In this, the latest issue of the long-running Lowbrow Reader, there are napkin-style cartoons from both Dave Eggers and the late-great David Berman. There's a deep-dive into 1988's most popular meme ("Hey! it's Enrico Pallazzo!") and the spoof-movie empire that created it (from Brian Abrams, author of Obama: An Oral History). There's a two-panel comic tribute to Professor Irwin Corey. And, in the issue's most glorious moment, editor Jay Ruttenberg connects the short-lived early '90s fame of Andrew Dice Clay to Pee-wee Herman, Superman, Andy Kaufman, eye surgery, Jerry Lewis, Jewish writers and entertainers as architects of American pop culture, The Beastie Boys, and Natasha Lyonne.
Obviously, The Lowbrow Reader is not your typical zine. But it's also, every time, oddly more than it lets on. It's a long gaze at the things that make us (or, at least, at one time made us) laugh.
With illustrations from John Mathias, Nathan Gelgud, Doreen Kirchner, Sam Henderson, Phillip Niemeyer, Mike Reddy, and Tom Sanford.
44 pages, half-letter size.