ZINES: Eric Heins

Zine: Monkey Meets the Blowtorch
Issue: 2
Created by: Eric Heins, Ryan Schierling
Format: 8 1/2" x 14"
Where: Emporia, KS
When: 1989

The second issue of MMTB. I wish I could find the first issue, which has a ton of interviews. Oh well, in this one there's a letter and some heavy stories from Nor-Cal Swami, an interview with Spike Jonze, Eric's recollection of the Austin 2-HIP King of Vert contest (with photos by Jonze), a couple shots of Dead Milkmen, photos of Rick Allison, Lee Ralph, and a ripped-off photo of Swank.

Notes: Legal-size paper, folded in half. The name for this zine came up in a phone conversation with Spike and Lew. Eric and I used to call Wizard Publications from time to time and ask for Spike or Lew, or Andy, or whoever was around.

Dan and Jay's Zeen #1.

Zine: Dan and Jay's Zeen
Issue: 1
Created by: Dan Ferrell, Jason Stecher
Format: 8 1/2" x 11"
Where: Emporia, KS
When: 1988

Friends Dan and Jay put out this zine about the same time that Eric Heins and I were making Monkey Meets the Blowtorch, so there was a bit of friendly rivalry. Imagine it, two zines coming out of little, inconsequential, no-skate-scene Emporia, Kansas. EMPORIA, KANSAS! Come on! This issue has a couple of great interviews with Joe Jack Talcum of The Dead Milkmen and legendary influencer/provoker Steve Rocco. Two photos of Scott Sorenson who left Emporia for SoCal and made us all proud by getting sponsored and returning occasionally to get us stoked on new tricks and gear. Extensive/exclusive use of a dot-matrix printer and handwriting for text. Art-wise, there's a very cool Mike Vallely pointillist drawing by Tony Love and Arnie Anderson's "The Last Adventures of Gruesome Freddy Fox" comic is brilliant. Dan and Jay's Zeen was far more subversive than anything Eric and I did in MMTB, and I love it for that.

Notes: Jason Stecher and Joe Jack Talcum had a lengthy correspondence through the late 80s. The 1993 Dead Milkmen song "Jason's Head" is loosely-based on some of that correspondence, or so the story goes. Stecher is responsible for our taking Joe Jack Talcum to pizza before a show in Lawrence, Kansas, which was certainly a highlight of our young lives. In the story about Allyn the hippie vampire, Corvette and Rodney are originally referenced in MMTB issue 1, and Dan and Jay's follow-up story about the homely pair is hilarious. The cover of this zine is also the mailer, so the "to" and "from" addresses are actually the front cover. The cover image above is technically from the back of the zine, but it's more visually interesting than the front.

Monkey Meets the Blowtorch #2

Dan and Jay's Zeen #1