A sudden influx of American ‘zines this quarter; it’s interesting to reflect upon the differences in both style and content, though perhaps six isn’t really a representative sample! ‘Gore Gazette’ *101 demonstrates these differences admirably, being a small (7 sides A4. $2), no-nonsense ‘zine with an off-centre sense of humour. Not for overly sensitive liberal wimps, I enjoy it.

Taking GO’s attitude to it’s obvious, if somewhat ludicrous extreme, we have ‘Chunk Blower’ *0 and ‘A Taste of Bile’ *8. both hailing from good of Waco, Texas. Both revel in deliberate offensiveness: the tatter (8 AS for an IRC) says of Linnea Quigley. “Someone ought to rape/murder this bitch”, while the former (12 1/2 A5, ???) has “Next time your parents, boss, cops. etc give you shit about drugs, just tell them: l don’t do drugs, I just sell them to elementary school brats for see. – AToB is the better written and layed out. tho’ CB openly acknowledges it’s deficiencies!

At the other end of the spectrum is ‘Scareaphanalia’ 87 (8 AS, $1), which is sober, sane & well written, with a lot of inside info, as you’d expect from a F*ng*r*a employee (tho’ a nice bloke despite this!) and a chat with Frank Henenlotter, ‘Basket Case 2’ director. *88 has a good list of American ‘zines to help me use up the dollars left over from the NY trip. Also on the suaver side is ‘It’s Only A Movie’ *I (32 A4ish. $4??), with a column by Joe Bob Briggs. an interview with John Menaughton and pieces on The Cramps. comics. Argent() and some comedy group called Monty Python… Finally, there’s ‘Murder Can be Fun’, which I invested a fistful of dollars in. *11 (32 A5. $2) digs up some forgotten American accidents (the Great Boston Molasses Flood) and earlier issues cover similar topics: death. destruction and Karen “She’s skinny, she’s sexy, she’s dead’ Carpenter. Worth a look.

British ‘zines are a little scarce, but regular as clockwork appears ‘Strange Adventures’ – *14-16 12,16.16 A4. 95p) do their best to cover everything in the fantasy genre from SF to ‘Field of Dreams’ and is a damn good try. tho’ it’s tendency to LIE HEINOUSLY about TC should be discounted! The forthcoming *17 includes a piece on ‘Twinkle’: at least that’s what I assume Tony means by comics since he has a distressing inability to count to 48. Go on, support the innumerate!! Sheer Filth’ •8 (32 A5, 75p) proves again that real ‘zines don’t need page numbers with a large chunk on Cicciolina, David Friedman. Coil and many reviews of things you probably don’t want to know about. The ‘Racconti Sensuale’ review includes phrases like ‘compositions and bizarre setups allow people and objects to blend into organic entities veritable glowing with delighted sexuality’. Er. yes… ‘Creeping Unknown’ *13 slithered onto the door-mat, having lost it’s staples on the way. In it’s 36 AS pages (75p). there’s news, competitions + a lot of reviews – almost made me want to rent ‘The Abyss’. Almost. Last, but not least is ‘Green Goblin’ (20 A5, 50p + postage). * 13 is different to * 12, consisting of 2 short stories (one SF. one sword-and-sorcery-humour) + a letter column, all of which I enjoyed reading. –

‘Black’ *5 (16 A4, $1.50) is undoubtedly fl clearest layout of any ‘zine this quarter and Mikael’s unique English is a bonus! Reviews and a couple of rants about life & Sweden. ‘Fanzines’ (28 A4, 2.00), originally done as a college project, which reviews in depth 20 odd hottor ‘zines. Perhaps trying too hard to avoid insulting anyone. it’s still interesting and you’ll even learn about the origins of TC! It’s a limited edition, so… ‘My Pants are Made of Welded Steel’ *1 (20 A4, 30p) deals mostly with music, but plans to widen out. Great title, shows promise beneath an occasionally rough-edged look. Finally, received this morning, another new ‘zine: ‘Subterrene’ *1 (20 A4, 60p) – clear layout covering a lot of familiar ground so far but we’ll see how things develop: certainly no worse than TCO!

• Black – Mikael Bomark, Aspv. 28. 14141 Huddinge. SWEDEN
• Chunk Blower – Jason Beck, 3737 Campus Dr.. Apt. 203. Waco, TX 76705. USA
• Creeping Unknown – Nick. do 33 Maltby Road, Mansfield, Notts. N018 3BN
• Fanzines – Paul Mallinson, 12 Daneshill Road, Leicester. LE3 6AL.
• Gore Gazette – do Sullivan, 469 Hazel St, Clifton, NJ 0701 I. USA
• Green Goblin – John Breakwell, 170 Caversham Road. Reading. RG I 8AZ
• It’s Only A Movie – PO Box 14683, Chicago, Illinois 60614-0683. USA
• Murder Can Be Fun – John Man-, Box 640111, San Francisco, CA 94109, USA
• My Pants are Made… – Simon Owen, Fieldside House, London Road, Blewbury, Oxon. OX11 9NY
• Scareaphanalia – Michael Gingold, 55 Nordica Drive. Croton-on-Hudson, NY 10520. USA
• Sheer Filth – David Flint. 39 Holly Street. Offerton, Stockport. SKI 4DP.
• Strange Adventures – Tony Lee. 13 Hazely Combe, Arreton, Isle of Wight, P030 3AJ
• Subterrene – Anthony Cawood. 6 Daleside Avenue. Pudsey, Leeds. LS28 81-1D
• A Taste of Bile – PO Box 7150, Waco, TX 76714, USA