide nor hair of their zine in sight; worry.
