Mineshaft Magazine

Web: http://www.mineshaftmagazine.com

What is Mineshaft ? Exactly how to describe this little gem of a publication is difficult. It is beautifully made, even looks handmade at times and brims with underground comics, strange poetry, rants and articles which actually make the reader think rather than shovelling them another mouthful of mass market consumables. It is typeset in an eccentric manner with occasional handwritten flourishes, comics, art and photos, perfectly professional yet fiercely independent. Awesome !

Issue 20 opens with a great comic called Faith based Terrorism and the title says it all – insightful and entertaining. There are all sorts of interesting letters, poems and articles, including Jay Kinney’s reflections on visiting Turkey. There are also some great comics, as one would expect, such as Dirty Diana and Port Authority.

In Issue 21 There are some great Zippy comics, sketches by Crumb, a melancholic article on decay in a small Midwestern city and a very cool conversation between Christoph Mueller and Joe Coleman coupled with the sort of strange illustrations one would expect from such a coupling.

Mineshaft seems to embody the truly independent and individualistic ethic so missing from mainstream publishing, it is challenging, intelligent, superbly presented and above all, impossible to label or pigeon hole.

Issue 22 for example, includes a fascinating feature on Women daredevils of Muscle Beach, a double page spread of the “other women in comics”, a fascinating dialogue by Jay Lynch and Kim Deitch both offering poems and unusual reflections and more.

Each issue seems to offer a motley mixture of hard to conceptualize content, all of which grabs and keeps your attention for long after you read it !

Having read three issues so far, I can’t wait to see what they offer next ! They also have some great postcards too, check out the website - http://www.mineshaftmagazine.com