Citizine - Zine Reviews

ZINE REVIEWS
Austin: Fertile ground for the free magazine

By Thom White

As all y'all who like to grab the free printed word from time to time might know, CITIZINE is not the only game in town. In fact, Austin has innumerable free publications and has served as a breeding ground for many "zines" because of the grand number of independent businesses that set aside space (tabletops, bulletin boards, book cases) for artists, musicians, and zinemeisters to get their announcements to the public, for free.

Not all cities are so hospitable. In Dallas, for example, there are very few places that allow for free publications. And most indie publications are only available through outdoor metal dispensers, which are very expensive to buy and get permission to install around town. In Dallas, sure there's the occasional pipe shop or tattoo parlor that will let you leave your zines. But in Austin, Texas, zines are welcome at all sorts of independent record stores, pizza parlors, coffee houses, bars, clubs, barber shops, ice cream shops, bike shops, and vintage furniture stores across the city.

Some of these magazines publish more often than others, some edit with a sharper eye to detail, others with a cursory computerized "spellcheck"; some go with glossy paper, and the finest inks and printing technology; others employ (economical) newsprint.

All of these publications hope to penetrate your brain, entice you with their visuals, and rule your mind for a time with their flood of ideas using lengthy series of tiny symbols, or bright, affecting imagery.

This is not a complete list of every single free zine available in Austin, but this article will demonstrate how varied are the free publications you can find around Austin. In a way, each offers a window into some of the "communities of interest" who must exist out there somewhere. For in the end, the intended readers and their purported buying power is what is really the economic driver allowing these publications to exist.

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Misprint

Editor: Todd Hollingsworth

Misprint Magazine Misprint is a brown-and-white humor zine that will jab you in the funny bone, and anyone can become the butt of the joke. The editors use a fair amount of base "gross out" humor, but in many respects, this mag serves as a savvy exercise in cultural introspection, with biting observations that the reader may wish he had seen openly expressed earlier (without fear of reprisal).

I'm afraid this one is not printing anymore, but my personal discovery of this "little zine that could" back in 2005 convinced me that there was truly an independence-minded audience here in Austin that could appreciate the editors' youthful, impetuous, rude attitude.

But what has become of Chadwick Pennyrich III and his satirical counterculture scenester revue? CITIZINE contacted a Misprint representative by e-mail in January '08, and received a reply that the next issue was in the works, and its release would coincide with the SXSW fest. But, alas, I scoured the free mag scene pretty extensively that week, and I saw new issues of Whoopsy! and Austin Daze (I think), and Insite, and Austin Music. I even went to Club de Ville, because I knew if Misprint were anywhere, I would find it on that little square table at de Ville …. But no, the magazine appears suspended.

Best of luck to the mysterious figures behind Misprint -- their writers, graphic designers, their distributors -- and I hope to find this zine again when I least expect it.

PO Box 303157
Austin, Texas USA 78703
hollaback@misprintmagazine.com

Rare Magazine

Publisher: Matt Swinney
Editor / Associate Publisher: Carrie Crowe
Lead Designer: Missi Jay
Ad Sales: Mandy Morrison / Roxanne Wilson

This magazine is on such nice paper and printed with such brilliant colors that I have to ask -- Is this really a free publication? If you are at Bookpeople, the answer is "Yes, it is," but besides that location, the distribution method for Rare is a mystery to me. Of course, there must be subscribers and they leave copies at Jo's on South Congress, but I assume a lot of this must be "target marketed" to reach the desired audience: people who buy real estate, people who spend a lot on clothing and going out to eat and drink, and people who spend money on maintaining or enhancing their physical appearance.

The magazine features profiles on the entrepreneurs and businessmen who offer these goods that can grant us "fulfillment." Rare offers direction for temporary escape, exquisite food and alcoholic beverages, things that promise the buyer a more attractive, youthful appearance, even spiritual enlightenment and natural living, provided you can pay the price. And the publication's unusual square shape allows Rare to fit easily into many female shoppers' purses.

The theme above all is that the reader is making a lot of money, and Rare magazine offers opportunities to spend that money on products and services, social atmospheres (restaurants and clubs) and health and beauty services, to attain "fulfillment" or at least help maintain mental and physical health in the face of a corporate rat race that often imprisons us for hours on end staring at a computer screen, or lined up in our automobiles on clogged motorways as we traverse the city trying to get to and from that office or cubicle back to our home base.

Rare Magazine
507 Powell St.
Austin, Texas 78703
(512) 407-8232

Jewell

Creator / Publisher / Editor: Christy Butler
Designer: Sean Carnegie
Lead photographer: Craig Washburn

I was really hoping that this magazine was actually published by the singer Jewel, because there's a picture of the publisher/editor-in-chief and I see a certain resemblance, but it turns out it's a different woman. This is a well-designed glossy 8 x 10 size magazine whose purpose is purely commercial and promotional. Most of the articles are "advertorials" (advertisements "disguised" as articles), and each two-page spread features an array of merchandise photos to go along with the store profile. Jewell specializes in knowing "what women want" and it is clear they want jewelry, cosmetics, fancy purses, and clothing.

Women's fashion magazines are generally on glossy paper, and for a couple good reasons. Not only is glossy paper more visually and sensibly appealing, ink from glossy printing does not usually rub off on the reader's fingertips, which is a must for fashion boutiques. Clothing shops generally frown upon newsprint publications (often banning them from their shops) simply because the ink gets on customers' and employees' fingers, and this residue can then get on and irreparably stain unsold merchandise.

Jewell is a nice-looking magazine. I give an "A" to the design department for using the element of empty space in a judicious manner to concentrate the reader's eye on the shimmering necklaces and luxurious dresses.

Jewell
PO Box 4332
Austin, Texas 78704
(512) 694-6456
jewell@cityjewell.com

Business District Magazine

Publisher / Editor: C. Jason Myers
Managing Editor: Steve Habel
Art Director: Tania Cowher
Business Director: Kevin Hagedorn

"Austin's Business Magazine." On first glance, this could be an attractive source for the Austin "business community" to get advice for a start-up business, and news on the latest developments in Central Texas's economy.

The magazine features flattering profiles on "growth innovators" and their artificial creations -- these men (and women) of corporate (or limited liability) commerce are now able to relax for their Business District photoshoot, recount their financial triumphs, and opine on and promote their latest investment exploits.

There are helpful articles on how to deal with bankers, how to seek out an "angel investor," and whether it is really possible to start a business using "bootstraps" alone, or whether inherited wealth and/or outside investors are the real keys to starting a new business.

Business District Magazine
PO Box 10434
Austin, TX 78766
(512) 646-7321
Abdmag.com

Edible Austin

Publishers: Marla Camp / Jenna Noel
Editor: Kim Lane
Advertising Sales: Cindy Feyereisen

Edible Austin is published quarterly and appears to have debuted in 2007. I have only seen two or three issues of this magazine, but don't they have the cutest little wooden distribution boxes? They offer a fresh harvest of articles and photos on agriculturalist businessmen and women who provide knowledge about some a nature's ingredients for good health and long life.

The first issue I spotted featured a beautiful goat herder on the cover, and the advertorials contained within were pretty interesting as well. This magazine has features on the farmers themselves who, through experience, study, and observation, have mastered methods of agriculture to provide high quality meat and dairy products, and to grow great quantities of fruits and vegetables for the public.

But there are also features showing the potential joys of urban farming (gardening) and redesigning your suburban lawn as an "edible landscape." With the proper care and daily observation of your edible landscape (here in Austin probably in raised beds or planters since the rocky soil is not hospitable for most vegetables), all that water you normally use to keep your grass looking semi-green can go into the fruits and vegetables that you later consume. This is a good way to recycle water.

Edible Austin
1415 Newning Ave.
Austin, TX 78704
(512) 441-3971
info@edibleaustin.com

Austin Daze

Editor: Russ Hartman
Publisher: Bree Perlman
Operations Manager: Lori Stevenson

Is this the current granddaddy of Austin independent music zines? Austin Daze has a "format" that I have detected, maintaining a sort of simple tradition: interviews, more interviews, and nothing but interviews (except for a few CD reviews and live show photos on the last few pages). The cover of Austin Daze is usually stunning, stupefying (too much visual noise), while the inside design is pretty much "cut and paste new text and headlines into last issue's layout framework."

Granted, they get some pretty cool interviews sometimes. The chat with a very defensive Austin Chronicle editor Louis Black in Daze #68, on the heels of intense "negativity" on internet chat forums regarding the South by Southwest Music festival, especially concerning the coordination between the Chronicle and the Austin Fire Department to shut down "unofficial" music events during SXSW 2007. Overall, this publication is a good vehicle to spread some good vibes on Austin artists (music, theatre, film, and graphic arts) although the "It's all good" attitude makes it a little predictable.

Austin Daze
PO Box 40425
Austin, TX 78704
editor@austindaze.com

Proper Gander

Publisher: Grady Roper

According to Issue #66 (December 2007), this newsprint, tabloid-size publication is over and done with. Technically, this was published in San Marcos (a college town twenty miles south of Austin) but this zine was distributed all over Austin on a regular basis.

Proper Gander appears to have folded because of what may be an unbreakable rule in publishing: "No magazine can go on forever." Time and Newsweek may be attempting to avoid their inevitable fate, but a steady decline in advertising revenue, reader interest in their products, and these mainstream papers' reduced credibility given the rise of independent internet news journalists -- all these factors point in the wrong direction for these establishment publications.

Not that Proper Gander was "establishment" in any way. Like Austin Daze, the publisher had a formula, but this one goes the "A picture's worth a thousand words" route, rather than publish some long-ass interview (1000 words) with somebody you've never heard of.

You'll find no music interviews or profiles on chichi fashion purveyors or beauty experts. Proper Gander offered visual artists (no matter how elementary their art might be) an avenue to mass distribute their artwork. There are lots of comics and the layout designer always leaves a substantial margin around the pictures, making these images fit for matting and framing (or at least taping to your wall until the newsprint gets ripped or yellows with age).

Proper Gander
PO Box 434
San Marcos, TX 78667
512-392-4728

Other independent magazines you may spot around town:

Austin All Natural
"Body, Mind, Spirit"