m@b named zine of the month

Broken Pencil magazine, Canada's magazine about zines, alternative and independent publishing, has been kind enough to name m@b the zine of the month for September 2000. Bribes and kickbacks had nothing to do with it-they were completely separate events.

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"Another installment of the renowned m@b is slappin' the streets of Toronto and, impossibly, this baby keeps getting funnier. Little cartoon Matt (also the name of the comic's creator) continues to filter the complexities of urban life through a happy-go-lucky veil, and a kind of determined innocence. In his day-to-day he encounters the usual city suspects: an ex-girlfriend, his landlord, homeless people, a next-door neighbour He cooks spaghetti. He throws a party that bombs. He rides the streetcar and subway. He catches a glimpse of a friend waiting for the bus - and the friend's picking his nose. He never does anything particularly bizarre, at least, no matter how bizarre things are, nothing seems particularly horrifying when it's synthesized through this ironic little comic strip. Creator Matthew Blackett reminds us that the mundane can be magical, and the simplest of human interactions can carry huge significance. For example, there's the title panel: "Last night, I went for a walk. I passed a girl talking on a cell phone. 'Me too,' she said. 'I hardly wear underwear anymore!'" Or the one that goes: "A man crossing the street seemed to get lost in thought. It took honking cars to snap him out of it. 'I gotta stop sniffing glue,' he said." I got the special "back issue package" of all eight m@b's, and while reading them, I must have laughed out loud a good twelve times. Sometimes I was laughing with him, and other times I was laughing at him, but little Matt's understated wonderment at the world around him and gentle cynicism form the basis of a compelling and oddly exciting comic."

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Broken Pencil puts on a fantastic show every Fall called Canzine. It brings together some of the best zines, chapbooks, comics and speakers that hail from coast to coast. To find out more go to www.brokenpencil.com . Matt B and m@b will be there in full effect.

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