Mostly Harmless Issue #2

So tonight we continue to look at my past life a zinester. It was somewhat short lived in its colorado form. Once upon a time, I lived in Shreveport, Louisiana and with my, then, closest friends we has a Zine called KGB Propaganda, where i honed my skills as one of the best punk rock interviewers around (Once again, I am being humble here.)

I look at Mh#2 with half pride and half horror. I threw this monster together within days before the deadline with hopes that i could get it printed and done in time for Tour with my then roommates band: Harrison Bergeron (myspace.com/harrisonbergeron) and SxSw.

Some of the layouts and pages I'm quite proud of and some of them... Well.... They suck Page 3 for example, is just awful. I had intended to dedicate a great portion of this issue to a fallen comrade, Kyle Wattz. I posted a few queries on the internet asking for people to write about their favorite memories of Kyle and i even wrote to the 1-800-Hopeline letting them know I would donate a full page add to them. I got zero replies with the exception of a very quickly written piece by our friend Ryan Moore.

I was hoping for pages of photos and pages for memories of Kyle and his short lived life, and planned for it accordingly, but when it came down to the deadline i had nothing except Ryan's letter, which was originally meant to be used as a dedication to the section.

I used the best photo i could get my hands on and tried to make the layout work to the best of my abilities, but it was super last minute and I was already late sending it off to the printers. I threw it together and have regretted it ever since. You open the first page of the magazine and you see this poorly, poorly, POORLY laid out page... Its my biggest source of embarrassment with this issue...

I found out once i got it from the printer that a few things were missed here and there. Pictures shifted, words dissapeared, graphics out of layout, ect, and really amateuresque stuff that i think detracts from the quality of this issue. There are also some really subpar reviews hastily thrown together by yours truly. I have such a hard time explaining why i like or dislike music. Its a pain to write reviews. You'd think after 10+ years of doing it, I'd have gotten a little better.... And then the Column by my friend Renee, was mostly Filler. Really not very good stuff. It needed to be flushed out more, but because of the lack of Kyle memorials i had space to fill and in it went...

But Its not all bad. I'm rather proud of the Layout on the Joey Cape article, and the photos (taken by yours truly.) It was nice to get some help and not do it all 100% by myself and have some help from Tim Browne (who promised to do more for issue #3 but never came to the rescue, thank you very much.)

I absolutely fell madly in love with THE ERGS working with them on this issue, and oddly enough when i saw them perform, I was not even in attenance to interview them, but them impressed me so GREATLY that I went for it and it was well, well worth it. I love the layout, and I love the interview even more (you can actually listen to it at: myspace.com/mhmagazine). Great Guys. Great band. I'm glad i got to not only meet them, but interview them before they broke up last year. :(

I absolutely LOVE the cover and would one day like to get a tattoo of it upon my body. Damian Willcox is a phenomenal artist and he really came through for me at the 11th hour when Travel Foreman could not... The interview was most excellent as well... Reading it you'd never know it was done Question and Answer style via EMAIL. I sent him 15 or so questions, but tried to predict the course of the conversation and created a real FLOW for it that is missing in almost all "interviews" done via Email. It also helps that Damian really GOT what I was going for.

All in all, I love this issue for all its faults and its promises. I'm sadened that this was the final chapter for Mostly Harmless, or at least its final chapter in Print.

I had issue #3 halfway finished. Interviews with No Trigger, Sick of it all and NONE MORE BLACK were to grace the issue. I was searching for a heavier comic book artist to do the cover art, but alas could never find anyone who i felt comfortable with doing the cover for what i perceived to be a heavier issue.

I also never could sell any advertising. I'm just not a salesman. I'm great at interviews. I'm good at booking shows and making flyers and writing about shows, but when it comes right down to it, I was awful at selling ads for the zine.

I think if i tried to revamp this TODAY, right now, and make it happen, i could do it very easily. I've made all the right connections and i know all the right people that i could plausibly make a really cool zine and make it FREE and have the advertising to support it. But I think for now, Print is in a massive recession. I don't want to say print is dead, because it will never be dead.

Just as Vinyl l was perceived as dead, is in the process of making a solid comeback. I think Print and more specifically ZINES will do the same. We just have the embrace the collectivity and the specialty that a print zine can hold. The Internet will slowly fade and one day we'll find ourselves reading actual books again. I mean, Myspace seems to be on a swift decline as people move on to other forms of time waste/management. Who knows what will be next..... Who knows.

In the meantime, I'm going to join the enemy, I'll work on posting more posts related to music, movies, comics and whatever the hell else i feel like writing about. I'll post video and video interviews. I'll make an ass out of myself and we'll all have a good time. I'll never give up hope on restarting the old girl and doing her RIGHT, and with the knowledge and experience i have learned.

Please read the old girl and enjoy her, if you can. Write me and let me know what you think. I can be reached here in the comments, myspace (myspace.com/iamdamian) and email: damian(dot)burford(at)gmail(dot)com

Keep watching this page for more stuff.... Please send your ideas and kick my ass if i lag too much between postings....

Until next time....