You need this, boys and girls, yes you do. Dodgem Logic is the first worthwhile independent culture mag this country has produced since the sorely-missed Strange Things Are Happening. Perhaps significantly, both those titles featured Mr Alan Moore, being interviewed in Strange Things and presiding over the new title as resident magus and eminence gris-gris.
“…we’ve tried to resurrect a spirit of the 60s underground papers, but without the look or ambience or some of the oversights. There were a lot of very good ideas that emerged from the 60s underground. It was the first place I heard about women’s liberation – as we used to call it then – or gay liberation. They were fanatically anti-war. Many of their most extreme political statements, such as the fact that sometimes the police kill people, or that sometimes we make deals with dictators and criminal governments that we keep quiet about – these things are pretty much standard stuff of conversation these days and not reserved purely for bearded wild-eyed burbling radicals (chuckles).” (More.)
Among other delights, there’s a page of Alan’s where he returns to cartooning (below) with a paean to my favourite drawing pen, the Rotring Rapidograph, Melinda Gebbie writing on feminism, Kevin O’Neill with a WTF of cosmic proportions, and much more, including a smart feature on how to reclaim local land which the council won’t use. All this and a free CD! Who says we can’t have good things?
Update: I should have noted that Americans can order Dodgem Logic through Top Shelf.
Previously on { feuilleton }
• International Times archive
• The Realist
• Revenant volumes: Bob Haberfield, New Worlds and others
• Oz magazine, 1967-73
• Alan Moore interview, 1988
• Strange Things Are Happening, 1988-1990
I just picked up a few copies yesterday. One of things I’m particularly happy about is that the CD features Wurlitzer Junction by the Mystery Guests, which is one of those songs that turns up on Alan Moore’s bibliography as being written by him, but was probably presumed lost forever. As I’ve been slowly but surely accumulating a collection of his musical output, this is very exciting for me!
Yep, this looks fantastic. Among other things, there is a beautifully weird and disturbing Kevin O’ Neill cartoon that looks like Elder Gods mating (or something). I really have to get a copy as soon as possible…
Bought this yesterday in Liverpool – found a comic shop by chance, wandered in and saw it staring at me.
It really is alot like a sixties/seventies underground publication.Its about time we had something like this that covers things outside of music.counterculture never dies, it just gets bigger or smaller depending on the times.
Is it too early to think of it as the British Arthur??
The problem with the UK is demographics: there’s rarely enough people to support anything which doesn’t have mass appeal, even with Alan Moore’s name attached to it. Things are better in the US since the population is bigger so however small the percentage of population that comprise your audience, it’s still more people than you’d have here. The mags of the 1960s had the advantage of being in tune with a whole generation that wanted them.
Yes, I thought of Arthur when I first saw this. Coincidentally, the last time I saw Alan in person was in 2003 when Arthur ed. Jay Babcock, writer Steve Aylett and I made a day trip to Northampton. There’s a possibility I may be doing something for a future issue of Dodgem Logic. Watch this space!