bOING bOING #14 (Los Angeles)

Issue #14 of bOING bOING has the zine moving its offices...again...back down to southern California and the Los Angeles area. For those keeping count, that's eight moves in seven years, circa 1988-1995. This is only mentioned because editor Mark Frauenfelder and the rest of the gang have such a casual attitude about it, even going so far as to opening this issue with a recap of the publication's many homes (which is actually pretty funny). Sadly, this would prove to be the next-to-last issue of bOING bOING the print zine, with Frauenfelder, Carla Sinclair and crew moving the zine online, to a web site, sometime during 1995. While I felt, at the time, that the readers might actually be catching up with the zine's futuristic vision and subject matter, evidently not enough readers evolved to continue supporting the zine's future.

This issue remains one of my favorites, featuring cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling's proposal for his innovative "Dead Media Project", which I had the pleasure of talking about with Sterling at the DragonCon convention that year. There's also a piece on Russ Meyer's "vixens" that includes interviews with actresses Haji and Kitten Natividad (complete with pulse-quickening photos), and another interview with '90s pin-up queens the Barbi Twins and, finally, an interesting interview with horror author Clive Barker. There are a couple of full-page cartoon strips, some very cool article illustration and the book, zine and music reviews that readers had come to expect from bOING bOING.

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #14
• no date given - 1995?
• B&W, 64-pages (including color covers)
• Style: cyber zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Clive Barker interview
Russ Meyer's Vixens Haji & Kitten
Barbi Twins interview
Bruce Sterling on "The Dead Media Project"
Marc Laidlow on "Becoming William Gibson's Screenwriter"
Rudy Rucker's "Zip.6" column
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bOING bOING #13 (San Francisco)

Whew! One mention on the popular bOING bOING blog and the hits go through the roof! The blog ran a post on our humble little TMQ Zine Archive and all of That Devil Music's blog's saw attendance jump from 1,000 unique visitors daily to a high of 6,000 right after the blog, since settled down to around 2,000 readers daily. Thanks and welcome to all of you newcomers!

Since the gang at bOING bOING did us a solid with their blog posting, I dug a couple more issues of the zine out of the old vault to add to the archive. Issue #13, which seems to be from 1994 sometime (they were always bad about dates) includes interviews with Ben Is Dead zine publisher Darby Romeo, Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, John Balance and Peter Christopher of Coil and the visionary Kevin Kelly, former editor of both the influential Whole Earth Review and Wired. There are also articles on dark wave and human branding as well as the usual insightful and interesting reviews of books, zines, music and such.

(Click on the cover thumbnail to see larger picture)

VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #13
• no date given - 1994?
• B&W, 64-pages (plus color covers)
• Style: cyber zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Kevin Kelly interview
Adam Yauch/Beastie Boys interview
Darby Romeo/Ben Is Dead zine interview
Coil interview (Peter C and John B)
Dark Wave ("Goth Sharpens Its Fangs")
Rudy Rucker's "Zip.5" column
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bOING bOING #12 (San Francisco)

There's always something interesting and fun to read in any given issue of bOING bOING and #12 is no different. The "Brain Candy" section offers up reviews of "mostly cool stuff" like software, gadgets, books and miscellania; there's an interview with writing genius William Gibson; an overview of new typography; Mondo 2000's R.U. Sirius' "Guide To The Alternative '70s;" an interview with filmaker Richard Linklater; "The Ignorant Human's Guide To The Internet;" and the usual book, zine, comics and music reviews. One thing that bOING bOING always did well was to incorporate comic art and strips into the zine; this issue, for instance, includes "Keane Vs. Keane" about the art world scandal, while other issues have included Shannon Wheeler's Too Much Coffeeman strip and other cool alt-comics. The impact that bOING bOING had on the cyber-subculture and today's tech-oriented pop culture can not be overestimated.

(Click on the cover thumbnail to see larger picture)

VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #12
• no date given - 1994?
• B&W, 64-pages (including color covers)
• Style: cyber zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
William Gibson interview
Richard Linklater interview
Front 242 interview
R.U. Sirius' "Guide To The Alternative '70s"
Rudy Rucker's "Zip.4" column
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bOING bOING #11 (San Francisco)

Maybe editor Mark Frauenfelder named the zine bOING bOING 'cause it bounces around from location to location. Firmly entrenched in their fourth year of publishing, bOING bOING has moved from Colorado to several locations in and around Los Angeles and now to San Francisco. The zine's editorial quality never suffered, however, probably due to the vision of Frauenfelder and his co-editor and wife Carla Sinclair. That said, issue #11 is a bit of a jumble in terms of content, the theme (loosely) being "fun and games." You have articles like "Fake Funland (A Trip Through Toys-R-Us)" and "Musers Not Losers!" (a visit to MIT's "Cyberion City") as well as "The Poor Human's Guide To The Internet." There's a lot of info crammed into the pages of this issue, too much to really digest at the time and still illuminating (and somewhat maddening) today.

(Click on the cover thumbnail to see larger picture)

VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #11
• no date given - 1993?
• B&W, 64-pages (plus color covers)
• Style: cyber zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Emergency Broadcast Network interview
Mondo Vanilli interview
Nick Herbert interview
"Fake Funland"
"A Six-Pack Of Dystopia"
"The Poor Human's Guide To The Internet"
Rudy Rucker's "Zip.3" column
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bOING bOING #10 (Los Angeles)

With bOING bOING issue #10 you get the inevitable "SEX" issue, another subject that was de rigeuer with alternative culture types at the time. And for good reason, really...with the technological advances of the late-80s/early-90s you also had a second sexual revolution. Video technology and the Internet had revolutionized pornography, taking it out of the adult bookstores with greasy floors and bringing it to your living room and bedroom. This issue includes interviews with visionary Terence McKenna, sexy rocker Nathalie of the Lords Of Acid, and writers Brenda Laurel and Marc Laidlaw; a review of aphrodisiacs; articles on "virtual sex,""holy whores" and computer porn; and more book, zine, comics and music reviews than you could shake a stick at!

(Click on the cover thumbnail to see larger picture)

VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #10
• no date given - 1993?
• B&W, 64-pages (plus color covers)
• Style: cyber zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Terence McKenna interview
Marc Laidlaw interview
Brena Laurel interview
Peter Stafford interview
Nathalie/Lords of Acid interview
"Bottled Libido: Aphrodisiacs"
"Virtual Sex"
"Confessions of a PC Porn Fanatic"
Rudy Rucker's "Zip.2" column
--> also reader mail, music, comics, book & zine reviews

bOING bOING #9 (Los Angeles)

With issue #9 bOING bOING continues the growth spurt that began with the move to L.A., adding pages and expanding editorially to include more aspects of alt-culture alongside the cutting edge tech and shamanistic content. The zine changed somewhat graphically around this time, featuring the now-familiar computer-generated look that was so de rigeuer among Mac cultists at the time. This issue includes an interesting interview with Bruce Sterling, an interesting guy and frequent bOING bOING contributor; a fascinating column by sci-fi writer and free-thinker Rudy Rucker; an interview with Scott Benzel of Machines Of Loving Grace; the Ramones on acid, and the usual spate of book and zine reviews. Another entertaining issue of a zine that was probably years ahead of its time....

(Click on the cover thumbnail to see larger picture)

VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #9
• no date given - 1992?
• B&W, 64-pages (plus color covers)
• Style: cyber zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Bruce Sterling interview
Scott Benzel/Machines of Loving Grace interview
The Ramones
"Nanoflash"
"New Facts On Saving Our Environment"
Paco Xander Nathan's "Robot Groupies"
Rudy Rucker's "Zip.1" column
Bruce Sterling's "Let's Go Downtown" (Tokyo & tech)
--> also reader mail, music, comics, book & zine reviews

bOING bOING #8 (Los Angeles)

With issue #8, bOING bOING made several big changes. Editors Mark & Carla Frauenfelder picked up and moved the zine from Boulder CO to the Los Angeles area. This issue jumped up in size to a healthy page count of 56, and the staff now included Gareth Branwyn, Factsheet Five's Mike Gunderloy, and Paco Zander Nathan as well as interesting writers like Antero Alli and Richard Kadrey. Maybe it was just me, but I seemed to be understanding more and more of the normal bOING bOING fare with each issue. This one includes a good interview with underrated sci-fi/cyberpunk author Lewis Shiner, an intriguing piece by Antero Alli on "World Entertainment Wars" (seeing through advertising), and a new music review section written by Gunderloy and Steven Ellis White. In this case, change was good for bOING bOING.

(Click on the cover thumbnail to see larger picture)

VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #8
• Spring 1992
• B&W, 56-pages (plus color covers)
• Style: cyber zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Lewis Shiner interview
Nina Graboi interview
Antero Alli's "World Entertainment Wars"
"Metanoids Untie" (?)
"Everything I Know I Learned From Editing Pihkal"
"International Drug Paranoia"
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bOING bOING #7 (Boulder CO)

For a couple of years, bOING bOING had been calling itself "the world's greatest neurozine," however you want to define that. I always called it a "cyber zine" because of its connection to the fledgling online world. As far as I know, bOING bOING one of the first zines to pair technology and the 'net in an editorial capacity. Editor Mark Frauenfelder also did a great job of bringing on interesting, illuminating writers like Robert Anton Wilson (one of my personal faves, and a mad thinker that was still decades ahead of the rest of us at the time of his death), Antero Alli, Gareth Branwyn and even Frauenfelder himself and his wife Carla.

(Click on the cover thumbnail to see larger picture)

VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #7
• 1992, no month given
• B&W, 48-pages (plus color covers)
• Style: cyber zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Robert Anton Wilson's "Men Against Defamation"
Antero Alli's "Breaking Cultural Trance"
Janey Fritsche interview
Roger Price interview
"Heaven Sent Me An Angel, C.O.D." fiction by Paul Di Filippo
--> also reader mail, book & zine reviews

bOING bOING #6 (Boulder CO)

With issue #6 bOING bOING continues to grow both in size and stature, this issue including an interview with Robert Anton Wilson (by Antero Alli), Rudy Rucker on James Gleick's Chaos: The Software, an interview with comic artist Daniel Clowes and some high-falutin' high-tech articles about subjects that are still miles above my head (and, believe it or not, I have an above-average IQ...allegedly). Still, it was always good to see bOING bOING on the newstand, if only because their coverage of new media (books, zines, software) was second to none and always satisfied this young man's craving for fresh sources of information.

(Click on the cover thumbnail to see larger picture)

VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #6
• 1991, no month given
• B&W, 48-pages (including covers, spot color)
• Style: cyber zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Robert Anton Wilson (prophet)
Daniel Clowes (cartoonist)
Brigitte Mars (herbalist)
"Passport To Invisible Utopia"
"Confessions In A Drug-Free Zone"
"Accessing Alternity With Consciousness Technology"
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bOING bOING #5 (Boulder CO)

I have to admit that about half the time, I had no idea what they were talking about in any given issue of bOING bOING. The other half, I was simply confused. Editor Mark Frauenfelder was way ahead of his time with this cyber-oriented zine, discussing subjects like smart drugs and "memes" and software and interviewing evolutionary agents like Peter Lamborn Wilson years before the Worldwide web and the Internet explosion. I always enjoyed the zine's book and zine reviews; a lot of their software reviews were more Mac-oriented and I've always been a hardcore PC hacker. An interesting start for a zine that would only grow better as time went along. These days, Frauenfelder is still on the cutting edge, editing the uber-popular bOING bOING blog and writing books like Rule The Web.

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VITAL STATISTICS:
• Issue #5
• 1991, no month given
• B&W, 40-pages (plus squigley color covers)
• Style: cyber zine

ARTICLES/INTERVIEWS
Peter Lamborn Wilson
"A Memetic Lexicon"
"The Death Mask of F.W. Murnau"
Smart Drugs
"Underground," fiction by Paul Di Filippo
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