Microcosm Publishing

White Elephants

COMING APR 1! White elephants are the odd, old, and discarded things that end up at yard sales and flea markets—and Katie Haegele loves them all. Well, an awful lot of them, anyway. She lives a few blocks from the house she grew up in, and every summer she and her mother scour the neighborhood tag sales, looking for treasure. In this unusual, touching memoir, she chronicles the places they go and the things they find there, describing every detail in her singular, charming voice. In the end she finds more than just ugly table lamps and frilly aprons, ultimately discovering a real friendship with her mother, a deeper connection to her father, whose death left a hole in her life—and even a bit of romance.

Homesweet Homegrown

COMING FEB 1! Robyn Jasko and Jennifer Biggs' Homesweet Homegrown is self-described as “a simple DIY guide to growing, storing, and making your own food, no matter where you live.” An ideal companion to Raleigh Briggs' DIY guide Make Your Place, Jasko and Biggs' debut book will turn you into a healthy, happy farmer even if you live in a big city sky-rise. Based around eight comprehensive sections (Know, Start, Grow, Plant, Plan, Make, Eat, and Store), this wonderful 128-page guide takes you through all the steps of crop nurturing, and gives the goods for everyone from the base beginner to the well-seasoned farmhand. (The recipe section alone is enough to keep you comin' back to this gem for years to come!) Narrated in a friendly, helpful tone by Jasko and held aloft by Biggs' great illustrations, this book is the definition of awesomely useful. Super, super, SUPER inspiring. Grow your own!

Hurt

COMING MAR 1! HURT is Portland activist Kristian Williams' collection of articles and interviews on the history, psychology, and current state of torture in democratic societies. Williams, author of Our Enemies in Blue and American Methods: Torture and the Logic of Domination, has pulled together a vast and comprehensive resource on this abominable act. Articles include David Cunningham's “Prisons, Torture, and Imperialism,” a piece on the anarchist perspective taken from comments at the 2008 Anarchist Bookfair in San Francisco, and a great essay on writing about torture, among many others. This sober 64-page document is a heavy piece of work—dark, informative, and oft times harrowing. But it's also about working hard to intact change. As says Williams in the Gyozo Nehez interview, “At the outset, I think it's more important to have a sense of hope, that things can be different and through our actions we can contribute to that change. The joy comes later, from struggle itself as much as from victory.” HURT is a how-to manual on fighting and understanding torture—a piece of the struggle itself.

Packs of Miscellany! And Super Savings Abound!

Are you looking for an array of awesomeness, a medley of magnificence? Check out the superpacks and mystery packs on our website! Not only are the savings pretty classy, but it's a sweet way to discover titles without wading through the catalog.

• Themed mystery Fun Packs: Comics, Personal, & Political
• We have around twenty different $20 Superpacks!
• Discontinued shirts are still cheap! Check out shirts here!

Sweatshirts are back!

For the last year, you've been asking "Will you have more of this sweatshirt in medium?" and we kept saying "soon." Well, finally the answer is "now." They won't last long and because they cost a pretty penny to produce, we are debating if we can do 'em again. Get 'em while they are hot.

♥♥♥Bird Sweatshirt

♥♥♥A Flying Mailbox Sweatshirt

♥♥♥Hang-gliders Sweatshirt

♥♥♥Kids Reading Sweatshirt

Be our Best Friend Forever!

....okay, well, not really forever...but just like supporting your local farmers, we now offer a "subscription" to everything that we publish! Every time we publish something new we'll send it to your door! Perfect for people who love to get a monthly package but don't have time to sift through what they want!$10-30/month based on what you can afford. Minimum subscription period is 6 months. Subscription begins the month after it is purchased. To receive more than 6 months, add multiple orders to your quantity.

Meet the Microcosmz!

Helping Out the Ol' Microcosm!

Like any DIY project, we're in near-constant financial peril. That's nothing new. And we know that most folks who support Microcosm don't have a ton of cash to spare, especially in the form of a straight-up donation. So, rather than passing the hat around, here's a chance to remind you all of other ways to support Microcosm!

The Revenge of Print!

Aren't you sick of hearing folks glibly forecasting the death of print? We are. People have been declaring the end of print in some form or other for longer than there's been zines! "Books are over." "Magazines are over." "Comix are over." "Newspapers are over." Bah! We're over things being over. Let's make things happen! So we declared 2011 to be The Revenge Of Print! And the Microcosm staff all made zines lovingly collected in this new $20 Superpack: Revenge of Print! A nice response to publishing doomsayers. "Print is alive if you want it." So the challenge is this: in 2012 Return of the Revenge of Print! Make a zine! 

Microcosm In Your Town!

The Microcosm cometh!  Cookies beware!

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!!

Xerography Debt #30

Davida Gypsy Breier's review zine,  Xerography Debt is a labor of love and obsession. Now on its 30th issue, Xerography Debt, Xerox Debt to fans) is "the review zine with personal tendencies," allowing its hand-picked cast of contributors to essay both the zines they love and where those zines find them in their lives. Issue 30 is 64 pages of zine-love goodness, with contributors like Al Burian, Microcosm founder Joe Biel, Eric Lyden, Fred Argoff, and many more reviewing zines. In an age of blogs and tweets, Xerox Debt  is a beautiful, earnest anachronism, a publication that seems to come from a different era, but is firmly entrenched in the now. As says Breier in her review of The Ken Chronicles, "It is a slice of life packaged in zine form." They want to review your zines in future issues: Davida Gypsy Breier / PO Box 11064 / Baltimore, MD 21212 USA

The Crusades

In the new edition of J. Gerlach's Simple History series Crusades zine we look at the period between 1095 and 1229, a time of widespread cruelty, political expansion, and religious hypocrisy. As Gerlach says in the zine's intro, "It is said that religious differences have caused most wars. Certainly this reasoning could be applied to the Crusades—a battle of Christians against Muslims for control of the 'Holy Land.' But as in other 'religious wars,' religion was not the main reason to fight." What comes next is an intelligent, fast-faced look at the hows and whys of this dark (and oft romanticized) spot in our history. Gerlach's illustrated, 48-page take on the Crusades is an accessible but richly detailed piece of cultural documentation. In this day of terrorists and nationalism, oil-wars and martyrs, this text will ring true to modern readers. The big, hot button themes—jihad, imperialism, propaganda, religious fervor—are all the same and the result can be chilling. As says Gerlach, "It goes back and forth, with no end in sight." Scary and synchronistic, this is the most relevant Simple History zine yet.

Rad Dad #21

It's the Rad Dad Occupy issue! In issue #21, Rad Dad editor Tomas Moniz and co. take on the recent global occupations from a radical parent's perspective. Are potentially volatile  protests like Occupy Wall Street kid-friendly? Are the folks behind the Occupy events organized enough to keep your children safe should the balance of power tip? Issue #21's contributors tackle the topic from a variety of angles, giving a balanced, clear-eyed spectrum of advice. Also in this issue is a series of non-Occupy writing, including a heartfelt essay on keeping your daughter off the stripper pole, a feature about the Foxfire Book series as a remedy for end-of-empire blues, and much more! Hot on the heals of the Rad Dad book, issue 21 is a sure-fire sign that Tomas and his contributors are not slowing down any time soon. This classic for-radical-parents by-radical-parents publication is essential reading for parents and non-parents alike.

Railroad Semantics #1

Devoted to trainhopping and train culture, Railroad Semantics describes the sights, sounds, successes, and defeats of riding around the U.S. in near-poetic detail. This first issue explores a round-trip, early-spring train ride from Portland to Pocatello and back, as well as a long, winter ride to Eugene. It features a wide array of articles on railroads and rail-related activity, letters, postcards, and is full of absolutely gorgeous photographs of landscapes and hobo graffiti! A poetic sense of adventure captured in words, pictures, and scenic vistas!.

Zinester's Guide to PDX, 5th Ed!

Billed as a "low/no budget guide to visiting and living in Portland, Oregon, the Zinester's Guide to Portland breaks down the PDX grid by neighborhood with descriptions of good restaurants, thrift stores, bars, bridges, places to loiter, etc. (lots of etc.). The newly overhauled and illustrated fifth edition gets shoulder-deep into the history and local lore, providing a well-rounded argument as to why (fill in the blank) deserves your time. It also demystifies the TriMet public transportation system, bike events and culture, outdoorsy stuff, the public libraries—basically anything you need to know as the new kid in town. (Of which there seems to be tons; the Zinester's Guide has been on Powell's Books' top 20 since 2006.) To the wrong eyes the book's title might imply a guide to Portland zine culture, but as editor Shawn Granton says in the introduction, the Zinester's Guide is not just for zinesters, that "It's always been about sharing the interesteng and unique things that make Stumptown great, and also helping people get by that aren't swimming in scads of money." For those of us that can't so much as dogpaddle most days, this is "community" at its mightiest.

is not just for zinesters, that "It's always been about sharing the interesteng and unique things that make Stumptown great, and also helping people get by that aren't swimming in scads of money." For those of us that can't so much as dogpaddle most days, this is "community" at its mightiest.

The Congo!

The story of the Congo is  the story of imperialism, foreign governments drawing boundaries and associating disparate tribes, resources being mined and profiting the rich and powerful, racism, fears and stories of cannibalism, civil wars, a series of corrupt foreign and domestic leaders, and no end in sight. Once thought of as “The Dark Continent,” Sub-Saharan Africa has a long and dreary road ahead and take back their country’s own resources and construct a positive path towards it’s future. This is the tale of how the war-ravaged Congo never stood a chance at forming its own democracy or nationalizing wealth produced within its borders. TheSimple History Series is an ongoing set of digestible bits and stories told the way they are often not taught in school.

Hawaii (1778-1959): From Western Discovery to Statehood

Two Simple History booklets in one month! Hawaii tells the story of an uncharted melting pot of cultures, homogenized and “conquered” by the United States. It traces Hawaii’s path from an undisturbed island chain to its current statehood, where only 10% of the population is Native Hawaiian.

The Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil War is part of John Gerlach's Simple History series, and the second title published by Microcosm (hot on the heels of Nez Perce Indians)! It’s 1936 and the world watches religious powers and fascists erupt into conflict with the proletariat left and anarchists in Spain. This zine presents a well-rounded and succinct account of the turbulence in late 30’s Spain. Complete with illustrations and a logical account of the complications throughout the civil war, this is an excellent zine for understanding history often poorly presented in high school.

Xerography Debt #29

The pirate ship of zine-bringing is sailing in the party! Reviewers this issue include Anne Thalheimer, D. Blake Wert, Davida Gypsy Breier, Eric Lyden,Fred Argoff, Gavin J. Grant, Joe Biel, Julie Dorn,  Kris Mininger, Liz Mason, Maynard Welstand, and Stuart Stratu. And on top of the scores of new zines reviewed in this issue, we are treated to excellent editorials from Dread Sockett and our trusty editor captain, Davida Gypsy Breier, addressing community issues in zine making as well as "Defining ourselves to death." As always, the ship sails freely and each contributor is allowed a free voice to say as they please!  

Everything Dies #7

One of the best and most promising new comic artists out there today, Box Brown writes and draws the Everything Dies zine series as a hard (and oft times hilarious) look into the religious myths of our world. Issue seven is a comic retelling of the pan-cultural “flood myth.” Here we see Sumerian wind god Enlil (a total badass jerk a la an evil pro-wrestler) setting out to destroy the newly-created people of the Earth. The “Noah” of this polytheistic ark story is King Ziasudra, and his trajectory and fate are much different than the Christian Biblical version. Beautifully drawn and deep-packed with “the things that make you go hmm,”  Everything Dies will keep you reassessing who we are and what we've built our shared narrative from. This is one of the most rewarding titles you'll read all year. Massively, joyfully, fist-pumpingly recommended!

Rad Dad—The Book!

Rad Dad: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Fatherhood combines the best from the award-winning zine Rad Dad and from Daddy Dialectic, two kindred publications that have explored parenting as political territory. Both have pushed the conversation around fathering beyond the safe, apolitical focus and have worked hard to create a diverse, multi-faceted space to grapple with the complexity of fathering. 

Today more than ever, fatherhood demands constant improvisation, risk, and struggle. With grace, honesty, and strength, Rad Dad’s writers tackle all the issues that other parenting guides are afraid to touch: the brutalities, beauties, and politics of the birth experience, the challenges of parenting on an equal basis with mothers, the tests faced by transgendered and gay fathers, the emotions of sperm donation, and parental confrontations with war, violence, racism, and incarceration. Rad Dad is for every father out in the real world trying to parent in ways that are loving, meaningful, authentic, and ultimately revolutionary. 

Contributors Include: Steve Almond, Jack Amoureux, Mike Araujo, Mark Andersen, Jeff Chang, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jeff Conant, Jason Denzin, Cory Doctorow, Craig Elliott, Chip Gagnon, Keith Hennessy, David L. Hoyt, Simon Knapus, Ian MacKaye, Tomas Moniz, Zappa Montag, Raj Patel, Jeremy Adam Smith, Jason Sperber, Burke Stansbury, Shawn Taylor, Tata, Jeff West, and Mark Whiteley.

Rad Dad #20

Hot on the heels of Rad Dad 19, we're excited to announce the release of issue 20! This issues features articles about special needs children, traditional Japanese grandparents, queer male allies, and an interview with Brian Heagney—the author, illustrator, and publisher of the kid's book, The ABCs of Anarchism. Some of this issue is learning lessons from your children—or even them teaching you lessons—and as always, Rad Dad is a forum and a source of hope that parents and children can one day be welcomed in radical spaces. This is important reading—vital stuff for parents and nonparents alike.

How & Why

OUT NOW! “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.

Edible Secrets

OUT NOW! 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.

Zinester's Guide to New York

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.

Chainbreaker—new edition!

New Edition with new design, layout, updates, & corrections! Here’s a hand-illustrated and accessible introduction to the world of bike repair! Through working at both Plan B Bike Project and French Quarter Bicycles in New Orleans, our co-authors have gathered a wealth of experience to share with would-be mechanics. The first half of this book is a complete repair manual to get you started on choosing, fixing, and riding your bike. The second half reprints the first four issues of Chainbreaker zine, whose originals were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.

Scam: The First Four Issues

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.

Firebrands: Portraits from the Americas

OUT NOW! Curated by the Justseeds Artists' Collective, Firebrands is 192 pages of art, world history, and dangerous information. These beautifully illustrated mini-poster pages showcase radicals, dissidents, folk singers, and rabble-rousers, from Emma Goldman to Tupac, Pablo Neruda to Fred Hampton. As say editors Shaun Slifer and Bec Young in the introduction, the book "is especially made for anyone who has sat, trembling with frustration and disappointment in history class, or reading a text book heavily edited of anything interesting or useful. It's for all our ancestors, especially for the ones left out of or misrepresented in said textbook, because they were too brown, too female, too poor, too queer, too uneducated, too disabled, or because they felt or thought too much." This is a real people's history, a book packed with dynamite, desire, and, above all, courage.

Xerography Debt #26

OUT NOW! Xerography Debt's new issue features even more of the beloved "review zine with perzine tendencies" wherein your favorite zine writers become zine reviewers, columnists, and news hounds! Wred Fright wrote an amazing history of zines that begins in 1929! 64 pages of new zines to fall in love with, collect obsessively, and tell your friends about. They want to review your zines in future issues; yes, you! We know you are out there! Now you should send it to: Davida Gypsy Breier / PO Box 11064 / Baltimore, MD 21212 USA. Now offering subscriptions! 

My Brain Hurts, Vol 2

OUT NOW!  Liz Baillie crafts a Degrassi-style teenage soap opera about queer punks in New York City! Our story resumes with Joey in a coma after an incident of queer bashing and Kate and Desi's relationship on the rocks. Desi's really religious, and Kate's really not, and they struggle to find a middle ground. The boys get caught smoking and uh, other things in the boys room, Kate getting in awkward situations with a hate crime perpetrator at her internship job, and much much more! Will queer teenage romance succeed? Will our heroes prevail over high school principals, skinheads, and a homophobic society?

Dwelling Portably 1990-1999

OUT NOW! "For the past 30 years, Bert and Holly have been cranking this out on a manual typewriter in their yurt. You'll find diagrams and notes on how to make tools, portable showers, find seasonal jobs, stay warm at night while Winter camping; hitchhiking and freight train hopping guides; suggestions from people who live in their car, in tents, yurts, tipis, or nowhere at all. And perhaps my favorite thing about "Dwelling Portably" are the personal stories that surround the helpful information." -Print Fetish

Sick: A Compilation Zine on Physical Illness

Sick collects peoples' experiences with illness to help establish a collective voice of those impacted within radical/left/DIY communities. The zine is meant to be a resource for those who are living with illness as well as those who have not directly experienced it themselves. Contributors discuss personal experiences as well as topics such as receiving support, providing support, and being an informed patient. These writings are meant to increase understandings of illness and further discussion as well as action towards building communities of care.

Best of Intentions

Second edition out now! This 288 page tome collects the entirety of Avow zine issues #11 through 16 and selected entries from the first ten issues as well. Avow is a collection of artwork and stories with a few nods graphically to Aaron Cometbus and a lot of original ink drawings. He has done unique artwork for Glass & Ashes, The T4 Project, Submission Hold, Against Me!, New Bruises, Razorcake, and plenty more. His stories cut into the darker side of life growing up in a small coastal fishing town and the mischief that ensues. He is reminisces about the days when demo tapes were commonplace and CD-Rs were non-existent, puts a good spin on his tales of figuring out how to obtain his next meal, and learns a lot from society, the hardcore community, and college that he employs into the analysis in his writing. While relentlessly self deprecating, Keith is a great storyteller and does a good job of deeply probing his brain to share these stories.

In Search Of The Lost Taste

OUT NOW! Joshua Ploeg's (Warm Streams, Behead The Prophet, Mulkiteo Faeries) cooking blows my mind so much that a secret door opens in the back of my head and white doves, musical notes, and winged horses fly out. His cooking is transcendent: Dangerous, strange and perfect. It¹s full of colorful tastes that explode in your mouth like Pop Rocks ­flavor combinations you never thought possible. Crazy alchemy. Freaky magic.
Joshua's the Traveling Chef; you make an appointment, he shows up at your house with a load of groceries, makes an incredible multi-course vegan meal using your pots and pans, and then he's gone like the Lone Ranger riding into a big Texas sunset.
Joshua's been in a bunch of hardcore bands and he brings all the good things punk rock gave us: risk, passion, creativity, and weirdness; then he applies them to his meals. I randomly lucked into one of his dinners last year. I usually eat really fast and mindlessly, but I had to take this one slow and let all the flavors develop and do their respective stuff. Each had its own distinctive note ­ its own voice that rang out to let it be known that it was something special and unique. It was an experience in the finest sense of the word.