After a couple rye & sodas, I had the pleasure of yapping about my life of art and zines with Dmitry Samarov on hu u no. If you’re interested in listening to a variety of silly voices and over the top swearing, this is for you.
A few weeks prior, I appeared on Let’s Take a Moment with Billy McCall and Liz Mason to talk about the zine, Secret Picnic Spot.
Restock on Weirdo Du Jour, Ornery Cuss, and Cathode Ray Mission 1-3 over on etsy. But of course, if you just email me about purchasing a copy, you can get it a lot cheaper. weirdodujour@proton.me
Restock of Ornery Cuss and Cathode Ray Mission #1-3 at Quimby’s! 1854 W North Ave in Chica-go-go!
Also, look at this cool thing I saw today:
This and a lot of other weird stuff at Graveface Chicago / Terror Vision record shop. Fun things everywhere to look at, video rental, and a mini morbid museum. The cat was my favorite, but I was also delighted by a small exhibit dedicated to David Huggins. If you only like stuff that’s cool, I highly recommend Graveface. Have a beautiful weekend, weirdos!
K. Ratticus may consider herself an ornery cuss; or she could be referring to the dualistic quality of the world she inhabits in this zine of 11 heartworn and subtly intertwining vignettes – none short on menace – or pathos. We’re talking befuddled meetups and ambiguous tension between potential crushes; the complex matter of purchasing ganja from an underage pusher, pushing a baby stroller; hitting the breaking point after five years of marriage and telling a partner you want a divorce, only for the heated aftermath to be interrupted by a TV news report of a friend’s death, just to name a few.
The opening chapter, “Teenage Drug Mule,” is my favorite, as much for the why-didn’t-I-catch-that? twist as for the sympathy I felt for the inhabitants of her bugtussle-nowhere Iowa farm town. Marginalized, disenfranchised, and captive to the shrugging cruelties of capitalism, they manipulate and abuse each other, pretending to normalcy, all the while an opioid and amphetamine epidemic rages, picking off the vulnerable and healthy alike.
K. has a real talent for pinning down her characters’ traits, particularly the toxic ones. Some of these people aren’t even cusses; they’re plain ornery, and even that’s being charitable. But then, there are well-earned moments of levity, like an unexpected brush with the psychobilly rockstar for whose show she’s in town. When she recognizes him in an elevator, he turns it on, beaming and glad-handing before a quick exit, leaving them wanting, living up to his aura.
The specter of uncertainty builds to a head as the COVID pandemic takes hold, cameoing in several of the latter tales, which take place leading up to, during, and just after the first lockdowns.
Ornery Cuss is 72 pages of unabashed perzine rawness; of dysfunctional people caught in dysfunctional systems; of genuinely absurd moments; and of cutting ties with the past and grinding on.
K. Ratticus is the author of the zines Ornery Cuss, Weirdo du Jour, and Cathode Ray Mission, available from Behind the Zines Distro – www.behind-the-zines.com – and in person from Tangent.
August Personage of Tangent Distro 4/15/24
August Personage writes Straightaway Tangent Zine and runs Tangent Distro at Clothes Minded in Pittsburgh, PA
You can find them on Instagram @tangent_distro_pgh
I had an amazing time at the ALA Convention as part of the Zine Pavilion. I want to thank everyone that stopped by my table and kept me busy slinging zines on Friday and Saturday. Met a lot of amazing people, so many complex minds to pick about literature and DIY culture. Plus I loved talking horror and sci-fi with the “real ones”.
This website has gotten a bit of an update. Now there’s a full section dedicated to zines and where to locate a copy for yourself. There’s also a new zine reading video uploaded to my YT page.
