233 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
233 lines
13 KiB
Plaintext
>Date: Tue, 8 Jun 1993 14:47:04 -0500 (CDT)
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From: James P Romenesko <obscure@csd4.csd.uwm.edu>
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Subject: OBSCURE ELECTRIC #4
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W E L C O M E T O O B S C U R E E L E C T R I C # 4
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................................................................
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Edited by JIM ROMENESKO
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[He can be reached at Obscure@csd4.csd.uwm.edu]
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OBSCURE is the zine that profiles the people in this publishing
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subculture. The more in-depth print version is available for $2 at POB 1334,
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Milwaukee, WI 53201. Why not check it out?
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................................................................
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T H E M A N B E H I N D E V I L Z I N E
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Really, he's a nice guy!
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------------------------
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Dan Kelly doesn't look like the kind of guy who'd
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publish a zine called EVIL.
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His picture, reproduced in a recent issue of his publication, shows
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him to be a clean-cut guy, not unlike the young man who served you up a
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Big Mac at your neighborhood McDonald's.
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"Yeah, I AM a clean-cut guy and yeah, it throws people when they
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'discover' my seedier interests," says the twenty-something Kelly, a
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Chicago resident. "But like my cartoon [in the zine] said, I don't exactly
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bring it up while dining with the Queen."
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What he's keeping from the queen is his harmless (and I'm making an
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assumption here) fascination with serial killers and the like whom he
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enjoys reading and writing about in EVIL and his other zine, VOX CANIS.
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Kelly is no "Frank" -- the psychopathic publisher who was profiled in
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the last issue of OBSCURE ELECTRIC. Says Kelly: "Essentially, my friends
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know me well enough to know that this one thing that I do isn't all that I
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do, and that's good enough for me. Anyone who gets freaked out about EVIL
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-- well I'm more worried about them hurting me than vice-versa."
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EVIL, subtitled "The Newsletter for True Crime Book Fanatics," is but
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four issues old. It covers everything from trading cards to books to
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current events crime items. To his credit, crime-fan Dan isn't afraid to
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dish out criticism when it's deserved; he's not just a true-crime
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cheerleader. Of the "52 Famous Murderers" card set, he writes:
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"Misspellings, faulty grammar and downright erroneous
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facts abound. It's shameful!"
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A practical man, Kelly also uses the zine to solicit his various
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"wants" -- which include bad made-for-TV movies on serial killers, books
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on British murderers, Ted Bundy's last interview, and other items that you
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might just have. (Dan began licking his chops when he heard that I have a
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rare, John Wayne Gacy trash-read called 29 BELOW on my shelves. This awful
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baby is mine! Hands-off, Dan!)
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At one time, people with almost obsessive interests in killers and
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serious crimes would be considered twisted. Today, it's practically the
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norm and you're considered a freak if you missed Dahmer on "Inside
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Edition." Even Time-Life has jumped on the psycho-literature bandwagon
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with its upcoming series on serial killers. This amuses the editor of EVIL.
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"I'm alternately appalled and reduced to tears of laughter," he says
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of the books. "I haven't seen it yet, but knowing Time-Life's other
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series, I'm sure it'll be high gloss/low content. I love how they can
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reduce human tragedy, history and science to a compact, 20-volume set. I
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have to scoff at anything from a company that alternately publishes home
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"how-to" books, True Crime series and sets that chronicle the Third Reich."
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When you think of cleancut Chicago zinesters, you usually drop the
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name of the notorious Peter Sotos, who was convicted of child pornography
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a few years ago; the feds claimed that his zine, PURE, was porno, but I
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think Sotos got a bum rap. (What got the authorities upset was Sotos
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publishing pictures of missing children next to a Xerox of an ejaculating
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penis.) Has Dan Kelly heard of Sotos and what does he think of comparisons
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between him and the PURE editor?
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"Everybody who is 'alternative' in Chicago has heard of PURE, but less
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than one-tenth of 1% have actually seen a copy," he says. "I first heard
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of it in an article by Steve Albini in FORCED EXPOSURE. He was talking
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about how he was 'punker than thou' because he digged PURE before anybody;
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how it featured shots of a violated young girl who, as I recall the quote,
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'was beyond caring. She has been destroyed.' Truthfully, it turned my
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stomach to read about it, but that's as close as I ever got to seeing PURE."
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In fact, Kelly's interests go beyond things criminal, which is shown
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in his zine VOX CANIS. Each issue has a different theme and Kelly does
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extensive research for every article. His topics always have a somewhat
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quirky, offbeat edge. His "Fun and Games" issue, for example, has an
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article on Kelly's venture into Chicago's sex-shop underworld. He and a
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friend cruised the red-light districts with pencil and notepad in hands
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and presented a minute-by-minute diary. In his 11:55 p.m. entry, Kelly
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writes: "The booth smells like a wet armpit, and I stand stock still in
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the center of it, trying not to touch anything. Yeah, I'm a white suburban
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boy...I know what I am. But I defy anybody to even want to put his hands
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anywhere near his face, mouth or eyes after touching the knob of one of
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those doors, before scrubbing down with Bactine first."
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In his "America" theme issue, Kelly takes a close look at the dark
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side of McDonald's restaurants. The chain's founder, Ray Kroc, was a
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sexist pig of sorts, according to this well-researched article.
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"Until the late 1960s, McDonald's expressly forbade the hiring of
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female workers," Kelly writes. "The perky little miss we see behind the
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counter on McDonald's commercials today might well have given the early
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Kroc a coronary. Though the McDonald's employee manual, in the first ten
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years of the chain's existance, spelled out that women couldn't be hired
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because of the amount of strenous work the job required, the real reason
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was that Kroc didn't want McD's to become a hang-out joint for rowdy
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teenagers."
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Kelly's zines are well-designed and well-written and I have to hand
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him "the most prolific letter-writer award" for his incredibly prompt
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postal responses. If your interests match Dan's, you'll have a penpal for
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life. To get EVIL, drop him a buck at POB 476641, Chicago, IL 60647. VOX
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CANIS is $2.
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------
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EVIL Editor Dan Kelly Explains Himself in a Comic Strip
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.......................................................
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How does one grow up to become the publisher of a zine called EVIL?
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Good question, and Dan Kelly answers it in an autobiographical comic strip
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that he recently published. Here are some of Kelly's quotes, which explain
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himself quite well"
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"My life is a series of guilty pleasures,
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the first and foremost being my collecting of
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sleazebooks about serial killers and mass murderers.
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When I was about nine or ten years old, I developed
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a Jack the Ripper fixation. Over the course of
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summer vacation, I devoured everything I could
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find about the Whitechapel killings, and, for a
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time, Jack the Ripper was as much an imaginary friend
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to me as Superman was to other kids. I guess this
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kinda explains my current obsession with violent crime."
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"As you may have guessed by now, I didn't have a
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normal childhood. I think I might have otherwise
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grown up normal if I had made a few different decisions,
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but in a lot of ways I'm glad I didn't go the same,
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boring route. Still my 'normal' compatriots teased me
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unmercifully, since I wasn't only strange, I was quiet,
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too. My terrible shyness manifested itself as a complete
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aversion to all things female. No surprise that the
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uncomprehending (and sexually burgeoning) dears began
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to assimilate my quietness with my, well, unconventional
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reading material."
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"Despite social ostracization and designation as being
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a creep, there has always been the occasional measure of
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'revenge' made available to me. Recently, a college friend
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of mine received two life sentences for the murders of
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his ex-girlfriend's parents (bludgeoning and stabbing
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them to death). If you're picturing him as a long-haired,
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crazy-eyed freak, yer wrong. He was the high school football
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hero and his girlfriend was the Homecoming queen. Completely
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normal in all ways. It does the class weirdo good to
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get such a healthy dose of irony."
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"To tell the truth, murder is a foreign concept
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to me. I can't comprehend it completely because it hasn't
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actually happened to me (or to anyone close to me). I'm
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sure if it did, I'd change my tune (so spare me the high 'n
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mighty speeches). I haven't killed anything in my life and
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I don't intend to start now."
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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HOT OFF THE PRESS!!
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Dan Kelly's fourth issue of EVIL just came out and the highlight of the
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issue is a series of sketches done by convicted killers, including Henry Lee
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Lucas, Charles Manson and Ottis Elwood Toole. This collection comes from
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DEATH SCENES videomaker Nick Bougas, who writes of his "hobby." He says:
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"Yours truly began accumulating just such treasures before it became
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fashionable, and thus can now provide some reliable insight into this
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unique and fascinating hobby. ...It's important to understand that the
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collecting of killer art can be costly in more ways than one. When your
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hobby becomes common knowledge, there are scores of sanctimonious types
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who will feverishly accuse you of being 'morally bankrupt' and 'unfeeling
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toward the victims' families'..."
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In this issue of EVIL, Bougas also offers his analysis of the various
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murderers' artistic talents. A few opinions:
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* On John Wayne Gacy's paintings: "Gacy's work is somewhat crude but
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colorful, and includes self-portraits of his clown creations, 'Pogo' and
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'Patches,' a host of Disney characters and even some mildly ghoulish
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images like skulls and witches."
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* On Manson associate Bobby Beausoleil's work: "He produces
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breathtakingly rich, pastoral fantasy scenes of winged lovers and
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frolicking mermaids which are comparable to some of the finest graphics
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I've seen."
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* On Henry Lee Lucas's talents: "Henry's art, like Henry himself, is
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somewhat folksy and simple, but is pleasant nonetheless."
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Interested in more? Ask Dan for issue #4 of EVIL (and send your buck).
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..............................................................................
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AND IN OTHER ZINE-WORLD NEWS......
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Give it up, Andrew! You've lost!
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................................
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In the Hudson Luce/Seth Friedman FACSHEET FIVE transition, a comics
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publisher named Andrew Roller began a zine called, of all things,
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FACTSHEET FIVE. It contained but a handful of reviews -- ten at most.
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Roller's effort seemed like a joke, a one-shot deal probably. Wrong!
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Recently, Roller's fourth issue of F5 came out, and it's as lame as
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his debut ish; in fact there are but six reviews in it. He continues to
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publish under this name just to tweak Friedman, the real F5 publisher.
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Roller's F5 cover features a copy of a letter he received from
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Friedman; it reads: "Andrew, I have no intention of taking legal action
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against you, however, as long as you continue publishing under the name
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FACTSHEET FIVE, I refuse to review anything that you send me."
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In response, Roller and his sidekick, Jim Corrigan, scrawled this on
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the cover of their zine: "Seth - if you're serious about taking on the
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FACTSHEET FIVE name, then how about the debts? Hudson Luce owes (owed)
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Andrew Roller, among others, over $40 for advertisements paid for but
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never published. If you can afford to pay a lawyer, how about paying your
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debts? You can start with Roller."
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Hey guys: why don't you take it up with Luce? He's the guy who stiffed
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you and Friedman merely stepped in to rescue the publication.
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I didn't think anybody would confuse Roller's pathetic rag with the
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authentic F5 -- until I read the April issue of FLIPSIDE. The zines
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reviewer wrote a blurb on Roller's F5 and noted that this was "the
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legendary" zines directory. Huh???
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*******
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The next issue of the print version of OBSCURE comes out soon and
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features a profile of the people behind the huge LOOMPANICS CATALOG. Also,
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it has a chat with Loompanics' hottest author these days -- Michael Hoffman, the
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author of DUMPSTER DIVING FOR FUN AND PROFIT. Order this issue now. Just
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$2 from Jim Romenesko, POB 1334, Milwaukee, WI 53201.
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.............................................................................
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To comment, unsubscribe or whatever, write me at Obscure@csd4.csd.uwm.edu
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