This is the cover of Sketch School, which is #8 this week.
1. Doris #29 by Cindy Crabb $2.00 – More mini horse adventures(!), tales of life, grandparents and Girls Rock Camp plus half the issue devoted to a longer personal essay, charmingly titled “How I learned to stop worrying and love being queer.” It’s a new issue of Doris, of course you should read it. -EF
2. Chicagoan #1 $19.95 – Joining the literary-minded ranks of n+1, The Paris Review, The Believer and Lapham’s Quarterly, and doing it with Midwestern flair, The Chicagoan ressurects a long defunct jazz-age magazine and focuses in on non-profit production, local distribution and general excellence in writing and design. The debut issue is a stunner, a cohesive and relevant blend of fiction, history, innovation, interviews and a 50-page oral history of Siskel and Ebert. -EF
3. Sad Animals by Adam Meuse $4.00
4. Field Guide to the Aliens of Star Trek The Next Generation Season One $2.00 by Joshua Chapman $2.00
5. Bitch #54 $5.95
6. Butt #29 Fantastic Magazine for Homosexuals $9.90 – Good gawd, after a two year hiatus we are back in the pink. This may be the last time Butt goes to print, but it’s hardly a bitter end- this issue serves it extra long and thick. Obscene yet classy homoerotic art? Check. Juicy interviews with a whole gamut of gays? Check. John Waters? Check. Cool, let’s party like its 1999. -EF
7. Bound to Struggle vol 5 Praxis Strikeback $5.00 – Playing with power and taking it dead serious, Bound to Struggle #5: Praxis is smart writing about consent and non-consent, feminism, kink, identity and control. The six essayists almost read like six different perzines, but combined present a diverse and astute collection of non-formulaic observations on the personal/political process/practice of kink. Bites as hard as you want it to. -EF
8. Sketch School #1 by Carol Sogard $7.00
9. Naughty Hen Song by by Jim Stoten (Landfill Editions) – A nutjob animal band gets its first gig at Froggo’s hypercolor jazz club and they wing it through Stoten’s party platter color palette to play their song about a certain Naughty Hen. Peace planet design in a dreamy homemade world, this is maybe the feel good comic of the year? -EF
10. Cinema Sewer #25 by Robin Bougie