I got this fat wad of cut and paste punk free when I paid in at the recent Born/Dead gig in Lewisham. South London Mess is the literary output of the promoters and their band The Scaredy Cats, who I admit I have never heard.

By: George Miles

The Boy Who Forgot How To Dream is a short story published as an illustrated A5 zine. I really feel it’s worth getting in touch with George the author to get a copy so I don’t want to give away the ending but the story deals with the idea of a young boy growing up [...]

Zine details: A5/ 50p

Cislo Dvacet-Sest, boasts the cover of the latest edition of long running Nottingham zine Shadowplay which I am guessing is 26 in some foreign tongue. Alex Lawson has been producing these A5 booklets for a fair while indeed and 26 is no small feat for a zine maker (coming from someone who has never got past 4 issues of any particular zine).

This isn’t just a zine it’s a whole package, complete with plastic fold-out conference-style holder, an introductory letter and a set of stickers. I guess the conference-esque presentation is relevant to the general ethos of the House of Approval, a pseudo-cult in which Hive Operator Alpha Dr. Shamash will make your life better through his collection of short stories.

Zine details: Free, or $50 intl sub

I’m not sure if this completely fits the definition of ‘zine’, but ANP (Artist Network Programme) is a quarterly published, giant-sized free journal produced by art/punk/skate ‘important dude’ Ed Templeton (artist, skater and founder of Toy Machine), Brendan Fowler (of BARR) and Aaron Rose (curator-extraordinaire and man behind the Beautiful Losers show/documentary).

Zine details: $1.50

This series of zines, irregularly published by Microcosm, focuses each issue on a specific instance where the actions of America’s Central Intelligence Agency have been so insane, negligent or selfish that the resulting effect has been death, whether on a grand scale or of specific individuals.

One Way Ticket along with some of the bigger zines like Cometbus, Scam or Evasion introduced me to a world of community history littered with punk shows, petty crime and train hopping.

Zine details: £3

This is a thing of beauty. A simple collection of conversations with four different sets of people, but created with such love and attention that the end result is something worth treasuring.

This is the first product to come out of Northampton based publishing posse ‘Bureau De Books’, a collection of creative folks who have big plans to keep producing these chapbooks and spread their brand of ‘humorous short stories’

Zine details: 24pp/ b&w/ quarter size / 50p

This is the second issue of a new quarter sized perzine written by 19 year old Catherine Elms from Wales. The cover of issue one, put out earlier this year has the motto, ‘On love, music, feminism and creativity’, which is a fairly accurate description.