Rebecca D. Dillon (the "D" is important because there's another "Rebecca Dillon" in Roanoake) is an artist, living in a duplex in the white trash side of town (her words), with her boyfriend and her 2-year-old boy, Cody. VG #34 starts out as what looks like a comic book, drawn with "country cute" art that would make great rubber stamps -- if they weren't in strange situations that aren't cute at all. (Like drying off her butt with a hair dryer in a public restroom, for instance.)

I didn't like this zine at first. I'm not really into comics, and many of the comic-illustrated stories didn't seem to have much of a point to them. Some of them were kind of funny, but they just didn't grab me.

Then I got into the more textual side of things. Along the lines of the introduction (where she reveals that her father was having an affair), she wrote "Remember When?" -- a story of the '80s, and fashion and revenge against unfair teachers. There's a great self-portrait that isn't in the same comic style. There's a guest article about being an international dresser, and one about the horrors of her vacuum.

Best, though, was the article at the end about Virginia welfare reform. Well-thought-out and executed like a passionate plea, it presents the facts in such a way that it's hard not to support her arguments. If only more persuasion pieces were this good.

Overall, I wouldn't recommend this zine for someone who hasn't seen earlier issues. Most of the time, I felt like there was something I was just missing. Maybe there's some point or inside joke that was outside my peripheral vision. Check it out by send $1 plus two stamps to Rebecca at 1248 Buena Vista Blvd., SE, Roanoke, VA 24013-2471.

[ by Elizabeth Badurina ]