From the Stacks: February 9, 2007

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Utne Reader's library is abuzz with a steady flow of 1,500 magazines, newsletters, journals, weeklies, zines, and other lively dispatches from the cultural front that are rarely found at big-box bookstores, newsstands, or even online. So we share the highlights (and occasional lowlights) of what's landing in our library each week in 'From the Stacks.' Check in every Friday for the latest edition.

'Capitalism bites!' So begins the charming, campy tale of Buffy the Anarcho-Syndicalist, a comic distributed by AK Press that combines the spirit of the cult TV series with the rhetoric of anti-capitalist activists. The author clearly shares my long-harbored crush on Giles (Buffy's 'watcher' on the onetime WB show), who appears in the comic as a sizzling 'hardened revolutionary' sporting a beret, sunglasses, and a series of sexy poses. Ahem. The story unfolds much like that of a typical Buffy episode, with our 'proletarian heroes' rescuing innocent people from the clutches of various evildoers (Klansmen, fascists, and capitalist vampires). There's a close call when Maria, the sinister CEO of Blood Red Enterprises, nearly turns Buffy into her slave and, worse yet, her 'loyal consumer!' If there's another installment, I want to see more puns -- on the show, Buffy's best feature was her love of all things punny -- but for now, I'm just happy that somebody dreamed this up. -- Danielle Maestretti

The Believer delivers exactly what heavy readers and culture snobs love to see: interviews with obscure artists and under-the-radar comedians, book reviews in which the entire publication is summed up with one question, writers writing about writers, the famous interviewing the famous, diagrams about editing Wikipedia and the 16 steps involved in Pee-wee Herman's breakfast-making machine. The February issue opens with musings on boredom. Fifty-two pages later, artist David Byrne interviews evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson and they discuss the quandaries of anthropomorphism. Like all McSweeney'sendeavors, the Believer has an artsy feel; it's printed on heavy stock paper with clean designs throughout. Occasionally, funky postcards are tucked into an issue, to go along with the subscription card assuring readers in tiny print that the Believer 'is almost entirely awesome.' -- Mary O'Regan

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