I went to my parent’s house today and they made me clean out the attic - well at least a box worth. I found a stash of old self-published comics and fanzines - a shitload of them. I was inspired to find them after visiting the Boston Zine Fair back in September. It took me a while to find them. 

I’ll probably end up writing something on The Social Consumer shortly on my life as a minicomic and zine publisher back when I was 16, but for now, I wanted to share with you some looks into the weirdo shit I collected over the year. I have to thank FactSheet Five - the original print version - for opening the door to this world for me. I fucking miss that mag.

Above are three examples of some localized comic newspapers from the early 90’s.

1. Manhattan Comic News 2. The Boston Comic News 3. Seattle Star. 

Out of the three, Seattle Star was the banger. It was published during the height of the Seattle rock explosion and includes some of the best alternative comics I’ve seen to date and Sub Pop was a frequent advertiser on the back cover. Dope!

Going farther into fringe was Comic Release, which was also out of Seattle. A much more edgy publication, it was also shot on newsprint for cheap shipping and handling - which was very important back then. Published in 1992.

Here are some examples of half sized mini comics. A true mini-comic was the size of a 8.5×11 sheet of paper folder into fours. These were folded down the center and, of course, printed off of Xerox machines. As much as the artwork in these was very amateurish, there was a certain mentality that came from them. 

I will go back home and grab my box of mini-comics soon enough. Some amazing shit in there. Circa 1988-1991.

A much much better half sized mini-comic was Dead Head Comix from Helsinki, Finland. This was my first dip into the world of European independent, self-published books. This was was printed on very high quality glossy thick stock and had some of the best ink work I had seen at the time. Really dope shit in this issue. If anyone knows where these guys landed, please fill me in. Published in 1990.

One of my favorite full sized, self published books was Wandering Star. Here’s an example of a book that came out of the death of a independent comic publisher. Teri S. Wood had been inking and writing books for Silverwolf Comics, when they quickly went under. Rather than sitting back, Teri started a new book and published it out. I remember dropping about $2.25 per issue via mail and getting these stock with a mailer back cover. The only full sized self published book I bought. Published in 1988-1989.

I have tons more of this shit. I’ll put more up soon.

The new standard.

I had the opportunity to meet Bob Haro in Beijing this past Spring. We were both looking for our travel minders to get us to our respective hotels. It should come as no surprise that Mr. Haro is solid gentleman - incredibly friendly in fact. I should learn a thing or two from him.

Mr. Haro is of course famous of the design of the bike number plate and for spearheading the Haro Bikes company back in the 80’s but like all good people, he has grown and continues to develop and deisgn under the Haro Design umbrella.

Axio is one of those projects which looks to build a better cargo bag for your daily needs. The Fuse Bag seen below and modeled by Adriana (Say hello. The latest Snob addition in Boston) is a hardpack that opens up (almost peels open) to access the front and back. 

A dope bag with an even doper design. And in the case that we need to smuggle Adriana into Mexico for some reason, she may even fit inside of it and still have room for lunch (just kidding!).

I’ve talked on my thing for Lego minifigs before. To re-cap (since this blog is all new and shit), I am drawn to their scale, the Brick World community, and the fact that, this guy is making shitloads of weapons for his Lego Army. The Dunny world is dope, but give me a mini-fig anyday.

Jason Freeny over at Moist Productions is kinda obsessed with both and many other things, but from the inside. He’s into anatomical schematics, just not of the human body. He prefers things like Gummi Bears, Lego Mini-figs, Dunny’s, toy dog balloons, and just about anything else he can split open and re-imagine.

Best of all, he sells the prints via his online web shop. This is cool shit that comes directly from the imagination. I love it. Check it out.