Vice v6n11 Literary Reviews

NICHE HOMO 1
Self-released

Hmm, Anita Crapper. That name seems familiar somehow. Oh yeah! He’s our UK editor. Or our UK editor’s nom de plume at least. In a rare case of the tables being turned this fresh faced young ‘zine from Leeds did the question-y part and Capper did the answer-y part. If you want to find out all manner of secrets from Andy’s shadowy past then I guess you will have to order it from that URL down there. Oh, the interviews with the Shitty Limits, Mob Rules and serial Vice appearance artist Eugene Robinson are none too shabby either. They even managed to squeeze in a review of ‘The Women Of Hollyoaks’. Features like that are what ‘zines were invented for. Issue 2 please.

Myspace.com/lonklonklonk

SEXBEAT 1
Self-released

There is this guy Paul who works in our office. Initially everyone thought he was some indie guy, mainly because he has one of those swoopy fringe haircuts that every cunt and their dog who sings in a tight jeaned “oh-oh-oh” indie band seems to have. Turns out Paul is a really nice guy who is into good stuff like Black Flag and The Gun Club and when he’s not booking all the acts for The Old Blue Last he runs his own night (which is handily named after a Gun Club song) called Sexbeat. Now Sexbeat is also a ‘zine. If you like Black Flag and The Gun Club but have a silly haircut you’ll probably like it. How many times can you mention The Gun Club in one review?

myspace.com/sexbeat_london

DON’T TAKE YOUR LIFE – TRUE STORIES BY JUSTIN MAURER
Justin Maurer
Future Tense Books

Despite looking a little like a cross between Dennis Penis and Krusty the clown (seriously, check out his by-line photo on the back cover) Justin used to be in stern faced screamy hardcore band Colorox Girls and is actually really good at writing stuff. We get sent submissions constantly by email that we sincerely wish were sent the old fashioned way so that we could use them to shore up the constant lack of TP in the gents (what is the deal with that btw Danielle? Credit crunch?) but stuff like Justin’s turning up once every blue moon is like a little reassuring pat on the back and whisper in the ear that there are actually people out there who can still write great short fiction. Except that these little vignettes might be true stories. We’re not sure. It’s nicer not knowing. Justin: please don’t ever tell us the truth.

Futuretensebooks.com

VARIOUS FOLK TALES VOL. ONE
Eighty-Eight Shades Press

I initially struggled to find any info on this one until I looked at the publishers and remembered the we had reviewed a ‘zine called Eighty-Eight Shades Of Grey a while back. The constant presence of Nottingham Forest shirts and NG7 landmarks confirmed this. So you get a lot of snapshot photography of skaters drinking and being drunk mixed with moody landscape shots and more than your fill of urban decay as well as Nottingham’s unique take on combating paedophilia (with graffiti proclaiming that “Brian is a fucking kiddy fiddler). Nice UK photo ‘zines are thin on the ground. Let’s hope more people follow these Midlanders lead. How expensive can some A4 paper, a printer and a stapler be?

beastmangoat.com

THE END OF LIVING THE BEGINNING OF SURVIVAL
Dash Snow
CFA Berlin

If you don’t know who Dash Snow is you probably haven’t read many issues of this magazine beyond the last couple of years. Dash used to appear in these pages constantly in various stages of undress and intoxication. For the Party Issue he even recreated one of his infamous nest parties for us. In case you missed it: that involves booking yourself and your buddies into a hotel room, covering the room with shredded paper and making well… a nest. You then proceed to party so much that you have to hibernate to survive. As well as getting fucked up Dash is also very good at art and these days sells work for squillions of pounds to international collectors like Charles Saatchi and shows work at The Whitney and stuff. He manages to do all this while injecting the same free spirited fun and gallons of cum with which he still lives every day. So we still love him. This book collects a bunch of Dash’s collage work and photography. And it’s really really great.

cfa-berlin.com

THE MAN WITH KALEIDOSCOPE EYES
Alan Aldridge
Thames & Hudson

You might think that you don’t know Alan Aldridge. In a way you might be right. You might never have heard his name spoken out loud before or read it in a magazine. But you do know Alan Aldridge if only in terms of his work. The sleeves of The Beatles Reprised, The Who’s A Quick One, Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and Cream’s Goodbye Cream? All Aldridge. This book isn’t just great in terms of highlighting how much of an impact Aldridge has had on anyone who has ever put pen to paper and drawn squiggly psychedelic stuff but serves as a massive inventory of just how hard the guy worked. Movie posters, a whole host of Penguin covers and even Heinekin ads. The guy was like a psychedelic drawing machine.

thamesandhudson.com

INKY FINGERS 3
Handmade Dirtcheap Productions

Putting out a ‘zine and calling it Inky Fingers is a little like just calling it ‘A ‘Zine’. This one was subtitled ‘The Vice Special’ but in a massive blow to our ego’s it had nothing to do with us. It didn’t even try and parody us like that ‘Vice Issue’ of SugaRAPE. In fact it just contains loads of black and white ink drawings and cut and paste headlines that do a really of good job of holding your attention for just the right amount of time. Maybe they should have just called it ‘A ‘Zine’ after all.

Mon53.com