Friday, December 3, 2010

Zine Review: Magical Guide to Rainbows by Kacper


Most folks are surprised to hear the word "zine" and "school library" in the same sentence, PA participants from the Zine PD at Boys Town way back in '07 and Mr. B notwithstanding. While yes, it is true that this collection is not readily available inside any of our libraries while I type this, that is a matter soon to be remedied, and all the more reason to tell you about some of the gems in our collection. I'll kick the reviews off with one of my favorites: Kacper's Magical Guide to Rainbows. What's magical about this 8 .5 x 11 stapled zine is Kacper's imaginative cataloging of rainbow types. Of course they don't exist in visible reality, but this zine's rough aesthetics (check out the aforementioned staples and the white-out style font on the photocopied cover) and straightforward listing get the zine format's accessibility across better than any paragraph I could construct. It’s an "If Kacper can do it, you can too." And if Kacper wants to be known at Kacper, the Ambassador of Candyland, well, then we can start a brainstorm session on pseudonyms. After we review mnemonic devices for remembering how to spell "pseudonym."

Until it's moved to a permanent site, email me if you'd like to check out Magical Guide to Rainbows or one of the other dozens of zines in our library collection. If you want to purchase a copy for your own collection, here's the link to Candyland.

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