Doris: An Anthology (Zines)

By Cindy Gretchen Ovenrack Crabb

Cindy writes her zine, Doris , like she is figuring out the human condition. She makes writing about the simplest and most common things - playing music, childhood, cooking, or sex - resonate with universal understanding. She helps us make sense of more complex things like the satisfaction from doing useful work, natural curiosity, the ability to use logic, gender dynamics, introspection, the need for challenge and change, combating depression, and creating art and literature. She shares and explores the emotions that go along with having an abortion, rape, dealing with the death of family, or sexual harassment in a context that is enlightening and personal, feeling like a close friend opening up to you. What's most impressive though is that she relates these things into every article in her zine seamlessly.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0972696784
• ISBN13: 9780972696784
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.7" x 7.0"
• Age Range: 15 years and up

Customer Reviews

gentle, subtle, thought provoking

After reading one essay from an older issue of Doris in a zine anthology (called "A Girl's Guide to Taking Over the World", which is also good) I tried to find anything I could about Cindy Crabb (the author) or where to find more of her writing. In a response to a letter I sent Ms. Crabb, I learned that she was still writing Doris on a regular basis and that she had published this book. If you're not familiar with zine culture, the informal style of this book might surprise you. But it might be a pleasant surprise; her homemade, handmade layout, typewritten text and scribbly cartoons are endearing and somehow really poignant and fit with the content. The book is a collection of ten years worth of Doris zines that chronicle Ms. Crabb's travels around the country with friends, encounters with strangers, her battles with depression, her relationship with family members, and anarcha-feminism, to name a few particulars. I think that might make it sound drier than it actually is, so let me try to explain what I think the themes are that come out: --alienation from others vs. community --political correctness vs. personal experience/truth --reflections on punk culture --the importance of creativity and imagination in daily life as a means of combating depression and feeling fulfilled --gender questions --connecting with people rather than ignoring them --the importance of art in everyday life --the importance of simplicity Hopefully that gives you an idea. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK. You just have to experience Ms. Crabb's prose and feel the way her words fit on the page to know why this is such an amazing book.

Beautiful compilation of a fantastic self-published writing

I started reading Doris 'zine in 1997. A girl I worked with told me it was amazing. I bought a copy a comic book shop. I was hooked with the first issue I read. Doris is Cindy Ovenrack Crabb's zine, and it's full of honest, open, and thoughtful observations on her life, friendship, love, abuse, depression, women's health, activism, and travel. I am re-reading this compilation for the second time, and it still holds up. I look forward to the next anthology, as she currently released Doris #26.