THE PTERODACTYL # 1&4
ZAP!!OMANIA #4
James N. Dawson
POB 292
Malden, WA 99149-0292
I wrote to James a few months back noting that he was from Malden, a tiny farming community just southwest of here, and traded zines with him. He sent me a nice long letter back and a small stack of his zines. The zines are full-size and look to be written on an old typewriter. They have a distinctive analogue style to them that harkens back to a lost era of the underground press. In Zap!omania James spends a significant amount of time hashing out his feelings about the internet vs. print communication forums. As a self-proclaimed “POB mail-junkie” he laments the pre-internet days where print was the only way to roll. I miss those days too. Pterodactyl is his APA fanzine about movies, books, music, horror, indie, and retro. He re-prints many of the letters that people have sent to him and responds accordingly. I really like these zines and appreciate his dedication and passion to the craft of self-publishing. There’s an aesthetic to holding these zines in your hand, the way they look, and the content inside that really appeals to me. It gives me hope that guys like James will be around for a long time keeping this format, and the conversation behind it, around.
