Exercising Demons Zine, Issue Two And A Review Of Issue One

In case you missed it, and you would have had to unless you were at the Tulsa Zine Fest two months ago,  issue two of my zine Exercising Demons is out. The only way to get it is from me or at Holy Mountain here in Tulsa at the extra low, low price of FREE! You heard me right. At some point I'll get around to dropping a few copies off at other places like Boulevard Trash. Eventually.

Yeah I was so focused on getting it ready in time for the zine fest that I forgot to announce it on here. There's lots of cool true stuff in this one plus a fiction piece and it's grown too. Twenty whole pages this go around and I did the artwork. I haven't drawn in over twenty years and it shows. These first few issues are teaching me important lessons about what to do (and not do in some cases) while I try and find my focus for the zine. Issue three is now in the planning stage, I just need to decide what stories I'm actually going to write or re-write in some cases..

Also, I sent issue one to the fine folks at Razorcake (zine, website, record label and more) to be reviewed and they did so online. You can follow the link to give them some traffic for their website by clicking here or look below where I've copied and pasted it. Do both, it only takes a few minutes. I pretty much agree with what Kurt says too for what it's worth. He knows what he's talking about.

EXERCISING DEMONS #1 trade/2 stamps, 5 ½” x 8 ½”, copied, 8 pgs. By Kurt Morris Monday, July 27 2015 This is a short zine with some personal accounts of family as well as some lyrics/poetry. While poetry has never done much for me, I felt like I was being teased with the personal material. There are foundations for some great longer pieces in this material. Don mentions offhandedly his time in the military in places like Germany and Saudi Arabia—there are probably some cool stories there. He also mentions moving around a lot and ponders why we say we’re “from” some place even when we haven’t lived there for years, which would be an interesting thought to explore further. There is also a piece on his father’s eight (?!) wives. I would’ve loved to hear more about that! For a first issue, this shows a lot of promise. Some more extrapolating would’ve been great. Don seems unsure with what he’s doing in Exercising Demons, but I would encourage him to keep going. There’s some good potential here.-Kurt Morris (Don Leach, 1546 S. 79th E. Ave., Tulsa, OK 74112, notmovingpictures@gmail.com)

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.