[Review originally published on NewPages.com]

Zines becoming books is a trend that has really caught fire over the past couple of years. Sometimes it works and other times it doesn’t. It all depends on the consistency of the writing over the years, and how selective the author is when putting the book together. As Keith points out in the introduction to this collection of his Avow zines, paging through old issues of your zine often leads to more than a few cringes. This anthology focuses on Keith’s later material, after he’d abandoned poetry and started telling stories of artist struggle and punk rock angst, weaving his awesome artwork in and around them. There are a few pieces from early issues, when Keith’s friend Alex was co-editor, and even though they don’t comprise the strongest part of the zine, it’s interesting to see the progression of this zine to what it is now. Some material in here is from other writers, but Keith’s storytelling and drawings are what really stand out on these pages. One gets the impression from reading this that Keith is somewhat of a tortured guy, but he also seems to mellow out a bit as time passes. And that’s one of the coolest things about reading a zine book: you not only follow the timeline of a zine but also of a person, because for many zinesters it’s hard to separate the zine from the person and vice versa. Highly recommended. ( )