Burn Collector 12
I’ve decided that I’m going to try and write short reviews of things that I’ve been reading. Here’s the first one; hopefully I can keep doing this on a regular basis.
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Burn Collector #12
by Al Burian
Milemarker’s Al Burian has been putting out a zine about his everyday life for years now, with issues 1-9 compiled into a soft cover book. I’ve seen it for sale at various books stores and shows for a while now, but never picked it up. I chose to test the waters instead with the latest individual bi-annual issue, #12.
The narrative is first person and candid; daily anecdote from what seems to be a week in the middle of last winter in Chicago. The writing doesn’t require having read the previous issues, as back information about this life is given where appropriate. The story covers his job, meeting people at the bar, his mother’s international visit, and his failing relationship.
There’s lots of Chicago street and name and location dropping, which if you know the area he’s talking about really add dimension to the story. You can picture him shivering down Division past the hospital; walking to the coffee shop that’s never mentioned by name, but you can assume by location. It’s not that his story needs this added geographical dimension, but it definitely adds.
There are photos sprinkled throughout, of the places he’s talking about, which helps break the rhythmic page turning effect that a quarter-sized publication tends to create. The photos are printed at a good resolution as well, which adds to the overall high production quality of the book. My only complaint with the layout is that on some pages the leading seems to be inconsistent, and at times certain words will head off at an angle, like a paste-up layout that was accidentally leaned on.
The writing style reminds me of online journals, a medium that I’m actually more familiar with than personal zines. When I was done I found myself wishing that it had a daily online existence; compared to the frequency of that sort of writing this books seems like a tease. Don’t be mistaken though, this isn’t a random list of things he’s done each day. The writing acts as a cohesive narrative, and the quality deserves more credit than a comparison with online dairies would normally imply.
I don’t feel compelled to read all of the previously published issues, but I was intrigued enough that I’ll pick up the next issue when I see it at Quimby’s. Like a television series that you catch a single cliff-hanging episode of, I want to know what happens next.
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Copies of Burn Collector can be purchased from:
Stickfigure Distro
PO Box 55462
Atlanta, GA 30308
Issue 12, as well as the collected issues can also be found at Insound. A small interview about the book can be found here, samples from other issues can be found here, and a good place to look for information is always the Milemarker non-band page.
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