“2 Tone: Before, During & After” # 3 (March 2022) by Lee Morris

£2 UK/£5 US, leemorris847@googlemail.com

Stemming out of a book written by Lee in 2020, the zine with the same title documents recent news involving anyone associated with the 1980s UK two-tone ska scene. Includes concert dates, music and show reviews and short histories. Both the book and this zine are recommended for anyone interested in any of the two-tone groups.

“Boots-N-Booze” Volume 2 edited by James Reitano & Joel Loya

$17.99 US, piratespressrecords.com

Really excellent “Autobiographical Graphic Novel Anthology” of a group of Santa Cruz skinheads from the 1980s and 1990s. Mostly stories in comic form of various tales from their youth, it’s entertaining and well drawn. Came with a 7” of The Liquidators, a somewhat obscure ska/soul outfit from this same group of people.

“City Crime Comics” by Teddy Goldberg

$15 US, floatingworldcomics.com

The best way to describe this is “neo-noir surrealism”. The strips feature stories that are somewhat nonsensical and the artwork feels unstable, which adds to the aesthetic of it all. After reading, I felt uneasy and wondering if there was additional meaning to be found in it…which maybe doesn’t sound like a ringing endorsement but I consider it to be so!

“Do the Dog Skazine” # 117 (July 2022)

4 issue subscription £10 UK/£16 Europe/£20 World, dothedogmusic.tumblr.com

Long running (30+ years!) zine covering the UK and worldwide ska scenes, Do the Dog is on the shorter side at 8 pages, but it is jampacked with paragraph long blurbs and updates on a wide variety of groups and releases.

“Packing a punch: brief history of UK skinhead zines” edited by Toast (2021)

£12.50 UK/£15.25 Europe/£18.50 USA, facebook.com/spiritof69skinzine

‘Brief’ is a bit humble. At 120 pages with some overview on about 25 different zines, it’s actually a tad more exhaustive than the title may lead one to believe. Most of the zines span from the early 1980s to the mid 1990s. Many of them the editor was familiar with during the time they came out. Of particular interest to me were all the various illustrations, as well as the pre-computer aesthetic that many zines had. I could almost smell the thin Xeroxed paper! Some of the interviews the editor was able to do with the creators were quite amusing. Overall, a great, important contribution to documenting this aspect and period of the subculture.

“Spirit of 69 Skinzine” #10 by Toast (2021)

£4 UK/£5 Europe/£6 World, facebook.com/spiritof69skinzine

I happened to stumble across the existence of this zine through the Creased Like Knives blog. Not knowing what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised. In fact, it gave me the push needed to go forward with creating this zine. This issue features a release update from the Trojan Records label manager(!), interviews with Roger Rivas of the Aggrolites, Greg Lee of Hepcat, Mark Morales of Angel City Records and soul-revival group The Incitiers. Record reviews are mostly new reggae and reggae reissues/compilations.