…AND YOU CAN BREAK MY SPINE…
I’ll Piss In That Rubber Boot For Five Bucks! #3 ($2 CAN/US, c/o Robin Bougie, #320-440 E. 5th Ave. Vancouver, B.C., V5T 1N5, CANADA)
It’s a fairly simple concept, really. Take ‘Family Circus’ cartoons, fold in evil, perverted new captions, and let simmer until desperately, incorrectly funny.
Even a child, or a clearly developmentally challenged 50ish man like little Billy, could do it. How fortunate that someone has…
Tiki: Girl Without A Cause #1 ($1 CAN/US, 2 Canadian stamps, or a trade (for anything), c/o Jen Pikes, 11 Ascot Ct., Welland, Ontario, L3C 6K7, CANADA, e-mail to
[email protected], http://tikiscause.cjb.net )
It’s a high-concept, literary sci-fi ‘zine, set on the S.S. Spaceship, with a small but interesting crew consisting of: Tiki, a girl of roughly twelve, and theoretically the ship’s pilot; Sarah Tucker, the ship’s captain; Alig, the alien mechanic; Dr. Sue, whose job should be fairly obvious; Wrue, the alien navigator, and best friend of Sarah; Sharp, the male security officer; and Jaden, the "new boy".
I wouldn’t want to spoil the plot of any of the little stories within, but they are cute, well-written and have a very strong sense of the main character’s voice. The illustrations are also quite attractive and effective.
Domesticity Isn’t Pretty by Tim Barela ($19.95 CAN, Palliard Press c/o DreamHaven Books, 1309 Fourth Street S.E., Minneapolis, Minnesota, 55414-2029, USA, 1993)
As it happens, this was the one book in the three-volume series that my boyfriend does not have, since the copy they had in at the Toronto gay bookstore was slightly torn and he did not want to get it. I would like to say that was my main motivation in picking it up, but a secondary factor in my twisted mind was buying it at a nice little family comic shop in Ottawa, Ontario on a rainy day when I was feeling like freaking someone out. Sometimes I can be so immature…(sadly, they did not even blink).
It’s a collection of cartoons starring Leonard (a fashion photographer) and Larry (leather shop owner, Bear), who are a gay couple, with periodic appearances by Larry’s ex-wife and his children, Leonard’s central-casting Jewish mother, and various other folks. It is, despite its gay content, a rather family/domestic strip (in a good way).
Oh, just read and fall in love…I couldn’t really comment on the drawing style, being Mr. "Stick figure", but I think it’s quite well done.Godspeed by Lynn Breedlove (St. Martin’s Press, $34.95 CAN, 2002; info on Ms. Breedlove’s activities at www.tribe8.com)
As Kathleen Hanna (Le Tigre, Bikini Kill) more-or-less says in her jacket copy, it does seem like a classic case of overachievement. Breedlove wasn’t satisifed being a punk goddess, activist, and inspiration to millions of girls – no, she just had to be a brilliant novelist too. Some people just don’t know when to quit… J
This book is, indeed, poetic, touching, blunt, political and occasionally very funny, all in the service of the thrilling story of Jim, dyke bike messenger/drug user, and her messed-up but compelling friends.
In the course of its narrative, we meet Ally, Jim’s love interest (though not an exclusive or ultimately healthy one), as well as the band Hostile Mucous (who, on more than one level, strongly resemble Breedlove’s band Tribe 8), a cool fag named Saddam Might, assorted fierce drag queens, and so much more.Oh, beg that spinster librarian down at your local branch to get it in – she can read it after you’re done. J
Punk, ed. by Stephen Colegrave and Chris Sullivan (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2001, $56.50 CAN)
Yes, I acknowledge it’s pricey – but it’s HUGE, stylish and a compelling primary/secondary document of Punk and Protopunk, in both North America and Britain (nothing on Canada or other European nations, though), not missing too many acts on the way (I took full advantage of a discount I get at my local bookstore to obtain this, I confess).
Get together with some friends and pick it up, somehow. You wouldn’t regret it…
Stupid White Men, by Michael Moore (HarperCollins, 2001, $37.95 CAN)
Oh, Mr. Moore, if only you were a Bear in the queer sense, as opposed to just a big furry fella. I could just love you (were I not, of course, hopelessly entangled with my handsome Otter pal). Just when I think there’s no-one more sarcastic, bitter or critical than me, you come along to prove me wrong.
This time, he has his razor-sharp eye (a strange metaphor, when you think about it) trained on: the REAL story of the 2000 elections (oh, such evil); the massive ironies and conflicts of interest in Bush’s cabinet; the impact of cuts in housing and the environment (do we have enough oil men and industrialists in our inner circle?); the ways in which whites and/or men are both dangerous and endangered (sarcasm, in the latter’s case); the crisis of education (and the sad truth that the folks most often sounding the trump of doom believe a trump is an obnoxious rich man); and some of the terrible ways in which the USA is #1 (reported rapes, for an example).
Brilliant stuff. If it doesn’t wake you up, you took way too many sleeping pills and/or USA Today polls, darling.
Bears on Bears, by Ron Jackson Suresha (Alyson, 2001, $22.50 CAN, www.alyson.com, www.suresha.com, www.bearsonbears.com )
It’s a series of interviews with Bears (gay furry men, to be brief – too brief, since this book discusses lesbears and transbears too (yay!!)), mostly done on-line, and covering just about every angle, be it culture/cross-culture, history, elitism, ‘bear space’, the ‘Net, controversies, and so on.
If you are a Bear, or know a Bear, or have a huge collection of Ursine plushies (just kidding, overly purist pandas out there J ), this is the volume for you, babe.
The Bear Book, ed. Les Wright (Harrington Park Press, 1997, $39.99 CAN)
This is more academic than Bears on Bears, and has fewer woofy pictures in it (Harrington Park is an independent scholary imprint, and never has been known for huge quantities of photos in its volumes), but it is still philosophical, sexy, anecdotal and moving. Unlike Bears on Bears, it has some actual ‘creative’ writing (oh, you know what I mean – people waxing profound on their connections to nature, Bears, etc. – as opposed to the slightly more focused nature of a face-to-face/mouse-to-mouse affair…).
Again, sadly expensive, but, this time, ask that cute library assistant with the goatee and the little paunch if he can put in the word to think about getting this (and the Volume II that has recently emerged , and the Volume III on its way) in the next round of purchases. J