Roctober zine

I was at Kilgore Books in Denver a few weeks ago and noticed an issue of the Roctober zine in their racks. It's put out in Chicago and ended up in Kilgore via local cartoonist John Porcellino who is friends with the creator. Since I had just spent so much money at Wax Trax I passed this up, but ended up ordering a copy online after I realized how awesome it is! It's got tons of musical content and comix. The issue I got in the mail is a zine "tribute" issue, which means they scanned in tons of articles from other old zines. My favorite parts were:

-Teenlife article about the Walker Brothers. "What they're like out of the public eye." Well apparently they were a bunch of jerks making ridiculous demands like any other rock band I guess. This article was pretty funny.
-Extensive biography of the garage rock group The Standells written by the late Greg Shaw of BOMP!
-Interview with John Holmstrom, an underground cartoonist who started Punk Magazine. He was an originator of the term "punk rock."
-Lester Bangs article about Nico which was supposed to run in New Wave Rock magazine, but got cut in favor of a story about the recent Nancy Spungen (girlfriend of Sid Vicious) murder.
-A million one-liner music reviews...Melt-Banana "Scratch or Stitch" (Skin Graft) - There is no other band with as much harmony between their name and their sound as this one.
-Offbeat comix about musicians by Slink Moss.

It's a hefty zine at about 70 pages and it was just 3 bucks! Most issues also feature interviews done by Nardwuar the Human Serviette.

There are tons of back issues available from the Roctober site. You can get brand new issues from Dusty Groove, King Cat distribution or Kilgore. Check it out! I think the next one I order will be Issue #27 -- Psychedelic Superhero, featuring a story about the Wax Trax record label in Chicago...

-Katherine (i heart comix)