Microcosm Publishing

OUT NOW! In the tradition of our DIY city guide The Zinester's Guide to Portland, we're proud to announce our brand-new New York City version! The Zinester's Guide to NYC is a top-to-bottom, on-the-cheap, warts-and-all exploration of the city that never sleeps. Whether you're looking for scam-able coffee or  a place to grab a Japanese breakfast, art supplies, volunteer opportunities, or a 4-story Korean bathhouse, the ZG2NYC has it all. Anecdotal and  opinionated,  the ZG2NYC has listings from over twenty New York-based zine publishers, toiling under the benevolent umbrella of Ayun Halliday (Chief Primatologist of The East Village Inky zine, author of No Touch Monkey!)  “The best way to experience the city is to really participate in it,"  Halliday says. "Why watch the parade when you can march in it? People should know that they can guest bartend, play bike polo in Sara Roosevelt Park, create a public park in a parking space on National Park(ing) Day, and submit the 5-minute movies they shoot on the boardwalk to next year's Coney Island Film Festival.” Like our Portland guide, the pocket-size NYC book is divided into illustrated, user friendly sections (Bars! Pizza! Historic buildings! Veggie options! Open mics! Craft supplies! The keys to low-budget NYC romance!) that give up the goods for first-timers and native New Yorkers alike. Be one of the first 100 pre-orders and get a random, possibly out of print back issue of The East Village Inky!

COMING JAN 1! “I dream of a better world,” writes zinester and How and Why author Matte Resist in the intro to his new book. He continues, “To me DIY culture is about grabbing a little piece of that dream.” What follows over the course of the next 281 pages is Matte doing what all dreamers must do—waking up from his dream, opening his eyes, and confronting what roadblocks and hurdles lie between him and his goal. Matte does this by laying down chapter upon chapter of blueprints for a better world. A sequel to our do-it-yourself handbook Making Stuff and Doing Things, How and Why gives us detailed, engaging, easy-to-use info on bicycles, home and garage, gardening, educating children, musical instruments, and the all-inclusive “everything else” section. If you dream of taking back your life and building a better world, How and Why might be your new best friend.

Newly rewritten! Sarah Royal spent some time working in a Chicago book bindery. From the get-go, she dispels any of our illusions of book-making fantasy, "It's a glorified Kinko's..." and gives us a guided tour of her work and co-workers. It's funny—especially the snippets of dialog, and it's full of beautiful photos of the bindery. Sometimes the humor is at the expense of her co-workers, or those in the bindery's hilariously out-of-control neighborhood. So if you like stories about quirky employees interacting, or killing time on the clock, then this zine is for you!

COMING DEC 1! What do top-secret CIA assassination plots, Black Panther arrests, and Reaganomics have in common? Food, of course! Michael Hoerger and Mia Partlow collect, contextualize and graphically narrate declassified government documents with food as a theme! Over 500,000 declassified memos, debriefings and transcripts were combed to uncover some of the most important and iconic people and narratives from US history. Providing a voyeuristic insight into the US government, these documents are like reality TV for politicos and foodies: Assassinations by milkshake, subliminal popcorn cravings, Reagan's love of hydroponics, and what could be Fred Hampton's most radical action—giving ice cream to small children. Illustrated throughout by Nate Powell.

The Microcosm cometh!  Cookies beware!

Allen of Fanatic Press will have catalogs at SPACE in Columbus Ohio April 2011! 

If you’re planning an event and you’d like the Microcosm gang to participate (by tabling, presenting, aiding in the consumption of vegan treats, etc) please let us know!!

OUT NOW! Scam was equal parts an introductory guide on how to get things for free and punk memoir. Youths experienced trainhopping, house shows, and cross country tours that sought out swimming holes. Community was sought and celebrated through generator punk shows on Mission Street, hunting for cans of beer on Easter, and Food Not Bombs. Angst was manifested while stealing electricity from lampposts, squatting in Miami, selling plasma, tagging freight trains, wheatpasting, spraying salt water into vending machines, returning stolen merchandise, and dumpstering as seen through the lens of a young punk. Scam has gone on to inspire a generation of imitators, the highest form of flattery.

OUT NOW! Like a well-oiled machine of zine-y awesomeness, Xerography Debt, the “review zine with perzine tendencies,” gives us a sweet new issue twice-yearly. The new issue (number 27!) is 64 pages of all we've come to love and expect from XD—the reviews, the columns, the humor, the knowledgeable zinesters cluin' us in on all that's brand-new and bumpin' in the zine scene. This time around we've got some surprises—Joe Biel interviewing zine/design legend Ian Lyman, Gianni Simone on Italian mail art dude Vittore Baroni, as well as a seven-part series of “Where Are They Now”s with iconic zinesters of the past (Jen Angel's Q&A being a definite highlight.) Combine that with reviews of great stuff like Not My Small Diary, A Guide to Picking Locks, and Proof I Exist, and you've got a solid round-up of all-things zine. Note to zine-makers: If you'd like XD to review your zine in a future issue send it to: Davida Gypsy Breier / PO Box 11064 / Baltimore, MD 21212 USA