Mildred Pierce #4: Comedy and the Grotesque is officially alive!! HUGE thanks to all who have helped make this issue possible.
This issue features cover art by Edie Fake, inside cover art by Eamon Espey; its guts include….
- A review of the cult horror film Slither by Daniel Moseley
- A slicing-dicing deconstruction by Bonnie Kaserman
- Two comic vignettes by Ellen Nielsen
- A Real Asshole — essay by Marc Baez
- Bernhard – Kinski – Theodore: Only a Madman Would Imitate Madness — essay by John Berndt
- FEH-MUH-NIST: A Consideration of Offense in Diane DiMassa’s Hothead Paisan: Homicidal Lesbian Terrorist — essay by Vicky Lim
- Reinventing the Grotesque: Wangechi Mutu’s Beautifully Mutating Women — essay by Joyce Kuechler
- Charlottesville’s Lady Arm Wrestlers: A Bawdy, Rowdy, Satirical, Political, Feminist, Community-Based Performance Art Movement — feature by Leeyanne Moore
- Barf Transitive: Bulimic Writing as Feminist Resistance — essay by Megan Milks
- You Want to Make a Joke About That? A Brief History on the Development of My Lisp by Jim Joyce
- a feature on artist Jimmy Joe Roche by John Bylander
- a feature on puppeteer Sean Samoheyl by Leeyanne Moore
- fiction by James Tadd Adcox, Jake Hostetter, and Leeyanne Moore
- interviews with musician/writer Sabrina Chap and artists Edie Fake and Pippi Zornoza
- comics, illustration and art by Noel Freibert, Carrie Fucile, Zach Hazard, Gerry Mak, Sarah Magida, Jason Miles, and Ed Choy Moorman
- and more!
Those of you who pre-ordered, we’re in the process of getting your copies out. The rest of ya, for now, while we’re working on distribution, can purchase an issue through PayPal: send $9 ($8 + $1 shipping) to mildredpiercezine@gmail.com including your mailing address in the note.
See you at Quimby’s on Saturday, February 26th!
Filed under: art, comedy, grotesque, interview | Tags: art opening, baltimore, chelsea, jimmy joe roche, newyork
This week would be a good week to go and check out Under Pressure, Jimmy Joe Roche’s solo show at Rare Gallery in New York. I myself am trying to make it back there, having attended the opening a few weeks back. I am really excited about this show, and eager to get a second, closer look at some of the videos and installations before the show comes down. The forthcoming issue of Mildred Pierce features a profile of Roche and his work. If you have not been already, check out his site, and check out the show, up through February 3. Rare Gallery is at 547 W 27 St, #514, New York, NY.
Filed under: art, comedy, grotesque | Tags: chicago, issue 4, release party
AHOY CHICAGO!!!!
Please help us celebrate the release of MILDRED PIERCE ISSUE #4, “Comedy and the Grotesque” (cover designed and screenprinted by Edie Fake)….
at Quimby’s Bookstore (1854 W. North Ave) …
on SATURDAY, February 26th, 2011 at 7 pm.
Joining us to provide readings and performances are MP contributors James Tadd Adcox, Edie Fake, Jim Joyce, Vicky Lim, Ed Choy Moorman, and Ellen Nielsen!!!!! (Keep reading for these talented people’s bios.)
Wine and refreshments plus limited-edition zines! HOLY COW see you there.
James Tadd Adcox is the editor-in-chief of Artifice Magazine (artificemag.com). His work has appeared in The Literary Review, TriQuarterly, and Lamination Colony, among other places. He lives in Chicago.
Edie Fake is the author of Gaylord Phoenix, now available as a collection from Secret Acres. He’s received a Critical Fierceness Grant for queer art and was one of the first recipients of Printed Matter’s Awards for Artists. His drawings have been included in Hot and Cold, Creative Time Comics, and LTTR. Currently, he lives in Chicago where he works as a minicomics sommelier for Quimby’s Books.
Jim Joyce graduated from St. Rita High School in 2004. His zine, Or Let It Sink, explores desire, failure, and personal mythology. Jim works in the education field and enjoys keeping a journal.
Vicky Lim has a zine (Dear Jaguar) and a blog (Personal Statements) and lives in Chicago.
Ed Choy Moorman is a New Jersey-raised, Minneapolis College of Art and Design-schooled, Chicago-based cartoonist. He is the editor and publisher of the 2009 Xeric Award-winning Ghost Comics anthology from Bare Bones Press. (http://edsdeadbody.com/ + http://edchoymoorman.wordpress.com/)
Ellen Nielsen is an interdisciplinary artist whose body of work includes writing, performance, objects, video, and graphic design. She received her BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland and is currently pursuing her MFA in Fiber and Material Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Filed under: art, comedy, grotesque, interview, submissions | Tags: art, comedy, comix, contributors, cultural criticism, ha-ha, issue 4, submissions, writing
We welcome aboard the following writers, artists, and interviewees to the slow cruise ship that is MP#4:
James Tadd Adcox, Marc Baez, Max Eisenberg, Carrie Fucile, Bonnie Kaserman, Joyce Kuechler, Vicky Lim, Leeyanne Moore, Ed Choy Moorman, Dan Moseley, Ellen Nielsen, Jimmy Joe Roche, Sean Samoheyl, James Solitaire, Jennifer Tidwell.
Glad to have you! The rollout may be slow but it is sure.
Filed under: comedy | Tags: anti-oppression, comedy, ethics, gender, ha-ha, oppression, tv
Rachel McCarthy James (RJM) over at the Bitch blog TelevIsm has a great post up on how comedy can expose and work against oppression. Here’s a brief cut from her introduction:
Conditions for an Anti-Oppression Joke
IF a character on a television reflects or reinforces the kyriarchy through problematic/loaded language or actions.
AND the action/language is critiqued or rebutted by another character
AND said rebuttal/critique is framed as reasonable and valid
THEN the joke constitutes critique of kyriarchy in society.
These are, of course, not the only kind of jokes that can be critical of the kyriarchy. This applies to jokes on shows like The Office that are not rhetorically anti-oppression the way that shows like, say, Treme or The Boondocks are.
She then moves to an analysis of a scene from The Office to demonstrate how this can work. Really nicely broken down and useful criteria for thinking about comedy and oppression. Dig.
Filed under: art, comedy, submissions | Tags: cultural criticism, independent ladies, new look, nuevo look, submissions
The Mildred Pierce Zine site has undergone some changes, and yr lookin’ at ’em. We are getting into what my friend Nate M. would call “serious bloggin’, y’all.” As much as we want to stay committed to the paper product, we are also trying to get some internet lovin’, so we went out and got our virtual hair did for you writers out there who can only submit to a Cultural Crit magazine that looks like she pays her own bills… Am I right? Anyway, with a new look comes a new deadline for proposals: March 31st! Get those genius ideas in folks! We’re gearing up to roll out Issue No. 4, and you know you want a ride (of course MP pays her own car note!). The details of submission are below… Continue reading
Filed under: comedy | Tags: comedy, film, gen-X, gender, ha-ha, humor, satire
Demetri Martin is unique in the history of stand-up comedy today. He’s like the antithesis of 80s comedian Sam Kinison — that overweight, repulsive, cokehead screamer. Sammy K was a man’s-man stand-up comedian; someone who conveyed with his rage and purple-faced delivery his unhappiness with the world and everyone in it. Ready to have his stomach split open and his guts splash out onto the stage, he made stand-up look like the hard, drug- and alcohol-driven job it truly is.
If Sam Kinison was some kind of 80s Thersites — the foul-mouthed, humanity-hating slave to society — then Demetri Martin is our modern-day Paris: a lover, not a hater, the shiny-eyed, self-effacing dude who plays his guitar softly, making jokes that zing but land softly in a nimbus cloud of post-hippie ethos.
His first comedy special, in 2007, features a finale that was more fantasy than wit-cracking crescendo — the comedy coming from the tension created by breaking convention with what comedians do and don’t do. He plays out on his guitar a little tune while a forest setting shows the imaginary space in his mind, what he calls “the place where my jokes come from”: a place where elves romp along side jokes and his mother and grandmother appear.