Degrassi Digest News

Hi.

Well, I guess this is going to definitely happen now…so, it’s OK to discuss it. A couple people and I are working on a zine about The Golden Girls. It’s called “Miami, You’ve Got Style”…and I think it’s going to be pretty standard in its quality. I’m not here to talk it up or anything…just notify you that it’s happening. If you’d like to put ANYTHING into this other thing, consider this your official call for submissions. Poems, drawings, fan fiction, thoughtful exposition…if it’s about The Golden Girls, it belongs in this zine.

Send your feelings to:
thezitremedy -at- gmail -dot- com

OR

“Miami, You’ve Got Style”
PO Box 56551
Portland OR 97238

You have…ONE MONTH.

Degrassi Digest Volume 2 starts next year; I want to quietly strangle the rest of this year with some honoured citizen humor.

I’ll leave you with this photo of Sassy next to another photo of Sassy.

Gingerly,
Degrassi Digest - Editor In Chief

Hi. I have digitally released Degrassi Digest issue 5. Previously, the ability to read this issue was a right reserved exclusively for attractive people that purchased the Degrassi Digest volume 1 book. I am not some dude that tries to force people to pay money to read words…so it is now a free download, for you.

You can check all that out here.

Masculinely,
Degrassi Digest Editor in Chief

Another zine symposium has come and gone. Those things are a tidal wave of emotional responses for me. There were moments when I said to myself “I’ll never make another zine again” and then there were moments when I was all “oh, zines are pretty cool…I wish I weren’t here right now so I could go make one”. Thanks to everyone that came by and checked out the books and/or said nice things to me. I even got to chat with Craven Rock for a little bit, and he’s a pretty nice guy…so no problems there.

You can now order Degrassi Digest Volume 1 via paypal…so you don’t even have to interact with me at all in order to get it in your hands. We won’t even start a digital relationship…all you have to do is click right here, and you’re half way done. They are $12 online (the extra $2 is for shipping) or $10 if you catch me on the street…or go to Reading Frenzy. Check it out, Chloe put it in the FRONT WINDOW of the store. I’m right next to the books of Julia Wertz and Nicole Georges, who are basically my two favourite comic/zine people, so I’m pretty psyched about that. Look, I have proof.

So anyways…the books are moving fast…scoop it up quickly, or risk embarrassment.

Here is a list of my favourite people/things from the symposium…

Fuzzy Lunch Box (If zines were people…they would be Molly Ringwald, and the Degrassi Digest would be Ducky. I love these ladies)

The Bunny Project (I was really excited to hear the backstory to this…and the Portland cell of this project has particularly awesome members)

Mayzface (She was the lady that had those awesome “8-bit” necklaces. I got a Mario. Cleo bats at it.)

Tessa’s Braces (I’m completely blown away by her comic “In the Tall Grass”…so beautifully drawn, and totally hilarious. This is someone that will be able to make a living doing this stuff.)

Obsessive Consumption (Easily one of the most prolific people at the symposium, and ALL her stuff is really good. Looking directly at her table caused a sort of dizziness that I haven’t felt since visiting Cedar Point.)

Clutch (Clutch has recently moved into my top three favourite cartoonists of all time. My whole weekend was made complete when I saw that he won a copy of Digest Volume 1. I felt like those Bothans from Episode 4 must have felt right after they stole the plans to the first death star.)

Always Do Your Best (He didn’t have a table at this thing…but he has a really great zine called “The Monthly Oozeletter” and a fantastic record label too. Listening to his compilation CDs has made me interested in new music again…)

Blue Skies Above Us (He’s my roommate…I’m biased, but this is a great comic…and you should buy it, so he’ll keep making more.)

I’m sure there will be more favourites, but I haven’t gotten too deep into my book stack yet.

There are many exciting Degrassi Digest projects coming up…I’ll keep you posted…I mean, if you are interested.

All my love,
Degrassi Digest - Editor in Chief

Hi. I’m both happy and sad to report the following news to you. There is now a Degrassi Digest Volume 1 book. A for real book that you can put right next to a copy of Atlas Shrugged and it’ll look like it makes sense to be there. It is 298 pages…perfect bound…and contains the following…

Cover

Back Cover

-FULL COLOUR COVER AND BACK COVER
-Degrassi Digest 1 - 5 (this will be the only way to get issue 5 in print form)
-Nervio - The Cats Who Are My Friends
-Nervio II - Some Dogs That I Like Too…
-Mini-Comics for Minor Characters 1 - 2
-A picture of my mom

There’s some additional writing in there, but mostly just intro stuff. This thing is sort of for Degrassi Digest megafans I guess, because everything (except issue 5) is freely available to download on this website.

The bad news to all of this…the book is $10. I’m sorry, I feel like I’ve somehow failed here because I have to charge money for this thing…but it’s $10. If it makes you feel any better, there’s absolutely no chance that I’m even going to break even on this endeavor.

This book is an edition of 100 and will be available for sale at Reading Frenzy, Floating World Comics, Needles & Pens, Quimbys, and maybe a few other places.

I will have copies of this with me at the Portland Zine Symposium at the end of this August. If you really really want a copy of it, but can’t find it for whatever reason, please write or email me and we can sort out.

This has been three years of work…and has sort of consumed my mind…so I’m really happy to exorcise this demon and begin actively courting other activities that Sassy and I can share together.

Hi. There’s a new issue of the Degrassi Digest. I’ve called it “Degrassi Digest, Issue 5″. It is totally NOT available online…OR IN STORES. The only way to read it right now is to walk into my bedroom, turn on my computer, and dig deeply into my hard drive until you click on it. There is a reason that it is not available yet…it is because of a super secret thing that I’ve been working on for a long time. I’m seriously like DAYS away from finishing it, and I’ll put a message here when I’m done and then anyone that wants to read this new issue can read the new issue. I THINK THIS IS SORT OF AN OK SURPRISE THAT I HAVE.

Degrassi Digest Issue 5 contains…
-Two book reviews…because I haven’t been able to get out of bed lately and instead, just lay there reading books all day.
-Two DVD reviews…because sometimes it feels healthier to stare at a TV than to stare at walls.
-A pretty funny write-up about Marco that my pal Jayson Marston wrote.
-Some more comics.
-Stuff that’ll make girls feel uncomfortable around me.

In more important news…my all-time favourite P2, Ryan Gratzer, has started making a (almost) daily comic about how hilarious and awesome we are when we hang around with each other. It is available for reading at http://sveltelife.livejournal.com. He talks about Sassy and Cleo…so, maybe you should check it out or something.

Hi. I posted the PDF for Nervio II. It is here. The quality of the scan is very poor, so I recommend tracking down an actual print copy for optimal viewing. Degrassi Digest #5 should be done within the next week or so. It’s OK, nothing special. There is a fairly large big deal Degrassi surprise coming in August, and I’m pretty excited about that…and I think maybe it’s going to make my life feel a little better. So, yeah…if you have hopes, you may officially get them “up” for this. It is Degrassi Digest related and should be done in time for the Portland Zine Symposium.

In more important news, my housemate/bandsman/mosttrustedadvisor and I have made a trailer for a cat/skateboard video that we are working on this summer. He did most of the work, I just pointed at the screen and yelled out words like “star wipe!” and “more Cleo!”. It features Cleo and Sassy…and is embedded below.

BACK TO WORK…

Degrassi Digest - Editor In Chief

Good news everyone, Ryan Gratzer drew a picture of Sassy. Let’s check it out…

Sorry that this doesn’t have anything to do with Degrassi…

-whatever

Time for some good news / bad news…although I guess all of this news is ultimately subjective.

Good news, Razorcake Magazine did a review of Nervio.
http://www.razorcake.org/site/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=14040

Bad news, the gentleman that reviewed it did not like it at all. It was a fair review, so I’m not going to bad mouth him or anything. My only REAL complaint is that he mentioned a cat named “poopers”. This doesn’t make any sense, because I don’t know any cats named poopers. Oh…he also implied in his review that I would be interested in having people send me “a couple bucks” to read an issue of Nervio. This is just totally wrong. Nervio is free, dude. He asked some questions in his review, so I guess I’ll answer them…maybe just for some closure or something.

“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?”
No way, I’m totally serious.

“WHAT IN THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS PERSON?”
I’ve been told by close friends that I tend to let things build up too long before I discuss them openly with people. I have also been told that I am too hard on myself. In regards to what the hell is wrong with me “cat-wise”, absolutely nothing, buddy…

“Why would you subject someone to this?”
I dunno man, some people sort of liked that zine. I totally understand how someone wouldn’t be into it though…

“Who is it intended for?”
It’s mostly for my friends…the ones that own the cats that I talk about in the zine. I got a drawing of Cleo once, and it felt really great to see someone take the time to honour her. I guess I just figured I’d take a little time to honour the cats that I love…and maybe some of my friends would think that it was cool to see their cats in print? I have a subscription to Cat Fancy magazine, and I often enjoy reading what old ladies have to say about their cats…so I guess I figured maybe some old ladies would want to read my zine?

“Why would anyone want to read some dingbat they don’t know go on and on about cats they’ve never met?”
That’s just mean spirited name calling. You are putting me down to make yourself feel better about stuff and I won’t play ball with that.

“What service could this possibly be to anybody?”
I don’t know you at all…so please take this with a grain of salt…but no one that has TRULY experienced the sensation of “nervio” (due to cat, dog, human baby, baby cow, etc) would ask a question like that.

All things considered, I think things could have gone a lot worse.

Good news, Nervio II is done. I’ll post some pictures of it here soon…and the PDF will be available for downloading in a month or so. As always, Reading Frenzy…Needles & Pens…and Quimby’s are the places to go if you want a print copy. Email/write me if you’d like one mailed. They are 16 pages…and free.

Bad news (I guess), Nervio II is done.

Good news, I am officially official as a “tabler” at this year’s Portland Zine Symposium. This is always a completely awkward event where folks in thick glasses shuffle sideways down a long line of people that would love to tell you about their bikes. Please shuffle by if you are in the area, I have nothing to sell you.

Bad news, I have thick glasses.

I have to go pet cats now…

Earnestly,
Degrassi Digest - Editor in Chief

Hi. So ummm…I uploaded a PDF file of Degrassi Digest issue 4 to this website. It is available here. I still have tons of print copies of it available, so let me know if you are interested in getting one of those. I’m currently working really hard on finishing “Degrassi Digest issue 5″…and “Nervio II - Some dogs that I like (and some more cats too)”. I guess that’s basically it. I don’t even know who you are…so it’s hard to write something here to someone when I don’t know the context of our relationship…so I’m just going to report the facts I guess.

Thanks to everyone that has written me nice emails and letters and stuff. I really appreciate that. I’ve got some lofty goals for this zine that will hopefully come to fruition in the coming months…so yeah, that’s uhhh…something. I would share the goals, but I operate under a fairly strict “don’t talk shit, do shit” policy…that way not as many people see the string of failed ideas that I leave in my wake.

Here are two random items that I want to share before I retire to my basement for a couple months…

1) A nice lady named Julie who does a fine zine called Cardboard Cutouts sent me this photo of her lovely cat Sliz reading the Degrassi Digest. How cool is that?

2) I don’t usually like to be a dude that embeds youtube videos in his websites…but check THIS gem out…

OK, back to work. Let me know if you need anything.

Earnestly,
Degrassi Digest E in C
Petter Of - Beans
Nightly Slumber Party Partner Of - Cleo
Player Of - Pinball

Holy shit dude…HOOOOOOOOLY SHIT. Digest #4 is done. After months of shaken foundations and crippling depression, I have managed to cry another one of these zines out onto some folded paper. I’ll put the PDF of the issue up in a couple months…maybe the middle of February or something, I dunno. In the meantime, please contact me via email or real mail if you’d like me to send you a copy of this free piece of questionable quality. As always, it will be available at Reading Frenzy (who appear to have hidden their free bin underneath some displays), Needles & Pens, and Quimbys. I’m going to New York in a couple of weeks…is there some place in that city that I should leave these turds? Anyway…

The Degrassi Digest “Degrassi High” Spectacular features…
-A boring tale about a trip I took to Chicago to watch D-High with some friends.
-A big character guide thing for people to read if they get confused about what character is what and who slept with who and why anyone should care. The character guide is mostly just me talking about which character I like…and why that is so.
-An exhaustive review of every single episode of Degrassi High. I had to watch the series three times to get all of this done…and while I can’t say that it KILLED me to do so, it certainly changed the core of my being in a negative way.
-Some drawings of cats.
-A couple fun letters that I got.
-Fashion talk.

So…like I said, I’ll put it online in a little bit, but I really do think it needs to be experienced “IRL.” Send requests for mail to…

thezitremedy at gmail dot com
-OR-
Degrassi Digest
PO Box 56551
Portland, OR, 97238

If you haven’t heard from me via mail in a while, and you think that you probably should have…please don’t give up…I was busy finishing this horribly theraputic zine and I now have all the freetime in the world to get back with you properly.

2008 is going to be the year that stuff finally adds up! 2008 is the answer to the math equation of life!

Up next: Nervio II - Some Dogs That Are My Friends Too (…and More Cats)

Earnestly,
Degrassi Digest - Editor In Chief
Petter - Cleo
Smasher - Sassy