On February 17, I read a tweet and a blog post.
Just realized that now that Comic Relief is closed, I have no reason to go to Berkeley.
Cometbus 54, Green Day in China, and me...
Comic Relief wasn't just one of the nation's great comic book stores. They also had a good selection of 'zines and mini-comics. Years before, thanks to the Justice Unlimited puzzle hunt, I'd figured out that Isotope Comics was my favorite San Francisco comic book store and could eventually take Comic Relief's place in my heart and routine. Thus, though Comic Relief had just closed its doors forever, I still had a place to buy comics. But where was I going to buy Cometbus? It wasn't a comic, it was a 'zine. A new issue of Cometbus was out there and I had no idea how to acquire it! I didn't have a plan for this.
- First, I tried Isotope. After all, if they were going to be my new comic book shop, maybe they could just totally step in to the old Comic Relief role... But no, they didn't carry 'zines. Mini-comics, yes (including the amusing Fish Adventures #1). But no 'zines.
- OK, so how about Booksmith? After all, a big bookstore in the Haight ought to have some alternative culture, right? Once I stepped inside, it was pretty clear that this place was more your sweater-wearing NPR-listening alternative, not your punk 'zine alternative place.
- Maybe the Giant Robot SF Store. After all, I'd learned of the new issue of Cometbus via a Giant Robot blog. But no, no sign of Cometbus on the shelves. The guy behind the counter asked for clarification: "Comicbus"? Younger than the 'zine, probably.
- Amoeba music had a copy of the previous issue, but not of the new one. But the nice lady at least knew what Cometbus was, and that buoyed my spirits again.
- Bound Together, the anarchist collective bookstore on the Haight, had a copy of the 'zine. According to the clock, they were open. But of course, no proper anarchist would be a slave to the clock, so in fact the store was closed and locked with steel bars on the windows strong enough to repel modern-day Pinkertons. Certainly strong enough to repel me; I was losing hope by the minute.
Needles and Pens. I was going to have to go to the Mission to Needles and Pens. I was going to have to shlep across town to a specialized 'zine store. I hopped a bus to Market Street, started walking along 16th St.
- There was a branch of Books Inc right there, to my surprise—its name on a wall of a building that had become a little shopping complex. I went up to the door... but it was locked. Navigating through the building's stairs, I'd arrived at the bookstore's backdoor. Somewhere, there was a joke to be made about a Castro-area bookstore's mistake in denying potential customers use of the back door, but I wasn't secure enough in my sexuality to make that joke. And they didn't have Cometbus either. The nice lady I asked said "...but I'm the magazine orderer for this store, so now I'm interested." My first instinct was to snarl something, but how could I be mad at this store? It's not like any of the other stores carried this thing.
- Needles and Pens had it, thank goodness. The clerk looked at me kind of funny. I probably had a strange look on my face. Relieved and surprised to find this 'zine. Why should I be surprised? Of course Needles and Pens had it. And yet, and yet... so many places hadn't.
And the whole time I'm walking, I'm thinking about that tweet, "...I have no reason to go to Berkeley." Yeah. Furthermore, for the whole East Bay, the only reason I have left to go there now is for the people. That's a big reason, mind you. But it's the only reason.
Aaron Cometbus doesn't live in the East Bay anymore, but in New York. In theory, Green Day's still in the East Bay, but this 'zine tells of a time in the middle of a long tour. Issue #54 of Cometbus is about Aaron riding along with the Green Day tour from Bangkok to Tokyo in 2010. But it's not really a travelog; the reason for this 'zine... it's for the people. It's about Aaron and Green Day and how they've grown up and how they haven't grown up. It's about spending time with old friends.
OK, there's some of that excellent Cometbus travel writing in there.
Oddly enough, I didn't get lost in Bangkok, though my map was of tourist traps, showing only what to avoid. The poorer quarters were just blank spaces on the grid, as if wishful thinking could make them go away.
A group of Malaysian punks in orange turbans... Stepping through a hole in a fence in Hong Kong onto a strange hillside.
But the most interesting writing was about the band and Aaron and punks grown up and moved out into the world. Old stories and new. Aaron talks about playing with the band, and the reasons he was called in to substitute. Billy feels sad that a recent punk history (maybe Gimme Something Better?) only talked about him as a band member, never as a fan, never as a human. This 'zine shows him, shows them, as human. I'd pretty much lost track of Green Day... 20 years ago?!?... and this made me want to start listening to them again.
It's a good read. Check it out. You might try Needles and Pens first.
