This particular article sees your editor in a fairly pissed-off mood as the TV is broken. I am attempting to stave off the withdrawal symptoms by writing TC11. It isn’t working. You might be able to tell…

Killing Moon 1 (32 A4, £1.50) combines glossy production values with occasionally amateurish layout (but hey, look at our first issue. No, on second thoughts, don’t…). You get a look at the video nasties, great eye violence scenes (stop me if this sounds familiar!) and a Sam Raimi interview. Oddo (22 A4, ???) is even more unstructured, but it’s cut-ups of text and pictures feel like wandering through someone’s unconscious. At the other end of the spectrum is Mkultra Vol 2 No 1 (44 A4, £1.50), back under a new captain after a long break and worth investigating for an intelligent mix of reviews & articles.

Strange Adventures is also back, with a summer special on ‘Women in Films’, (28 A4, £1.50) covering vampires, prisoners, superheroines and, gosh, an article on ‘Angel of Vengeance’ by yours truly. Issue 32 (24 A4, £1.20) has an investigation into sword and sorcery films. The publishing empire of Tony Lee also takes in Fax 21 (44 A5, £2.50), news reports from 50 years into the future, where a member of the Two Live Crew is the President of America. If you liked the news bulletins in “Robocop”, you might well enjoy this.

Headcheese & Chainsaws 7 (12 A5, 35p) has been on a diet, but still crams in book, comic and film reviews. Another thin-zine, though less anorexic, more “slimly built” is Scareaphanalia 101-106 (10 A5, $1), maybe the most reliable and consistent American ‘zine, when Michael isn’t getting sucked into his work for ‘Fangoria’. Another American ‘zine worth reading is Monster 63-68 (26 A4, $1 or so), where Tim Paxton keeps the spirit of Godzilla et al alive. Pretty Poison 4-6 (20 A4, £1.50) is developing a fine laid back style, covering lowbrow entertainment, chemical abuse and…sign-language??? Gary also stands up for Pee-Wee Herman, for which he deserves praise. Subterrene 7 (30 A4, 50p) is good value for your money, and like many ‘zines is branching into the Eastern genre, but still provides useful stuff like details of the cuts in ‘Toxic Avenger’.

Midnight in Hell 6 (20 A4, £1) has a weird-but-good cover, draped around weird-but-good fiction, relatively normal reviews and a rather odd column that seems to come from Belgium. Trash Compactor Vol.2 No.5 (44 A4, $3.50) will tell you everything you wanted to know about John Ashley. I didn’t want to know much anyway, but still enjoyed it. Anti Clock Wise 14 (12 A4, 40p) rants about Reading, prison, time and the exploitation of beauty. Thought-provoking extreme liberal (??) drivel. Meanwhile, at the “thought-provoking conservative drivel” end of the spectrum is Parachute Limit Vol 1, No 1-3 (10 A4, an IRC or ‘something interesting’). Produced by a bunch of guys with nothing better to do, it’s the sort of stuff P.J. O’Rourke might have written at college. Some great pseudo-philosophical ramblings: “it intrigues me that women who have no qualms about oral sex have screaming heebie jeebies about letting you borrow their toothbrush”, which may well be THE best line from ANY ‘zine this quarter.

Most cunning ploy to get a longer review is from Anthony North, whose Rattler’s Tale (24 A5, 75p) has now spawned Gaia News (12 A4, £3/year) and Read With Mummy (24 A5, £3/year), among others. Nice try, Anthony, it didn’t work… Orient Express is another new ‘zine (20 A4, £1.50), devoted to covering anime, Hong Kong movies, etc. More enthusiasm than knowledge, I fear, but not without promise. Imaginator 7 (36 A4, £1.95) shows how to do it and is bound to win any awards going for ‘zine of the year. Some day, maybe, TC might be as good. Still on the Oriental front, Anime UK is into its second year. Impossible to give a page count, thanks to the many freebies and supplements i.e. how to read the script the Japanese use for western words! Call it “an A4 envelope full”, well worth the £7.50/year.

Nora K 5 (32 A5, £1) also has a freebie, in the shape of a complete, definitive Traci Lords filmography, purely, of course, so you can avoid seeing any by accident… There’s also news on TL’s present activities and some more droolworthy pictures. I was going to slag off Gore Gazette 105 (10 A4, $1) for describing TC as a “johnny-come-lately” ‘zine, but the Rev.Sullivan later describes us as “excellent” so we’ll let him off, but suggest he gets that schizophrenia seen to! This ‘zine may not last longer, as the wrath of Carolco (makers of T2) is sure to descend if they see the back cover.Get it while it lasts.

The same might be said of Creeping Unknown 19 (40 A5, 85p), as it tells how Nick has drawn the mighty anger of Customs & Excise. You can also find out about ‘The Borrower’ and Lino rants about old people and buses – or is it people and old buses? Mortal Remains 4 (32 A4, $3.25) is a fanzine in the true sense of the word, and Kevin Lewis conveys his enthusiasm for the genre well. As does Spence, in Psychotic Reaction, Vol 2, Issue 1 (22 A4, £1) – he may have a posh glossy cover, but the sleaze and trash quotient is as high as ever (yeah!). Factsheet Five continues to amaze. Listing more ‘zines than you’d have thought possible, if you want REAL high weirdness by mail, this is a great place to start!

And the long awaited (and not just ‘cos I’ve got an article in it!) appearance of Attack of the Sad Man-Eating Mushrooms 1 (36 A4, £1.25??), which gets the prize for title of the quarter, no competition. There’s a selection of great death lines, an article on Albert Fish, some nifty artwork and a Giant Movie Monster filmography, all of which is interesting and varied reading.

Got a note from a company called ‘Destroyers‘, who sell kung fu, Chinese & Hong Kong movies – for more details, write to Destroyers, PO Box 13, London SE15 6BS. Finally, the non-zine area. Anime-day 0092 is going to take place in Sheffield on the 7th and 8th of March 1992. Book now, if for no other reason than I’ll be there so you get the chance to buy me vast quantities of alcohol… More details from Animeday 0092, c/o Sheffield Space Centre, 33 The Wicker, Sheffield S3 8HS.

• Anime UK: Helen McCarthy, 147 Francis Road, Leyton, London E10 6NT.
• Anti Clock Wise: PO Box 175, Liverpool, L69 8DX.
• Creeping Unknown: Nick Cairns, c/o 33 Maltby Road, Mansfield, Notts, NG18 3BN.
• Factsheet Five: Mike Gunderloy, 6 Arizona Ave, Rensellaer, NY 12144-4502, USA.
• Gore Gazette: c/o Sullivan, 49 Hazel St. Clifton, NJ 07011, USA.
• H’cheese & C’saws: Rob Bewick, 33 Ernwill Ave, Castletown, Sunderland, SR5 3EB.
• Imaginator: Unit 1, Hawk House, Peregrine Park, Gomm Road, High Wycombe.
• Invasion of the Sad Man-Eating Mushrooms:
• PO Box 7, Upminster, Essex. RM14 2RH.
• Killing Moon: Alex J.Low, 17 Stewartville St, Flat 2/7, Partick, Glasgow G11 5HR.
• Midnight in Hell: The Cottage, Smithy Brae, Kilmalcolm, Renfrewshire, PA13 4EN.
• Mkultra: Andrej Karczewski, Top Flat, 24 Lordship Lane, London N17 8NS.
• Monster: Kronos Productions, MPO Box 67, Oberlin, Ohio 44074-0067, USA.
• Mortal Remains: Kevin V. Lewis, 1835a S.Centre City Pkwy,#145, Escondido, CA 92025 USA
• Nora K: Steve Rag, 118 High Street, Eastleigh, Hants, S05 5LR.
• Oddo: Oddone Ricci, C.P. 1045, Bologna Centro, ITALY.
• Orient Express: c/o Astounding Comics, 61 Pyle Street, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 1UL.
• Parachute Limit: c/o Max, 4122 Mt.Alifan Place #E, San Diego, CA 92111, USA.
• Pretty Poison: Gary Gittings, c/o 307 Bloxwich Rd, Leamore, Walsall, WS2 7BD.
• Psychotic Reaction: 50 Wingfiled Rd, Great Barr, Birmingham, B42 2QO.
• Rattler’s Tale, Read With Mummy & Gaia News:
• Anthony North Enterprises, BCM Keyhole, London, WC1N 3XX.
• Scareaphanalia: Michael Gingold, PO Box 489, Murray Hill Station, New York, NY10156-0489, USA.
• Strange Adventures & Fax 21: Tony Lee, 13 Hazely Combe, Arreton, Isle of Wight, PO30 3AJ.
• Subterrene: Anthony Cawood, 6 Daleside Avenue, Pudsey, Leeds, LS28 8HD.
• Trash Compactor: 253 College St, Suite #108, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M5T 1R5.