And Then I Read: DODGEM LOGIC 1 & 2

First thing you should know about these is they are clearly marked FOR ADULTS ONLY, with good reason. DODGEM LOGIC is a slick-looking magazine masterminded and edited by Alan Moore, with some articles and art by him, but lots of contributions from friends and colleagues. In spirit it's very much like the underground newspapers of the 1960s, such as the "East Village Other" that I used to pick up in New York City occasionally in my youth, with a wide variety of subjects and styles, but all with a distinctly counter-culture or aiming-to-shock flavor. The focus is also on Northampton, England, where Alan lives, and features arts and culture news for that area. I have to say I enjoyed Alan's lead essay in each issue the most, and probably his self-written and drawn underground comic (whose title I don't want to even type here) the least, though it's no more outrageous than some of R. Crumb's work. Issue 2 has a CD inserted containing a sampling of local Northampton music in a wide variety of styles, from folk and country to hip hop and hard rock. It's a good listen, and I might run it a few more times.

Here's the opening page of Alan's essay on "Anarchy" from issue 2, in issue 1 it was on the history of Underground Comics. Also contributing are Melinda Gebbie and Kevin O'Neill (with some oddly pornographic art), writer Steve Aylett, and Steve Moore. The other names aren't familiar to me. There are comic strips of varying quality, essays on gardening, cooking and sewing, photo essays, including one on three strippers like the one featured on the cover above. Wide variety, and most pieces are a page or two, so if you don't like one, the next might work for you.

I don't know quite what to think of this as a magazine…is it an anachronism, a predictive hybrid, or just an oddity? In an age when many aren't reading magazines of any kind, it's certainly a gamble, but apparently is doing fairly well, as I just read that profits from it have funded an admirable holiday food gift program in Northampton, so that's certainly a good thing. I guess I'd say I'd recommend it to Alan Moore completists, and folks who remember the 60s counter-culture fondly and would like to see what it might look like in today's clothes, so to speak.