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The ADD Blog by Alan David Doane
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Mineshaft #15
And yet, the legal indicia reveals this issue’s print run to encompass a
most modest 1,350 copies. On the magazine’s undated information
page, co-publisher/co-editor Gioia Palmieri notes that the publication
sports only forty-five subscribers, despite having published new issues two
or three times yearly since 1999. This is disconcerting news; while
Mineshaft is a small magazine, it offers a good deal of interesting (if
often slight) contributions, and a very wide focus (perhaps to a fault). In
other words, it deserves greater exposure.
Take Deitch’s letter. It doubles as his contribution to this issue; it’s
even set aside from the rest of the letters column, presumably to offer it
greater positioning for the reader’s attention. And said attention will be
rewarded; Deitch apparently treats his correspondence much like he treats
his comics, overloading the pages with ideas and tales and bites of
old-timey ephemera. He writes of his recent time as a member of a club
called the Buck Jones Rangers of
America, an appreciation society centered around a cowboy movie star who
garnered fame in the silent days, had all his films rot away, became
destitute in a Depression Era attempt at starting a Wild West show, then
rose to prosperity again in B-movies, only to be mysteriously killed in a
Boston nightclub fire during WWII.
And if all of this sounds like a perfect Deitch story with a perfect Deitch
hero (the club’s founder even experiences a vision at one point, an all-time
favorite Deitch device), it’s maybe because Deitch is as compelling a
storyteller in prose as he is in comics. There’s much more; talk on the
upcoming The Stuff of Dreams #3, information on pre-Pulp dime novel
authors, classic records. It’s really quite a wealth of knowledge. And Kim’s
not the only Deitch present and contributing: brother Simon presents a
lovely four-page spread of original EC/Atlas-style horror comics covers, all
of which were purportedly revealed to him in his dreams. Though noticeably
less recognized than his brother, Simon has a lovely style of his own, amply
displayed via full-page indulgence. And you can only see it here.
That’s not even mentioning the cover and quintet of sketchbook pages by
Robert Crumb (as gorgeous as you’d expect), or the eight pages of comics by
Frank Stack (a middling six-page parody of The Phantom and a pleasant
two-pager in the style of The New Adventures of Jesus), or Bruce
Simon’s four-page collection of vintage Los Angeles burlesque house ads
(which captured my five spot right there), or Ace Backwards’ 1992 interview
with Charles Bukowski (on the topic of WWII). Feels like a stuffed issue,
doesn’t it?
Well, it is, though I can’t say there’s much depth to any one
feature, Kim Deitch’s letter aside. As I’m sure you’ve picked up, most
contributions are very short, and rarely dip below their immediate
presentational surface; you can’t escape the feeling that odd and
interesting things are being printed simply because they are odd or
interesting, with no further elaboration necessary. This is hardly a fatal
flaw, though it does leave the reader hungry for something a bit more
filling, their taste buds duly tantalized. There’s also little discernible
mission or perspective to the affair; "It features underground comics,
sketchbook drawings, letters, fiction, poetry, photos & lots more!"
cries the official site, and all of this is true. But it’s also as coherent
a statement of the publication’s drive as I could hope to manage, with all
the suggested scattershot assembly it patently entails.
Still, Mineshaft is a good magazine, full of neat things, and really
deserves to be read by more people. Every back issue is still available
through the official site. Perhaps your more progressive-minded local
comics shop or independent bookstore has a copy in stock. However you find
it, I think you’ll enjoy it, as I did. The experience passes quickly, but
leaves its mark in such a way that you’ll stay alert for future dispatches.
-- Jog
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If the financial prosperity of a publication could be gauged by the pedigree
of its correspondence, you’d think Mineshaft would have a circulation
comparable to that of Wizard. Its letters column overflowing with
missives from the likes of Comic Art Founding Editor/Co-Publisher
Todd Hignite, outsider art/culture legends B.N. Duncan & Ace Backwards, and
underground comix icons Justin Green & Kim Deitch, this little publication
(only forty-eight pages long) appears to have garnered quite a distinctive
following. And I expect you’ve heard of some of those contributors, cultured
comics connoisseur that I know you are.