Sports carnal and wide ranging. Crafts socially unbound. Tawdry and fictional gossip. Wordy conspiracy theories. Fashion and bridal inspirations. Every week, a new batch of glossy and not-so glossy magazines spawn the racks of the lotteries pushing newsagents.
If not there, then the convenience stores and shelves of lending libraries. Fresh as they are with the residue of other people's oily finger licks and creases, they scream for attention and owners to read their wares.
Ultimately, they either feed back into the monstrous recycling vortex or die slow deaths in waiting rooms around the world.
Ethan Switch - Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Spider-Man either wears boxer-briefs or a comfortably snug and supportive thong. Nothing like the loincloth of a few years back with cogs and an elaborate pulley system. If keeping his genitals from contacting the costume directly isn't an issue, it's full on commando. Possibly making such a concession when tailoring the suit. Anything less secure and his genitals would be getting in the way of his patrols.
Thwip!, a zine of over one hundred and some issues by Ivan A. Martin and various contributors, contains no writings of this nature in the sample selection. Reviews, interviews, self-reflection, that's what appears in this publication about all things Spider-Man.
Read the rest of Thwip! zine by Ivan A. Martin review
Ethan Switch - Thursday, June 28, 2007
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.
Read the rest of Star Wars Newsletter from Brain Dead Comix review
Ethan Switch - Wednesday, March 29, 2006
For all the supposed worth of newspapers, warmth is a hard fought quality for those rugging it up night after night in the cold harsh reality of homelessness. Even batches hot off the presses cool in a relatively quick fashion. Their barren pages quick in turning cold and crinkly. And how many homeless people use newspapers as blankets today anyway?
Sample collection takes various issues from the year of 2003 and 2004. One roach leg the only sign of decay underneath twenty or so kilos of other magazines. Average reading time falls just under an hour.
Read the rest of Work From Home Magazine - Insight Publishing review
Ethan Switch - Friday, March 19, 2004
If anything, it's a concept magazine.
Heralded as a "new trend in publishing" and "a multi-media concept," [R]U? magazine from BOO! media comes across as a do-it-yourself large-scale glossy by the few, for the even fewer. Transparent and bold in the approach, the primary aim includes getting readers to actually turn in submissions for the pages. This in the flying face of other magazines and publications that might include such a call squeezed with an ever decreasing font size into the indicia.
Read the rest of [R]U? - Per Verse Ma Nure review
Ethan Switch - Friday, February 20, 2004
Falling asleep halfway through, reading the December 2003 issue of Australia's Internet Directory ran in at about two and a half hours or 150 minutes —whichever sounds more bearable. Rare in the find, it's one of the few magazines that were found from the stock growing toward the apex of the roof sporting the entirety of its cover. There is no attempt at a logo for the resultant look hams across a glossy homemade newsletter for those with no desire of aesthetics. A sour looking Christina Aguilera fronts the cover and across the lower, headshots of what are no doubt pornographic and erotic websites featuring subjectively hot naked and near naked women. Apart from a guy blowing into his tissue and a headless shot of rock abs, there is no showcasing of men.
One major challenge in disposing of corpses lies in the extraction and removal of any sort of evidence that would indicate the body having been there in the first place. An adult pull-out section with the disclaimer, "Please keep it away from the kids. That is why it is removable." makes the assumption that kids are idiots without logic, can't count or remember past a few pages such as the contents listing and don't ask questions. The removal of the section takes out a few page numbers and still leaves the warning box on the cover.
Read the rest of Blackout Flop; Australia's Internet Directory and Card Player review
Ethan Switch - Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Hazed in plastic and pages baring all amounts of inked skin, a review of three tattoo magazines. A review that, much like the subject at hand, comes to the fore in a wave of bad recollection and cloudy thoughts. Made worse by the fact that sheer caution and sense was thrown to the side with the notes and thoughts written in an indecipherable clue of squiggles and malformed letters. Left now are faint images blurred to samples taken many months ago.
First off was Ideas Tattoo from Trentini. This one sticks out due to the odd shape of the magazine itself. Instead of the usual ratio given to the A and B document series, this publication came in about half the width of a average-sized magazine and towers well over the top. Pretty much like a menu in some restaurant that doesn't have a drive-thru. All 74 black and white pages of nothing but designs and artwork. Like entree and dessert are separated, so too are the designs, lined up in sections according to some overarching theme, such as tribal armbands or dragon motifs. A comment "arse on arse" is legible enough from the pad, but that makes no real sense to the scheme of things. Laid out nicely with room to breathe, the designs are clean, bold and feature not one inch or drum of skinned flesh. Nor a single ad. There is nothing here for the casual reader not seeking some sort of inspiration for a tattoo.
Read the rest of Over the Plain Canvas; Ideas Tattoo, Tattoo Flash and Tattoo Savage review
Ethan Switch - Friday, December 5, 2003
Scouring the obituaries leaves a sickly feeling of not having enough time in the day to ride shotgun in all those funeral processions. Time passes and the bodies move along into their destinations of burial or cremation. Gathering dust in much the same way a body left out would attract blowflies and kids on journeys of self-discovery, A Scent of Flowers Magazine, an A5 sized publication from Drake Publishing focussing on all things concerning funerals.
To glance at the publication itself beyond the words lights no indication as to the tone of the overall magazine. They have gone absolutely wild with using every font available to them and using all sorts of preset layouts. As a result of this, there is a high air of madcap fun using everything at the disposal. Nothing serious can really be accepted if the form presented is like a patchwork of several primary school newsletters or brochures.
Read the rest of A Rotting Bouquet of Death; A Scent of Flowers Magazine review
Ethan Switch - Thursday, November 6, 2003
With so many magazines covering the television I thought I'd kick out a review on one such literary pressure release before consigning it to the recycle bin. The publication in hand are the issues of ABC's Funtime with Friends Magazine and the Funtime Special, Fimbles Magazine. Straight off I have to wonder what exactly would be on the covers of each of the issues given that not one of my copies have a cover.
After the glossing and inviting contents page, each issue kicks off with a two or four page story using the characters from one of the many programs on the ABC Kids region. The set up of each is triggered well, but along the way they all seem to fall into a sense of rush and in bizarre moves tie up the short, short story without having really gone anywhere with the characters. Take the first story, featuring Merlin the Magical Puppy, it starts with Merlin bored as hell and wanting something to play. Hide and Seek is the answer and goes about with his friend Kizzie. Five paragraphs are taken to the lead up and then shot down in an instant in the last when Merlin gets stuck and figures that the game isn't to his liking. Wishing himself home the moral of the story is that you shouldn't have fun with friends and that staying home is far better than learning about the world outside. Destructive if ever there was a subliminal message to hammer to the kids. But then with them homebound the better entertainment comes to them in the magazine or from the blasting of the waves from the television. Either way, the kids don't move beyond their world and the stories suggest as much, inhibiting even, like the natural flow of a good story.
Read the rest of Fuzzy Fingers; Funtime with Friends and Fimbles Magazine review
Ethan Switch - Wednesday, August 20, 2003
As there's no point in reason or appropriate introduction I'll just open the first classified magazine from the stack. All of which just happen to only have half a cover. Some have two-thirds, but none have a complete cover. The exact dates of the issues reviewed is sketchy...
First up, Owners Own, a 100 page magazine on real estate, residential and commercial. On what was left of the cover it started the game early and presented a few properties going for sale. Things started off glossy, and with the gloss, colour advertisements. But then, the contents page and black and white newsprint. The editorial features a photo of the Advertising Manager on the phone presumably trying to suggest how busy they are that they can't put down the phone. But they also try and shout the fact that they're "first in private sales," which in light of this, might mean she was trying to pose as a prospective buyer who saw one of the ads in the magazine. The sections are divided according to New South Wales and Queensland with the rest being lumped together in "Other States and Overseas" category. It's like reading the story of standing outside a real estate agent's with the occasional SOLD and photo-less sections.
Read the rest of One Way Omar Vizquel: Classified Magazines Destined for the Bin review
Ethan Switch - Friday, July 4, 2003
Foreign language magazines sit nestled on the newsstand alongside the many others, but in this case, this time, the three chosen weren't anywhere near a newsagency. But they were all Foreign Language.
First up, An-Noujoum from the Australian Lebanese Media, a weighty mass of pink pages glossed to a high rate and written in only what could be described as Arabic glyphs or script. At first I thought I was reading a yearbook, that was until I spotted the footer and the numbering indicating that I had it backwards. It still didn't matter, I couldn't make out a single word. The lay out was jarring, the student yearbook/magazine feeling still there, complete with what looks like a spattering of photos from someone's formal toward the end. On a page of caricatures only Saddam Hussein was recognisable, what? The first word I recognised was GAY and marked the first of a few pages on the homosexual party scene, far as I could tell. It was like the personals flavour dripping from the start.
Read the rest of Through the Babelfish; An-Noujoum, Žena21 & Táin review
Ethan Switch - Wednesday, May 28, 2003
At last count there were some 15 crossword and similar styled magazines covering their section of the newsagents. Most of these are from Lovatts and include variations on the now three basic styles of letter based puzzles: crosswords, word searches and referential. Each of these are in essence known collectively as crossword puzzles due to their orientation. Setting on to the scene to challenge the Lovatt's hold on the mental calisthenics market, Puzzler Media/IPC Media Australia have entered with a tentative two with a further duo to hit later on in the year. Of the two that are currently out on the market, Puzzler Code Crackers looks to embody all that you can muster from yet another puzzle magazine.
According to Puzzler Media: "Code crackers may look like crosswords, but they have no clues! Instead, in each puzzle, every letter of the alphabet has been replaced by a number; the same number represents the same letter throughout the puzzle."
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