On the Podcast: Unfuck Your Brain with Dr. Faith Harper

September 20, 2017 — by Joe Biel

Our brains are doing our best to help us out, but they can be real assholes sometimes. Dr. Faith is here to help! Sometimes it seems like your own brain is messing with you—melting down in the middle of the grocery store, picking fights with your date, getting you addicted to something, or shutting down completely at the worst possible moments. That’s where Dr. Faith’s practice comes in. With humor, patience, and lots of swearing, Unfuck Your Brain shows you the science behind what’s going on in your skull and talks you through the process of retraining your brain to respond appropriately to the non-emergencies of everyday life. If you’re working to deal with old traumas, or if you just want to have a more measured and chill response to situations you face all the time, this book can help you put the pieces of the puzzle together and get your life and brain back.

August’s Bike Books for Uncertain Futures

August 02, 2017 — by Cynthia Marts

Happy Wednesday!

It’s officially August, and this month we’re thinking a lot about the possibilities of the future. We’re thinking about independence and freedom, oppression and diversity, healing our selves and our pasts, and all the little things we need to work on to change the world.

The books we have pubbing this month reflect these thoughts, with dystopic bike stories and self-care through bikes and yoga.

First up is the new Bikes in Space collection, Biketopia: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction in Extreme Futures. Edited by Elly Blue and featuring writing by herself, Jessie Kwak, Sarena Ulibarri, Leigh Ward-Smith, and more, this collection takes on the possibilities of extreme futures with 10 bike-centric stories (and 1 mini-comic) of freedom, rebellion, and survival, by bike.

Get the book today.

Also officially out this month is Pedal, Stretch, Breathe: The Yoga of Bicycling by Kelli Refer. This charming, very useful little purple book is your one-stop guide to yoga perfect for bicyclers.

Sections include:

How to breathe your way up the steepest hills (and the science behind bike paths and air quality);

a flow chart of stretches to ease your achy knees and sore back;

a guide to your and your bicycle’s chakras that will charm any skeptic’s heart; and more.

This has been available on our site and in our shop for quite a while, but August 8th is its official new release, with a fresh ISBN and all the same informative charm.

Get the book now.

Finally, to celebrate this month’s rad, bike-centric releases, we’re giving away…

10 copies of Biketopia over on Goodreads, August 4-11th, and

50! copies of Bikes in Space Volume 2 — one of the zines that began it all — August 14th- 28th

So keep an eye out for those and get lucky!

Also this month, we’ve launched the Kickstarter project for Dr. Faith’s radical, swear-filled new book on taking back your brain from anxiety, depression, anger, trauma, and more: Unfuck Your Brain!

Check out the video below and the kickstarter here, and help us make this Do-It-Your-Fucking-Self metal health book a reality!

Stay strong out there,

Cyn & the Microcosm team

On the Podcast: Corbett Redford, director of Turn it Around: The Story of East Bay Punk

July 27, 2017 — by Joe Biel

TURN IT AROUND excavates 30 years of the California Bay Area’s prolific punk past, highlighting Berkeley’s landmark 924 Gilman Street music collective and its community of bands, many of which also appeared on the roster of Lookout Records. It features original research and cool tellings of the history of bands like Jawbreaker, Operation Ivy, Green Day, and Rancid with lots of never-before-seen footage as well. Corbett (Bobby Joe Ebola Songbook, Meal Deal with the Devil) has been an entrenched part of this scene for decades and was chosen by Green Day (the executive producers) as the unique individual who could make all of the participants, scene, and fans happy—even though this is his first feature documentary! Aaron Cometbus did the lettering. Iggy Pop did the narrating. Jesse Michaels did the illustration. The film will be playing in Portland on August 3-4 at Cinema 21 and the national theatrical release is happening now! Corbett, Elly, and Joe sat down to talk about trauma, healing, and the importance of having a community to make you greater than yourself.

Bringing Basic Back

July 12, 2017 — by Cynthia Marts

Fermented foods are great for your health, and this book is a great resource for learning to use the microbes around you. Wanna learn how to make your own?

Previously available as the zine “Wild Fermentation,” this classic fermentation book needed an upgrade — and now with step-by-step photos and a lovely paper-over-board cover, it’s ready for new life! And, seriously, it’s beautiful.

Officially out today and available at your favorite bookstore, Basic Fermentation explores the simplest ways to ferment at home, with delicious recipes for kefir, injera, honey wine, vinegar, and way more.

And it’s officially out TODAY!!

Praise for Basic Fermentation, 3rd Edition:

a “must-have little book” – Foodista

“invites readers into Katz’s kitchen to try some extra-funky homemade yogurt and fresh-baked sourdough—and to learn the theory, practice, art, and magic of fermentation. Don’t be surprised if you get hooked.” – Spoonful Magazine

“best-selling author and fermentation evangelist Sandor Katz is the consummate guide. Follow his lead, and get your funk on.” – PureWow

Enter to win a copy over on Goodreads, or buy one today from us and get it next week!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Basic Fermentation

by Sandor Ellix Katz

Giveaway ends July 15, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

BAGGAGE CALL! [a call for submissions]

July 04, 2017 — by Cynthia Marts

Ever want to know what makes Microcosm tick? Now you can. To celebrate Microcosm Publishing’s 21st anniversary, the Microcosmonauts are putting together a new zine!

Dear readers, zinesters, writers, and friends,

To celebrate Microcosm’s 21 years in business, I want to produce the next piece of our story: a zine about the experiences and passions of the people that have made up Microcosm’s sweat, blood, and tears. I want to celebrate the people who have made Microcosm what it is now through good and bad, and to share our voices and all the reasons why we do what we do.

The theme for this zine is BAGGAGE (We’ve All Got It). Because like any business, we are made up of folks who are people, and like all people, we’ve all got some kind of baggage. Emotional, psychological, physical, familial, legal, romantic; the list could go on, right? Who doesn’t have somethin’?
So let’s talk about it.

In this zine collection of essays, articles, and art from Microcosmonauts past and present, we’re talking about our lives: our pasts, our passions, and our problems. What brought us here and what the hell keeps us going?
But for this to truly celebrate the people who make Microcosm what it is, we also need you.We wouldn’t be anything without all the zinesters, readers, and BFFs out there that keep us going. So tell us about you.

How did you discover Microcosm Publishing?
What draws you to our titles? What do you like about them or us?
Has a Microcosm book or zine ever helped you through a problem or critical situation or led you on an adventure?
What kind of baggage has something from Microcosm helped you to unpack, solve, or sort through?
Has a zine ever gotten you through a panic attack, a bad hair day, or tough times?
Tell us about it!

We’re looking for short personal essays, stories, mini-comix, or zine pages having to do with Microcosm, our books, our mission, what we do, etc. The theme we’re using to bring all of this together is (We’ve All Got) “Baggage”, so think about ways your work might reflect or fit into that theme.

Some other questions you might consider if you’re interested: What do you think makes Microcosm unique, and why do you like it? What part of our mission or brand reflects or differs with your own personal values, perspectives, or identity? What do you wish you saw more of?

Deadline is August 1st, and submissions should be 300-1000 words (though feel free to submit art/other media) and can be as creative as the above call to action strikes you.

Email me directly at Cyn@microcosmpublishing.com with questions and submissions. Include [BAGAGGE Submission] in your subject line.

Thank you for keeping us going, and here’s to 21 more years of punk rock publishing.

Cyn Marts
Publicity Director
Stay strong out there.

New Kickstarter: A zine about bikes, class, and social justice

June 21, 2017 — by Elly Blue

The new (14th!) issue of Elly’s feminist bike zine, Taking the Lane, is called Bikequity and it’s live on Kickstarter right now.

Inside you’ll find a mix of new and familiar voices, from Bicycle / Race (forthcoming from Microcosm 2018) author Adonia Lugo’s motivational tale of cofounding an iconic cycling event to a stunning personal essay by many-times Bikes in Space contributor Gretchin Lair. Writers tackle issues of how bicycling interacts with their identity and socioeconomic status in diverse and compelling ways.

Oh, and the project was selected to participate in Kickstarter Gold, a month-long initiative to bring back the creators of iconic past projects. We’re honored to get to be part of it.

We think you’ll like this zine-book. Please consider backing it!

The cover of Bikequity

Six Days in Cincinnati Out Now, & Other Social Justice Titles To Survive Trump’s Amurica

June 13, 2017 — by Cynthia Marts

This month sees the official publication of our comics journalism re-release, Six Days in Cincinnati: A Graphic Account of the Riots that Shook the Nation a Decade Before Black Lives Matter by Dan Mendez Moore.

This is the graphic history of the 2001 Cincinnati riots, told for the first time from the perspective of the participants.

When Timothy Thomas, a 19 year old black man, was fatally shot by police, the city broke out into nonviolent civil disobedience that was met with further police violence.

This was the first major uprising of the 21st Century, matched only the LA riots a decade before and the protests in Ferguson over a decade later. Author and

illustrator Dan Mendez Moore was 17 at the time and participated in the six days of protests that shook the city between Thomas’s death and his funeral.

Mendez Moore’s comics journalism account sensitively captures a fiery moment in U.S. history through interviews with protesters, community leaders, bystanders, and a frustrated looter. He portrays the tension of a city boiling over, political leaders taking advantage, and an inner-city community coming together.

Six Days in Cincinnati is an all-American story of systemic racism and the power of popular movements, more relevant today than ever before.

→ Behind the Scenes Note:

Six Days was originally published as Mark Twain Was Right,

referring to a protest sign seen at the March for Justice that quoted Mark Twain:

“If the world comes to an end, I want to be in Cincinnati.

Everything comes there 10 years later.” ←

Check out an interview with creator Dan Mendez Moore over at Literary Hub, or check out some of the other love on Library Journal or Broken Frontier.

Get one now!

And if you can’t afford a copy, our website offers sliding scale pricing, so you can pay what works for you. If you still can’t, check out this Goodreads Giveaway, starting today and ending June 20th.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Six Days in Cincinnati

by Dan Méndez Moore

Giveaway ends June 20, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Here are a few of our other social justice and activism titles, because resisting matters when the rules are wrong.

Activism-Inspiration

Teenage Rebels: Stories of Successful High School Activists From the Little Rock 9 to the Class of Tomorrow — tells the stories of teenagers that took matters into their own hands and got shit done. [Want to win a copy? Check out the goodreads overstock giveaway open from June 19th to July 1st.]

Things That Help: Healing Our Lives Through Feminism, Anarchism, Punk, & Adventure — zinester Cindy Crabb talks healing, helping, and moving forward with feminism and activism.

Think! Eat! Act!: A Sea Shepherd Chef’s Vegan Recipes — a Sea Shepherd’s guide to eating delicious food without compromising your values.

Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save The Economy (Updated and Expanded) — explores how bicycling infrastructure can build healthy economies and help with activism and social justice.

Biketopia: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories in Extreme Futures — deals a lot with societies in need of activism. “By the time I was done [with “Shelter”] I was an angry feminist myself.” (source)

Edible Secrets: A Food Tour of Classified US History

Bipedal, By Pedal! #3: A history of bicycle activism in Portland, OR

Hurt: Notes on Torture in a Modern Democracy

Rad Dad #21: Occupy

Support: Feminist Relationship Tools to Heal Yourself and End Rape Culture

Hidden Histories and Surviving Fascism

Threadbare: Clothes, Sex, and Trafficking — comics-journalist Anne Elizabeth Moore and the LadyDrawers take on the global fashion industry and their many crimes against their employees, customers, and planet.

Soviet Daughter: A Graphic Revolution – Tells the comics-memoir story of Julia Alekseyeva’s great-grandmother, a self-educated woman making her way through life in soviet Ukraine.

On The Books: A Graphic Tale of Working Woes at NYC’s Strand Bookstore

CIA Makes Science Fiction Unexciting: Dark Deeds & Derring-Do from 1950 to Today

100 Years of Modern Iran (1891-1991)

Getting Through it All

How to Plan for Action: A Protest Prep Zine

Coping Skills: Because sometimes life is some serious Bullshit

This is Your Brain on Anxiety: What Happens and What Helps

Surviving: Getting Through The Shit Life Throws At You

How Not To Kill Yourself: A Survival Guide for Imaginative Pessimists

Henry and Glenn are BACK

June 06, 2017 — by Cynthia Marts

The greatest love story ever told is now all in one place! This month we’re finally getting in the new, hardcover, fully collected editions of Henry & Glenn Forever & Ever. Begun more as a joke than not, this punk satire comic series has grown a life of its own over the years, catching the eye of punks and readers around the world.

Two men. Two myths. One legend. The greatest love story ever told.

Twenty short comic stories about the domestic life of “Henry” and “Glenn” and sometimes their neighbors “Daryl” and “John.” Glenn deals with issues with his mother while Henry shows off his darker side and indifference. These are two men who truly suffer best together.

This book collects the entire series for the first time, adds even more never-before-published-pages, and features a spiffy hardcover to truly make this edition a complete (-ly ridiculous) collector’s edition!

For the collectors out there: Tom Neely has put together a rad special edition dust jacket, which will be signed and numbered, for 1000 copies. This is the ultimate Henry & Glenn fan item: a signed, limited edition tome marking the first time the H&G series will be fully collected in a single volume.

Get one before they’re gone — we start shipping next week!

And for EVEN MORE Henry and Glenn, check out the new H&G Adult Activity & Coloring Book. Color your idols! This one’s available everywhere in November, but shipping from us direct starting next week!

Check out some of the media hype over at Dangerous Minds and Graphic Policy, or learn more about the creation of H&G in this interview with Tom in VICE Creators.

Then, get a copy!

Low on cash? Win copies from Texas radio station KCAL Nation here:

http://kcalnation.kcalfm.com/app2/Contest/4PWQWH

and: http://kcalnation.kcalfm.com/app2/Contest/ALFFRO

And if you’re one of those social media-types, follow the #henryandglenn hashtag on twitter to keep up with news, updates, and giveaways!

Henry & Glenn always makes a great gift.

Are You Striving, Thriving, or Starving?

May 04, 2017 — by Cynthia Marts

Update: The Thrive/Starve poster is now available for purchase!

Too many times in all our lives we let the bad things in our lives outweigh the good, and fall into the toxic habits of being extra judgmental or fearing change, holding grudges or lashing out at others, avoiding responsibility or blaming others for your problems or your own failures. These unhealthy ways of thinking muck everything up in our lives in all sorts of ways that hurt you and the people around you.

Below are some recommendations from Dr. Faith’s 5-Minute Therapy zine series for common unhealthy habits and ways of thinking that we can often find ourselves stuck in.

We know building healthy habits can feel exhausting when you’re weighted down with so many bad ones, but we swear, it’s worth it, and talking (or reading) about these things does help.

Respect and Compliment others instead of bypassing their needs or perspective:

Boundaries: Because We Don’t Teach This Shit in Elementary School

BDSM FAQ: Your Antidote for Fifty Shades of Grey

Relationshipping: Love Differently, Because Rules are for Games

Embrace Your Self instead of Comparing Yourself to Others and/or Internalizing Criticism:

Coping Skills: Because Sometimes Life is Some Serious Bullshit

(by Elly Blue)

This is Your Brain on Anxiety

Sex Without Roles: Transcending Gender

How Not To Kill Yourself (by Set Sytes)

If you like more than a few, you might want to check out the Dr. Faith Superpack, and start your own collection.

Contest Alert! : The Velocipede Races

April 20, 2017 — by Cynthia Marts

If you like YA novels, bicycle fiction, strong characters, or just empowering books, you should check out The Velocipede Races by the rad Emily June Street. Published around this time a year ago, Velo Races is Microcosm’s first young adult novel… first steampunk novel… first feminist YA steampunk bicycle racing novel—a lot of firsts, but featuring our good old fashioned theme of self-empowerment.

“This is what I am. I’m a jockey. I ride velos. I ride velos as well as a man. If I stay quiet, if I keep it a secret, I’m just being a coward. Don’t you see how it is? Someone has to break the box. If I don’t show them what I can do, if I pretend to be a man forever, the box isn’t broken. But if I say, yes, I’m a woman, and I did this thing that no one believed I could do, then I’ve made room for someone else to do it, too. I have to make space where there is none, just like in a velocipede race.”

Praise for Velo Races has applauded the style and writing, and the bad-ass hero, Emmeline, including the cover blurb by steampunk queen Cherie Priest. Here’s some of its love:

“Street also does not glorify or fetishize Victorian women’s fashion, as many steampunk stories do…I enjoyed getting to see a young woman using the development of her physical skills as her jumping off point to grow in her emotional life as an adult, and not solely the love of a good man.” http://www.paperdroids.com/2016/07/05/velocipede-versus-corset/

“This book weaves in the history of women and cycling into a fictional story about one girls journey into her emancipation. Not only is this the first novel that I’ve read that weaves in these themes, it also comes with many firsts: first steampunk novel, first YA steampunk feminist/bicycle racing novel, and my first love into the work of Emily June Street.” http://citygirlrides.blogspot.fr/2016/02/book-review-velocipede-races.html

“Tense, thoughtful, and truly thrilling – The Velocipede Races is a marvelous fantasy of manners and machinery.” Cherie Priest, bestselling author of the Clockwork Century novels

If you haven’t gotten to pick one up yet, you can get always get a copy from us or wherever books are sold, OR enter to win ONE of FIFTY copies over on Goodreads from now till the end of the month. Happy reading!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Velocipede Races

by Emily June Street

Giveaway ends May 01, 2017.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

Goodreads Book Giveaway

by Sandor Ellix Katz

Goodreads Book Giveaway

by Dan Méndez Moore

Activism-Inspiration

Hidden Histories and Surviving Fascism

Getting Through it All

Further Reading

Respect and Compliment others instead of bypassing their needs or perspective:

Embrace Your Self instead of Comparing Yourself to Others and/or Internalizing Criticism:

Blaming Others and Holding A Grudge:

Feeling Entitled or Never Setting Goals:

Fearing Change or Thinking You Know It All:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

by Emily June Street