First we'll start with 'Halo' by Chason Wainwright. Chason kept his zine going for several years. He started the first issue his senior year in high school and continued to write for several years. 

Issue #3 of Halo (May '95) includes a review of a Mr. T Experience/Skankin' Pickle show at the Berkeley Square, a 'No Face Man' comic by Chason, a 'Todd! The Really Dumb Guy' comic by Joel Maurer, and interview with Damon from Fungo Mungo by Michelle Dickson and other fun bits and pieces.  

Issue #4 (June '95) includes a 'No Face Man' comic, a piece about the band Slowdive, a suicide note or two, a 'Todd! The Really Dumb Guy' comic by Joel Maurer, a 'Customer Service Sucks!' comic, a review of local band Helv and their show at 924 Gilman and some rants and raves. 

Issue #5 (Oct '95) boasts a lengthy interview with the band Mr. T Experience, a piece on the band Ride, some poetry and a piece on starting college. 

Issue #7 (April '96) is a departure from the norm and is basically a collection of Chason's song lyrics from '94 – '96 put together in a much smaller format. 

Chason later did another version of Halo #7 in 2001 all about a trip he took to Europe, but I haven't seen that one. 

Halo’s print run was something like fifty copies of each one, maybe more and there were seven issues altogether.

My older brother, Ross, started a Morrissey fanzine in the late 90’s called “Unhappy Planet.” It was really well organized and cleanly put together like a magazine. Factsheet 5 reviewed it as “More open minded than most obsessed Morrissey fans” which just amuses me so much because of the images it conjures up.

This particular issue is dated January 1997 and sold for $3. It has an awesome red printed cover which features a drawing that the very talented Paul Pope kindly did for Ross and then signed some copies. Awesome! It's also got a great photo of Jarvis Cocker on the back, a Smiths album guide, some ads for other zines and a directory of more Moz/Smiths fanzines. 

There's a section for reviews which includes a review of Tricky's 'Pre-Millennium Tension' album, among others and Ross' take on some Irvine Welsh novels. There's a piece on meeting Pulp at a signing at the Virgin Megastore in San Francisco which anyone that's ever been to a signing can totally relate to. He followed that up with a piece on the live Pulp show he attended the next evening and there are lots of photos of both events. 

This issue also features a guest piece written by Chason Wainwright, called simply 'Morrissey' as well as a rundown of the cult classic TV show 'Twin Peaks.' 

There ended up being only four issues of 'Unhappy Planet' but it was pretty popular for a fanzine and somewhere just under 1000 copies were sold. 

'Marlene's Book of Colouring Fun!' was a one off collection of coloring book pictures put together by 'chycklet' grrl penpal zine creator Marlene. 

‘chycklet’ was a zine where you were invited to “send a description of yrself on a piece of white paper, decorate it to yr heart's desire and send it along with a buck to Marlene" where she would put it in the next issue and grrls that were intot the same stuff could become penpals with each other. Brilliant!

Holy hot angry tears and teenage lady-angst, Batman! It's 'Nepenthe.' 

Seriously, this is some raw ass, sexy talkin', school hating, drug enjoying, teenage anger poetry plus a short anonymous ode to a poo. 

This zine was put together by my bestie, Andi and our long time friend, Melissa in the spring or summer of '95 and includes writing and photography contributions from several other friends and acquaintances. 

‘Souther Comics’ are super fun little comic/zines from the mind of the talented and prolific artist, Souther Salazar. 

Speaking of Souther Salazar, he and his older brother Iain put together a well rounded zine called "Junk." I say well rounded because issue #2 (1994, I think) is pretty much exactly what I think of when someone says "zine." Perhaps that's because it was among one the first ones I read, but it really has it all: an interview with the indie band Grandaddy, really well illustrated comic strips, a repeated reference to the author's ambivalent feelings for their home town (in this case, Modesto, CA), a sport born out of a combination of agonizing boredom and heat (canal boarding ftw!), the recipe for a cocktail named after an 80's actress, a piece about Wal-Mart cult(ure), zine  reviews (including 'Hex' which will be in 

part 2 of this post), a 1987 article from a local high school newspaper about a skateboarding ban, a super disturbing  and utterly fascinating story (with photo) about somebody's mad Uncle Tony, reviews of recent shows (Pavement, Rancid, Sick of it All, AFI to name a few), a piece about the APE Con, and so much more. 

I really enjoyed this one when I first read it back in '95 and I enjoyed rereading it today.  It's good to know what someone as talented as Souther is up to, but I wonder what Iain is working on these days, if anything…