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| Mimezine (mim-uh-zeen) |
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| I started soing my zine in 1993 - bolstered by a large gap in my employment due to switching careers and just finally getting off of my ass and doing it. The title was stolen from ... uh, I mean to say, the title was an homage to Bruce Wagner's mini-series and comic, WILD PALMS, in which Mimezine was the drug used to alter one's virtual reality. It seemed to fit. While it didn't lead to book deals, like most of the big zinesters ended up getting, I have had very good comments from those who've discovered it. Despite the boom and bust of the zine scene, I'm still doing it - if only slowly. [All the Mimezine files are in .pdf format - you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them] Issue #1 (The Unemployment Issue), was my first attempt at zining... and like many attempts, it was rough. Too unfocused and a total hodgepodge of stuff (which was my mental state at the time), and too much copyright infringement, most of which I had to pull out of it before the stores would accept it. Still, it had some valuable things like the band interviews with Ed's Redeeming Qualities, The Buckets and The Sextants, and some really personal writing. Issue #2 (Special Trendy Violence Issue) was an improvement in terms of layout and content - there was a lot of things going on at the time... one of my best friends from high school had died, I was barely making a living, and the Millennium Fever was just starting - everything seemed to have this apocalyptic tinge to it, and I have this attraction/repulsion to anything apocalyptic and the main piece, THE BIG UGLY (stolen from some Mojo Nixon remark) is a good example. I also started experimenting with collage; I found the verses to 'The Bad Lieutenant', which started as a rap song that Abel Ferrera had written before he did the movie, and just illustrated it. The other major piece, about the Pettit and Martin shooting in SF was very cathartic for me. THE BIG UGLY - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 SHOOTOUT AT PETTIT & MARTIN - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 BAD LIEUTENANT - 1, 2, 3 Issue #3 (The Relationship Issue) is the issue that got the most feedback - it's probably the best in terms of the layout... I'd refined the collage experiments and put them to use in supporting the text, especially in THE DOUGHNUT THEORY and IN TRANSIT, which was a piece that my friend Sarah Rosenbaum had submitted. INTERVIEW WITH THE LESBIAN, a piece which started somewhat tongue-in-cheek but became much more than that, is essentially a conversation with a school friend of mine. The somewhat arch tone of the questions is intentional. NOTES ON THE DOUGHNUT THEORY - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 IN TRANSIT - 1, 2, 3, 4 Issue #4 (The Music Issue) obviously focuses on music - specifically on bands in and around San Francisco of the early to mid-90's. It was originally meant to be Issue #2, but things came up... It's probably better that it did take years before I got around to it - I think it's a nice piece of musical anthropology. This was when I finally moved into the 20th Century (ironically, just as it was ending) and did the issue on computer, using Pagemaker software. It was a breeze to work with, but I did miss the physicality of cutting and gluing to paper... although it would've been another few years before I finished it that way. You'll find the entirety of #4 over on the Music page. If you've been a past visitor, you've seen excerpts from the Carrie Bradley and Cory McAbee interviews on the old page - now you can finally read the whole thing. A few odds and ends can be found on the MISCELLANEOUS page. |