Welcome to Behind the Zines Distro

I love the drawing on this cover.  More drawings, more paintings, more writing about art.  This one has several prints of portraits Ed has been painting, and they are so beautiful to look at.  He also has some photography, as well as a section talking about his Holga camera.  If you know what a Holga is, you’ll dig this little zine.  The highlight though, for me at least, was the story he tells about seeing a homeless man bathing in the LA River.

Quarter-size, full-color, 20 pages.

The “spooky” issue #13, released in conjunction with Halloween!  This issue is a combination of photos taken at night, as well as stories that somehow relate back to scary feelings.  Cemeteries in Mexico, Kenneth Anger movie screenings, and movie stars who have since passed away.  This issue also talks about Ed’s father and grandfather a bit, which is nice.  High-quality photos, contemplative writing, and engaging story-telling.

Quarter-size, orange cover, full-color photos, 20 pages.

A split zine between Ed Tilman and Billy McCall.  My half is PIE #43, his half is QRK5 #14.

We picked the theme of "Hot and Cold," with me  writing about the cold and Ed writing about the hot.  Ed's half talks  about living in Georgia, living in California, and working on film sets  in Mexico.  His stories make you thirsty, make you sweat, make you feel  bad for some guy passing out from heat exhaustion.

This zine is quarter-size, B&W, 24 pages long, and is TWO ZINES IN ONE!  Enjoy!

Kris has banged out another excellent piece of writing, as he documents his road trip from Spain down to Morocco.  He and his partner, Lola, as well as some other friends, travel by car through Morocco, a country they are vaguely familiar with, but not exactly comfortable in.  What makes this zine a lovely read is how well Kris describes each and every scene, taking the time to really describe not only the FACTS of the situation (time, place, scenery) but also the FEELINGS of the situation.  Peppered throughout the zine are beautiful linocut art pieces.

Half-size, B&W with a blue cover, 44 pages.

Self Harm is a zine about NSSI, which is "Non-suicidal self-injury."  Trigger warning right now for those who have trauma around a person cutting themselves, or in other ways injuring themselves.

Sharaya asks that you listen to her story in a non-judgmental way, which is the perfect mindset as she does a fantastic job of describing the very real emotions surrounding this topic without either lamenting or romanticizing the events.  She also cites a number of helpful resources for people struggling with this issue.

Half-size, color, 16 pages.

“Straightaway Tangent is about travel, coffee shops, roads, urbanism, waking up in a van, working through an unrequited crush, goth shit, escaping winter, hot water, video games, zines, Krishna consciousness and other spiritual paths, and social anxiety.”  Thus begins the first issue of a new zine by August Personage.  This daily diary starts off in Pennsylvania and ends up in South Carolina as August lives in his van and travels the eastern U.S. looking for adventure and a better understanding of himself.  Emotional ups and downs presented in a very clean and easy to read layout.  Color photos throughout.

Half-size, 52 pages, B&W with color photos, cardstock cover.

A continuation of issue #1, August spends some time in the southeast part of the country.  Florida, Georgia, Carolinas …  Living out of a van, sleeping in Wal-Mart parking lots, and reports on all the bars and coffeeshops he comes across.  My favorite parts were when he talks about visiting zine libraries and zine stores.  Great travel-zine with lit-level writing style.  Clean layouts, good margins, well-made zine.  August is the type of person who mentally records conversations with strangers and then goes back later and shares with us the best bits.  This zine is a road trip from the comfort of your own home.

Half-size, 44 pages, B&W, color photos, cardstock cover.

The newest edition of Ed’s “Touring America” series (Jan, 2024).  The cover proudly shows the state flags of Arizona and California, the 2 states Ed visited last summer, a long way from home for this Jersey-boy.  I love all of his Touring America zines, but have a particular attachment to this issue because Ed and I actually hung out together in Arizona!  The first half of this zine is my review of our time together in Arizona.

Immediately after our time in Phoenix, Ed hopped a plane and headed to Oakland, where he saw some baseball games, ate some delicious food, and took in a handful of other local sites.

Half-size, 12 pages, mostly B&W, with color cover and color centerfold.

Another travel-zine from East Coast Ed!  Ed runs a distro called The Word Distribution, and also writes the zine Pencil of the Week.  But his touring zines are really starting to take shape as well.  For this issue he heads all the way across the country to visit Seattle!  This great perzine reads like a diary, taking us along for the adventure, day by day.  And it’s fantastic how Ed uses 2 of his passions, zines and pencils, to help guide the way.  He meets up with some zine-friends, he meets up with some pencil-nerds, and of course he eats all kinds of good food along the way.

Half-size, color cover, color photos, 16 pages.

Ed tells his story of visiting Chicago, going to places like Sears Tower, Wrigleyville, and the Art  Institute, but also lesser known stops, like a wooden alleyway, and various parks.  And of course, he talks all about visiting the legendary zine store, Quimbys.  He even got some authentic deep dish pizza!

I  lived in Chicago for 10 years, and this zine made me miss it even more than I normally do.  I also loved his  partner's 3 pages of Chicago trivia in the middle of the zine.

Half-size, 20 pages, color covers.                  

Ed Kemp, author of the well-known zine, “Pencil of the Week,” documents his trip to a pencil convention in his new issue of Touring America.  Pencils were the reason he went to Minnesota, but while there he also took in a list of other sites and experiences.  Bookstores, art museums, and restaurant reviews, this zine is your chance to hang with Ed in the Twin Cities.

Half-size, 12 pages long.  Color cover and color photos in the middle.

This here, ladies and gents, is a good ol’ fashioned fanzine!  Unsolved Mysteries was one of the most popular American TV shows of the 1990s, a show that all of us have seen at least once or twice.  This was maybe the first “true crime” television shows, a phrase that is now its own genre.

This zine tells a history of the show. I love the show’s title, “Unsolved Mysteries.”  That could mean almost anything, and it did.  We have horrible crimes, like rape and murder, but we also have stories about aliens, Bigfoot, and ghosts.  And all of it is filtered through the author’s personal experience of being a super-fan.

Half-size, B&W, 32 pages.

K. Ratticus, our beloved Chicago zinester and one of my long-term BFFs, uses WDJ3 to tell us the hopelessly romantic story of how she met her partner.  While slaving away in a Chicago restaurant she starts to get buddy-buddy with a Spanish-speaking co-worker.  Little by little they become more than just friends.  This is a great zine, a sweet story, and is written in both Spanish and English.  

Quarter-size, B&W, 44 pages.

New Zinester on the block!  Sharaya O. out of California brings a zine full of words!  Sharaya likes to read a lot, and when she comes across an interesting word, she writes it down.  Looks it up.  Tries to understand it.  This zine documents that process.  But this isn’t a dictionary, this isn’t just a list of words.  This is a linguistically-themed perzine.  The words are fun, and interesting, and largely unknown to me, but what makes this zine fun is reading Sharaya’s experience and opinions of the words.  Comments like “Reserve this word for when writing a gothic novel” is what keep you turning the pages.  Short zine; quick read.

Quarter-size, full-color, 8 pages.

The “Brave New World,” issue, with ten weird words coming from that classic novel.  Words from a dystopian novel definitely give this zine a dystopian feel, but hey the world is burning so everything feels dystopian these days.  Axiomatic, Puerile, Stultify, and more.  A great way to expand your vocabulary, but the real treat is reading Sharaya’s opinions of the words.

Quarter-size, B&W on color paper, 16 pages.

Zisk's  new catch-phrase is "So many ways to be a baseball fan," which is perfect for me.  Because I don't really follow baseball.  That being said, I really  loved this zine.  But what's great about this zine is that it never judges  a reader on how much they know about baseball.

Articles in this issue include handwriting analysis on pro-player's autographs, opinions  on the new pitch clock, and a guy going to every single White Sox home  game.  Also some cool art and illustrations along the way, and a lot of  contributors who are well-known in other parts of the zine world.  Good little zine for only $3.

Half-size, B&W, 36 pages.                  

A baseball zine for the rest of us!  Put together by Mike T. Fournier and Mike Faloon, this zine always presents new and quirky angles for baseball fans.  As a punk-rocker who likes sports, I have spent my life feeling conflicted about where I fit.  Not only do I “get” what this zine is doing, but I feel like this zine gets me!  As the slogan says, “So many ways to be a baseball fan.”  This issue has an interview with a woman all about women in baseball.  It has a story about Dodger Stadium, a story about a Congressional baseball game, and even some fan fic.  A great line-up of contributors in here.

Half size, B&W, 44 pages long.