This new issue details over fifteen years of Joe Biel's improving and declining physical health as he battles doctors, naturopaths, and weirdos to try and figure out what exactly is wrong with him. Meant as a relateable tale for those who have experienced any kind of mysterious hardship, the zine is a jumping off point metaphor for all kinds of complicated and technical problems.
In Microcosm’s DIY guide to zine-making, editors Bill Brent, Joe Biel, and a cast of contributors take you from the dreaming and scheming stages onto printing, publication and beyond! Covering all the bases for beginners, Make a Zine! hits on more advanced topics like Creative Commons licenses, legality, and sustainability. Says Feminist Review, “Make a Zine! is an inspiring, easy, and digestible read for anyone, whether you’re already immersed in a cut-and-paste world, a graphic designer with a penchant for radical thought, or a newbie trying to find the best way to make yourself and your ideas known.” Illustrated by an army of notable and soon-to-be-notable artists and cartoonists, Make a Zine! also takes a look at the burgeoning indie comix scene, with a solid and comprehensive chapter by punk illustrator Fly (Slug and Lettuce, Peops). Part history lesson, part how-to guide, Make a Zine! is a call to arms, an ecstatic, positive rally cry in the face of TV show book clubs and bestsellers by celebrity chefs. As says Biel in the book’s intro, “Let’s go!”
Joe Biel writes a new lengthy explanation of 4 years in a story titled "Brutal Honest Tea" about honest communication, the opportunity costs of various choices, the room for regret in those choices, drinking iced tea, and the results of social awkwardness. It questions the various life paths and whether or not people really think their decisions through or feel pressured to do certain things. Also contains episode 3 of his roommate reviews covering a period about 3 years ago. Reprinted on offset!
Back by popular demand! Due to the large number of young vasectomy-less individuals inquiring about how to get their plumbing fixed, this zine has been reprinted and ready for re-consumption thanks to offset printing technology at Eberhardt Press! Joe Biel strives to find logic, purpose, and meaning in his existence once again. This issue is about friends having accidental babies by the boatload and his resulting vasectomy to prevent himself from befalling the same fate. Plenty of details about seeking out a vasectomy, the actual surgery, and the reasons why. It's probing and personal and has the usual slice of life reality. Also includes roommate reviews supplement #4 covering the period of 2001 living at the Onramp. More gritty details about other peoples' lives. Can you figure out the mystery of how the clip art is relevant to the text? Now a newly offset printed second version!
For the second issue of the Expozine Award–winning Bipedal, By Pedal, editor Joe Biel has collected legal documents pertaining to the Portland Police Department's nefarious, illegal crackdown campaign on the local Critical Mass movement. Obtained by Freedom of Information Act requests, Biel shows through once-secret police and court documents that Portland Critical Mass did not in fact die out: it was brutally torn down by the cops in an organized campaign of intimidation and spy work. A rally call for bike activists, this zine is a companion piece to Biel's upcoming documentary, Aftermass: A Post Critical Mass Portland. For a humorous touch, the police documents are redone as Mad Libs.
So, you want to publish books.Drawing on 23 years of experience operating an independent publishing company, Joe Biel has written the most accessible and comprehensive guide to running a successful publishing business. You'll learn all the skills of the trade, including how to:Develop your individual books to connect with readers on a practical and emotional levelChoose between offset printed, digitally printed, and eBook formats and work effectively with printersBuild an authentic niche so you can reach your audience and sell books directlyUnderstand if and when you're ready to work with a distributor or large online retailerCreate a budget and predict the cost and income of each book so your company stays in the blackDecide what work you need to do yourself and what can be done by othersPlan for sustainable growthFeaturing interviews with other upstart independent publishers and funny anecdotes from publishing's long history as well as detailed charts and visuals, this book is intended both beginners looking for a realistic overview of the publishing or self-publishing process and for experienced publishers seeking a deeper understanding of accounting principles, ways to bring their books to new audiences, and how to advance their mission in a changing industry. All readers will come away with the confidence to move forward wisely and a strong sense of why publishing matters today more than ever.
In this, the third issue of Joe Biel's award-winning, ongoing look at the Critical Mass movement, we are given a well-researched analysis at the history of bicycle activism and police spying in Portland, Oregon. The result is an engaging and readable combination of story, activism, and history. Over the course of 44 pages, Biel looks at why a city so bike-friendly as Portland has virtually no Critical Mass ride, while cataloging the ways the Portland Police Department has interacted with local riders and historic activism. Says Biel, "It's concerning how many times a cyclist has repeated to me the police's version of Portland's cycling history or how years later new rumors are created about what happened." Strange and inspiring, Bipedal, By Pedal #3 is essential, illuminating reading for cyclists and non-cyclists alike.
In this introspective exploration of former boxer Joey Torrey's life, his past, his murder conviction, and his more than 30-year incarceration in a California state prison are each fine-tooth combed. Nearly five years after his original memoir, this new edition is re-written as a biography and delves deeper into circumstances surrounding Torrey’s alleged murder of his boxing coach, the lengthy prison sentence handed down, his undercover collaboration with the FBI on “Operation Matchbook” in support of John McCain’s proposed Professional Boxing Amendments Act, and the inner workings of the prison system in general. From his days as a Compton gang leader and an Olympic boxing hopeful to being tried as an adult rather than a 17-year-old minor, this compelling narrative reflects on his life as a parable as well as examining the strategies used in his conviction, such as establishing the motive as robbery despite a lack of evidence linking the opening of safe to the murderer. And after more than three decades as a model prisoner—and saving the life of a prison guard—Torrey has prolifically written hundreds of letters to Joe Biel, who finds himself in the unlikely situation to share this story.
The history of Microcosm Publishing, from its origins as a record label and zine distro in Joe Biel's bedroom closet in Cleveland to a thriving, sustainable publisher of life-changing books. The book comes out to mark Microcosm's 20th anniversary and all the shit and splendor that's gone into making us who we are.In 1996, everything about Joe Biel's life seemed like a mistake. He was 18, he lived in Cleveland, he got drunk every day, and he had mystery health problems and weird social tics. All his friends' lives were as bad or worse. To escape a nihilistic, apocalyptic worldview and to bring reading and documentation into a communal punk scene, he started assembling self-published misfit zines and bringing them in milk crates to underground punk shows. As he applied the economics and values of underground punk rock music to publishing books, his worldview expanded along with his business, and so did the punk community's idea of what was possible. Eventually this became Microcosm Publishing.But all was not rosy. Biel's head for math was stronger than his ability to relate to people, and for everything that added up right, more things broke down. He developed valuable skills and workarounds, but it wasn't until he was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome that it all began to fall into place.Good Trouble is a tale of screwing up, trying again, and always finding a way do it better. It's a book for anyone who has ever failed big and dreamed bigger. It's about developing a toolkit for turning your difficulties into superpowers, building the world that you envision, and inspiring others to do the same. This is the story of how, over 20 years, one person turned a litany of continuing mistakes and seemingly wrong turns into a happy, fulfilled life and a thriving publishing business that defies all odds.With a foreword by Sander Hicks, founder of Soft Skull Press, and an introduction by Joyce Brabner, co-author with Harvey Pekar of Our Cancer Year.
Do you have a passion that you want to obsess about in a love letter to the world? In this new edition of Microcosm's popular DIY guide to zine-making, Joe Biel updates the information provided in the first edition (edited by Biel and the late and great Bill Brent) to address zine making in today's digital and social-media-obsessed world. Covering all the bases for beginners, Make a Zine! hits on more advanced topics like Creative Commons licenses, legality, and sustainability. Says Feminist Review, "Make a Zine! is an inspiring, easy, and digestible read for anyone, whether you're already immersed in a cut-and-paste world, a graphic designer with a penchant for radical thought, or a newbie trying to find the best way to make yourself and your ideas known." Illustrated by an army of notable and soon-to-be-notable artists and cartoonists, Make a Zine! also takes a look at the burgeoning indie comix scene, with a solid and comprehensive chapter by punk illustrator Fly (Slug and Lettuce, Peops). Part history lesson, part how-to guide, Make a Zine! is a call to arms, an ecstatic, positive rally cry in the face of TV show book clubs and bestsellers by celebrity chefs. As says Biel in the book's intro, "Let's go!
Want to be a writer, but the words won't come? Do you have a lot to say but don't know how to write it so people will read it? Do you struggle with anxiety, procrastination, or feeling like an imposter around your writing? Microcosm's two most prolific authors teach you their tricks of the trade in this no-nonsense, practical guide to the craft of writing longform work. Learn skills like setting and sticking to goals, communicating effectively with your writing, having fun while writing, working with an editor, and creating reader-oriented work. This is not a book about crafting beautiful sentences with perfect grammar; instead Harper and Biel will teach you to write so that your words have the greatest possible impact on the world.
During a period of transition, our protagonist takes refuge by living in a literal treehouse. For the first time in his life, this autistic person learns to live independently as well as performing the necessary maintenance, construction, self-care, and time management skills of being an adult without anyone else trying to influence him.
You've heard of mansplaining, but what about manstitutions? From manologues to manversations, mantrums to manger, the behavior of men is decoded at last for your enlightenment and entertainment. It's a new wave of feminism, and that wave requires a new language. Manspressions creates a common language for societal forces that hold everyone back, but that have been difficult to talk about until now—because we lacked the words.
An intimate, never-seen-before examination of the life and death of Lee Harvey Oswald. Where other would-be Oswald biographies focus on the immediate events leading up to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, here we have a full and panoramic look at Oswald's short, conflicted, adventure-filled life. Using exclusive info and newly declassified documents, CIAMSFU #6 puts into perspective a richly-detailed version of the Oswald story, from birth in 1939 to his historic televised assassination. This is Lee Harvey Oswald the husband, the son, the brother—a man whose personality profile differs wildly from the “Lee as lone-wingnut” theory crafted by the Warren Commission. Much of this info is seen here for the first time in print—info that does much to humanize the controversial and polarizing man. As the zine states, the most interesting parts of Oswald's tale are what's missing in the storytelling of previous versions. Packed with interview text featuring figures as close to Oswald as his wife and mother, CIAMSFU #6 shows us Lee as a confused Marxist, an employee, a soldier, a lover, a people person, a trouble-starter, a world traveler, a show-off, even a “real cutie.” This is a zine that tells us that while the events are from the past, the topics discussed are still heavily relevant. The tactics used by the government in this story are still being employed to this day; the lies and the propaganda are still being forced on us and will be so until we educate, fight, and change our way of thinking. Shocking, humanizing—whatever you take away from it—this is the most fascinating and fast-moving CIA zine to date. A great addition to this well-loved series.
Here, in their own words, are the quotes of many historic figures in the global anarchist movement. Anarchism, a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and even harmful, promotes a classless, stateless society that is self-governed. Anarchists seek to diminish and eliminate reliance on authority in their quest for justice. These quotes, while inspirational, are often as divided as they are uniform, for what is political ideology if written in stone?
These five case studies offer a chilling glimpse into the negligence, greed, murder, and at times comical disorganization behind some of the CIA's most controversial secret operations. Science fiction could not have invented the influence the CIA had in the assassination of Martin Luther King. Jr, the AIDS virus, the killing of the leader of the Puerto Rican independence movement, the PATRIOT act, and the Iran-Contra affair. Smith makes radical claims, but instead of coming across as a raving conspiracy theorist he uses facts to write a believable, accessible alternative to mainstream histories that helps readers to contextualize current events and the anti-American backlash.
Three years after the fact, Joe busts out a zine tour based zine about Cocoon: The Road Trip from 2004. A collection of hand drawn maps, photos by Dave Roche, and traveling anecdotes from the road, the zine presents a pretty strong case for the idea that zine making and zine tours really are not that hard to put together and can be kind of cool sometimes. Look at all of the great, zany experiences that you, yourself could experience on the road! More than that it's a look at friendship and the motivators and hard times that one experiences by pushing yourself into more trying and difficult situations.
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