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Anders Nilsen's Monologues for the Coming Plague, just published by Fantagraphics, is a strange, wonderful, funny book of captioned drawings compiled from two of Nilsen's sketchbooks. Reading it is like watching an absurdist stand-up comic testing punch lines. Get inside the heads of birds being fed by a woman, a man talking with a dog about getting a job, a man in prison for killing the Buddha, and a semiotician whose head appears as a dark scribble and who asserts, 'There are enormous boulders of lint that rumble through the wilderness now and then, crushing everything in their path.' Each page compels one to the next, even while it says 'Stop! Think about this!' or evokes laughter. Brilliant, sweet, and possibly demented.

Jim Lowe's zine, Time Is the Problem, seems to have been cobbled together by an introspective teenager. Handwritten using capital letters, its 32 photocopied pages look a little messy, but don't be fooled. This zine is the work of a mature mind. In three previous issues Lowe presented anecdotes about coincidence, posed deep questions, and examined paradox and meanings. In his new issue (#4) Lowe focuses on fan letters he's written throughout his life and surprising developments that ensued. A boyhood query to 'Information, Department of Justice' drew a response from J. Edgar Hoover himself, but failed to dampen Lowe's inquisitive nature. A letter to Brazilian pianist Bernardo Segall opened a door to weekly music lessons. A note to English author Lucy Boston (whose autobiography is titled Perverse and Foolish) led to a 10-day visit with Boston and to multiple friendships. This zine should come labeled with the warning Lowe posted along his driveway, from a British traffic sign: 'Caution: Altered Priorities Ahead.' $3/issue from Box 152, Elizaville, NY 12523.

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