Zine Review: Basic Paper Airplane #6

Basic Paper Airplane #6

36 pages / half letter / $3

www.msvalerieparkdistro.com

 There are points in time when our lives change and shift direction – some are quiet and only dawn in our awareness years later, others are apocryphal but clearly seared into our consciousness as they are unfolding. Basic Paper Airplane #6 is a meditation on these moments of recognition, divergent paths, new starts.

The year has barely begun & already I have read a zine that reminds me of why I love the format of zines, the discovery and senses that they awaken. Joshua James Amberson’s writing draws the reader through the fog of memories into the clarity of internal contemplation. Most of these vignettes are deeply personal – about the intensity of childhood, the veil lifted from relationships, the mythologies and meanings we construct every day. Some of my favorite pieces in Basic Paper Airplane #6 center around historical figures and Joshua’s glimpses into their biographies: Gertrude Stein, Edward Muybridge, Orville and Wilbur Wright – all pioneers with vision and fortitude.

All of the ingredients in Basic Paper Airplane #6 flow perfectly together – graphics, concepts, wordcraft. One read-through captures the mood, and the next starts revealing intricate details and emotional nuances. This is a work of art & literature to be revisited. Often.