I think if Marie wanted to, she could really be onto something with her little zine. Coming in at half-sized, but only 16 pages long, it seems like an almost aborted attempt at a zine for a creator with a short attention span. The production quality is low, and the entire thing is only held together with a cheap rubber band, stretched around the fold.

Those quibbles aside, Marie has the makings of quite an artist. She's already developed a unique style that refines over the course of the zine. In a couple of issues, she's going to be an artist to reckon with.

Add to that her choices of themes -- bizarre unanswerable questions or single-panel comics that are more like calls to arms about various social issues -- and you can really get the feeling that someday, Peaches is going to be one of those issues you won't be able to live without.

You can get a copy by sending $1 to 2321 4th Ave #302, Seattle, WA 98121.

To be fair, I should mention that if you're in the Seattle/Portland region, you can find these early issues for free if you go to Left Bank Books downtown, and/or in other, varied locations where you'd least expect it. For a free offering, the low production quality starts to mean even less, and you can see yourself snapping these things up for your library since someday, Marie's probably going to be famous.

However, if you're elsewhere and on a limited budget, I'd wait and spend it on something more immediately gratifying.

[ by Elizabeth Badurina ]
Rambles: 13 April 2002