Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Zine Review: Cloud Factory #2




Cloud Factory #2

Cloud Factory feels unique among zines – both meandering and sharply focused at the same time. Ryan Homsley is a prisoner and Laura is a zine creator and Cloud Factory is their mutual creation born from correspondence between them.. In this issue Ryan and Laura discuss what the title Cloud Factory means and Laura’s financial, physical, and mental challenges in publishing and editing the zine. They also discuss historical moments that had impacts upon their lives, authors who have influenced them, and more. Ryan is a powerful writer who navigates his interior world and opens glimpses, then vistas, for us, the readers. Playing In Hurricanes is one of the finest pieces of writing I’ve encountered so far this year. Ryan’s artwork is striking and sometimes surreal bordering on disturbing at times – it’s an unfiltered gaze into his creative psyche. A sequence called “Cell Ten” was both incisive and harrowing. Cloud Factory is a zine that speaks truth on every page and brings us to places of darkness, light, and humanity.  

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