Most certainly a defunct publication, but a publication with text, words and things to read inside nevertheless. Well, things to do with objects otherwise looking for the recycling bin to provide its blanket of warmth and pulp goodness. Prop it up against the back of the neck and feel the abscess you monkey. Feel it!
So it is, a newsletter from Brian Dead Comix of Australia and from the postal address, out of Panania. Brain Dead Comix, they what did things such as City Litter and... this. Heavy skew with the one count to the whole set.
Token on the rip through, newsletter four of a series of who knows how many. Sample selection here falling in on September/October of 1999 or even of 1998. Most likely the latter, but nothing is clear. Zine or newsletter, either way, there is only one staple holding things together, a massive blank of white behind each other page and there is that a cause of flippant disregard for shaving under the ink press.
An interview with the guts of C-3PO, Anthony Daniels, fades in from the front and works a bland Q and A over two pages. Talk centres around the impending release of the first of the series from Star Wars, namely that of The Phantom Menace. Speculation with a hint of questions in the dark are rife and ripe. On other aspect is of merchandise, and not a single clear visual to stock up alongside.
Makes for a flimsy flick on the catalogue steam outside that of the reading exercise. Sharp lines of text alongside blurry and low resolution images and photos disgusts. Heads and globs making the most of filling up space from the margins and kicking out the flow of the paragraphs.
Read all in Comic Sans MS, a veritable cutesy factor ramping up the hammer string, and the short and snappy cut is quick on fire. Personality shines clearly from the news and clippings of articles feeding up to beef out the pages. Yet as clear as the snark may be, with pronouns and references to the self to drip, the author remains only as deep as "Johno" from the Page One editorial.
Digestion is easy with a mix of gravy and a some barbecue sauce. Make sure it's the kind that tastes like smoke or else them be nothing but the flavours of the deceased to tweak a nose hair. Bite sizes make things so much easier and as it is, keeping with the spirit of a newsletter as the name of the publication implies.
Reviewed on Thursday, 28 June 2007