Yeti Seven

I already wrote about the sixth issue of Yeti magazine, and I'm happy to say that the seventh issue is just as good, if not better. Featured inside are interviews with comic artist Jim Woodring, San Francisco-based bands the Nodzzz (by way of New Jersey) and the Wooden Shjips, book cover designs by Joe Brainard, a rare manuscript by Abner Jay, and more. Plus, the cover art is by Mingering Mike (apparently it's supposed to be President Obama as a boxer).

One of the more fascinating articles is about Nancy Dupree (illustrated above), a Rochester music teacher who recorded her students singing original songs about James Brown, Martin Luther King, civil rights, and other issues that were relevant to them. (At the time it was released on vinyl as Ghetto Reality, and can be purchased here on CD or mp3 from Smithsonian Folkways.)

And I couldn't resist including this, even though it's actually an ad found towards the end of the issue. But maybe the best ad ever.

McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13, Edited by Chris Ware

This issue of McSweeney's is edited by Chris Ware and, as you might guess, is focused on comics. The packaging, as usual, is incredible, with a comic by Ware serving as the removable dust jacket (author bios are on the other side, after you unfold it). There are even a couple of mini-comics by John Porcellino and Ron Rege Jr. tucked into the folds.

Underneath the dust jacket is this beautiful cover, with gold embossed black cloth spine. I can't decide which one I like better.

Just in case you like neither (doubtful) there's a third cover, drawn by Charles Burns, a couple of pages into the book.

Even the table of contents is extra stylish, giving a little nod to the advertisements in comics of yore. Speaking of contents, this issue features short pieces from such comic artists as R. Crumb, Daniel Clowes, Julie Doucet, Chester Brown, Gary Panter, Kaz, and so on, plus essays from Chip Kidd and John Updike, and appreciations of Philip Guston, George Herriman, and Charles M. Schulz. It's a pretty good volume of stuff.

US: The Paperback Magazine # 3

The third issue (of three total) of US: the Paperback Magazine, edited by Richard Goldstein, published in 1970. I can't find much about the history behind this short-lived journal of "radical" writings and art (I put that in quotes because if it's published by a large house, how radical could it be?), but after reading the New York Times article reprinted in its pages (see last image), it seems to have been Bantam's attempt at creating a hip magazine that appealed to the readers of the Evergreen Review and the New American Review and the like. Most likely it didn't sell as much as they'd hoped so they canned the project after just three issues.

With articles by two of the first rock critics Robert Christgau and Richard Meltzer, among others, on the likes of Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kerouac, etc., it sounded like a cool little collection of writing so I gave it a shot. Some of it felt a little bit dated, but most of it was pretty well written and interesting. Worth reading, either way.

Yeti Six

This is the sixth issue of Yeti, a Portland (OR)-based art/literature/music journal. But it is the first one I have read. And looking at the contents of the current issue (#7), I think I might have to purchase a subscription.

The contents of this issue include paper cuts by David Fair, interviews with The Clean, Sun City Girls, Sic Alps and Eat Skull, and articles on Mingering Mike (whose yeti drawing can be seen on the above masthead page) and folk photography (written by Luc Sante), and much more great content.

Paper cuts by David Fair

From "Folk Photography" by Luc Sante

Photographs by Ted Barron

Photographs from the Sydney police archives, from an interview with Peter Doyle