A much more effective review would just be a reprint of several pages of Rum Lad because I have a hard time explaining how outrageously illustrated and detailed Steve Larder’s zines are. They’re more precise and evocative than many graphic novels. What’s also amazing is how fluid and un-boxy the transitions are between the handwriting and the illustrations. This Rum Lad follows Steve around on a tour of the western United States. Thirty shows in twenty-four days: basements, bookstores, kook-houses, fans, dogs, infoshops, and chunka-chunka metal dudes with chains and Metallica boxer shorts. Englishman Steve does a deft job of not romanticizing the process of traveling the “I had no idea how large it is”-ness of America with its long drives and broken booking promises. Nor is Steve being a whinebaby, secretly addicted to comfort. He works between the poles of sleep- and nutritious-food-deprived frustration and the ebullience of a shared, pure experience. This is zinecraft in its highest form and I can’t recommend this enough. –Todd (Steve Larder, Somerset House,