Bend Press #23, "Collections"

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RIP ZINE / ISSUE 1 / 1985 8.5” x 5.5”, 24 pages. Co-maker, Dave “Dangerman” Williams & Wrex Mock

I just spent an hour writing a boring intro for this edition of Bend. Then I realized everything I wanted to say was in the introduction of Bend #16, “I Only Check The Mail When Certain It Has Arrived; A collection of letters from people I didn’t know (1986-1994)”. So here’s an excerpt from said intro…

Got fired from a job once and I drove home in a sort of trance. Sat on my porch looking at the telephone wires sketched across the horizon, a beer at arm’s length, a little bubble on top. A little pissed. Relieved maybe. But mostly ambivalent. I didn’t go back to the office for a long time and they eventually threw my stuff out. I didn’t care until I realized that it included a box of letters.

Lost was all the mail from my rookie year of correspondence. Every variety of envelope, scrawled with words, photos, drawings and filled with the occasional oddity — like a sandwich.

Ironically, that job — my first “real” job, the one that threw out my box of transmissions, giving me a guilty understanding of the importance of mail — was landed unintentionally, after writing one letter. A hyper-intuitive man hired me as an editor/writer on the basis of that one letter. I was 19. I had no experience. I’d graduated art school, not a literary college…

It was then I supposed the possibilities of correspondence had to be endless. But that thought wasn’t acted upon again until I found a Swank zine a couple of years later behind the counter of Lou’s Records in Encinitas, California.I wrote with a copy of my own zine effort, Bend, which, until then, had only been given out by hand. Response was immediate and inspirational. In Swank were the addresses to numerous other xeroxing, stamp-lickers. I’d discovered Tod Swank and a group of like-minds. Trading and the dropping of many more addresses quickly ensued.

Through these letters, a set of mostly-matched misfit souls, who, thankfully, had slept through any letter writing lessons, came into my home. Faceless people who, over the years, grew features — some of whom became steadfast friends in the flesh.

The variety of mail received over the years has been wide ... Most common? Zines.

I owe a lot to zines. This issue of Bend is dedicated to the Bend lineage* and my education.

Please enjoy issue #23.

Yup, Andy Jenkins, May 2014

* A select few issues of Bend + additional zines.

ISSUE 2 / 1986

8.5” x 5.5”, 24 pages. Cover, Ceppie Maes. Photo, Windy Osborn.

ISSUE 3 / 1987

8.5” x 5.5”, 20 pages. Cover, Nivek Ogre of Skinny Puppy. Photo, Dave Williams.

ISSUE 4 / 1987

8.5� x 5.5�, 24 pages. Cover illustration, Dave Williams, drummer in industrial band, Factory.

ISSUE 5 / 1988

8.5” x 5.5”, 24 pages. Cover is a recycled grocery bag.

ISSUE 3 / Interior

Jeff Phillips (RIP). Photo Unknown. Manipulation, Mel Bend.

ISSUE 6 / Interior

John Gibson at the Nude Bowl. Photo Windy Osborn.

INSIPID / 1987 / “Tastless & Dull”

8.5” x 5.5”, 12 pages. Cover, Psychotic Larry & Bartos. Co-maker, Mark “Dewbag” Lewman.

BLIND / 1987

5.5” x 4.25”, 16 pages.

LOUNGE CAR / 1988 5.5” x 4.25”, 8 pages.

INSIPID / Interior

Writing, Mark “Dewbag” Lewman.

ISSUE 6 / 1988

8.5” x 5.5”, cover is a 8.5” x 14” fold-over with die-cut, 20 pages. Cover, Tod Swank. Photo Spike Jonze.

ISSUE 7 / 1988 8.5” x 5.5”, 24 pages.

ISSUE 8 / 1988 / “These Are The Days of the Weak”

8.5” x 5.5”, cover is a 8.5” x 14” fold-over, 24 pages. Cover illustration, Mel Bend.

ISSUE 8 / Interior Photo, Mel Bend.

ISSUE 9 / 1988 / “Pages”

8.5” x 7”, 36 pages. Cover silkscreened on black cardstock.

ISSUE 10 / 1989 / “My Head Size”

8.5” x 5.5”, 20 pages. Cover, Phil Esbenshade, maker of “I’m Your Momma” zine. Photo Spike Jonze.

ISSUE 11 / 1990 / “Bend House”

8.5” x 7”, cover is a 8.5” x 20” fold-over, 40 pages. Cover is a recycled grocery bag.

ISSUE 11 / Interior

The issue is a double fold-out. Half the zine by Mel Bend and the other half by Rodger Bridges. Photo, Spike Jonze.

Polaroids and drawings, Mel Bend.

ISSUE 15 / 1990 / “Head Factory”

7.5” x 7.5”, 48 pages. Edition of 40. Cover Polaroid self-portrait, Mel Bend.

ISSUE 15 / Interior

Back inside flap contains a Limited Edition Factory 7” recording (1986). A-Side; “Rat Inside My Head”. B-Side; “Electric Buffalo”

ISSUE 16 / 1995 / “I Check The Mail Only When Certain It Has Arrived” 5.5” x 8.5”, 110 pages, perfect-bound soft-cover book. Cover, Jeff Tremaine. Photo Mike Ballard. ISBN 0-9643598-0-4 Out of print, but copies can still be found. Shown above is a proofing copy.

ISSUE 16 / Back cover

Postcard from Miki Vuckovich, sent from Russia.

SAN PEDRO PROJECT ISSUE 1 / 1997

5.5” x 5.5”, 40 pages. Edition of 100. “End of the 110” issue.

SAN PEDRO PROJECT ISSUE 2 / 1998

5.5” x 5.5”, 52 pages. Edition of 100. “Glimpses” issue.

ISSUE 19 / 2001 / “Good Night”

8.25” x 5.75”, 12 pages. Off-set printed. Cover photo, Andy Jenkins.

ISSUE 21 / 2012

8.5” x 5.5”, 16 pages. Edition of 250, Signed. Off-set printed. Made in conjuntion with The Hundreds. Illustration, Andy Jenkins.

ISSUE 20 / 2011

7.75” x 5.25”, 28 pages. Edition of 150.

ISSUE 20 / Interior Drawings, Mel Bend.

ISSUE 22 / 2014 / “Rejected”

8.5” x 5.5”, 36 pages. Edition of 75, signed. Interior made up of various paper stocks. No one issue is alike.

ISSUE 22

Each issue includes an original drawing on the back cover.

ZINE INSPIRATIONS Aggro Rag Chariot of the Ninja Clueless Con•tort Damage Dancing Skeleton Dick’s House Dig This Disobedience Exotic Pets Generic Gus Gut Feelin’ Hola Perro Homeboy I’m Your Momma Joke Karmaboarder Movezine Naughty Nomads Powerhouse P.P.L.A. Rob Zine Scrap Seven Skate Fate Skew Stapled & Xeroxed Surreal Swank Tiki 408 10 Foot Boneless

BEND 23

©2014 by Andy Jenkins and Bend Press.