Matthew Sheret.com

“Kieron, I’ve had an idea…”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah… what do you think about a Phonogram Fanzine?”

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Phonogram wears a lot of influences on its sleeve. As much a product of C90′s and glitter as Kill Your Boyfriend and xerox paper, it’s an open love letter to a culture that continues to inspire it.

That’s precisely why the series alienates and embraces by equal measure: Phonogram fans *love* pop culture, even when they hate it. Life just wouldn’t be the same if we couldn’t break hearts with the strut that Love Is All puts in our footsteps or if Wanda Jackson’s fractured vocals didn’t cut through love’s bullshit for the two and half minutes of ‘Tongue Tied’. Choosing to believe that music could be magical wasn’t an issue, because Music IS Magic.

And, like the best kids wearing glitter, listening to mix-tapes and reading early Grant Morrisson, it seems like making a fanzine is the only sane response.

So this is an open call for submissions: Essays, pin-ups, poems, short stories, one-page-comics… anything that can be photocopied in black and white and answers the question “When did you know music was magic?”

The ‘zine will be produced in a short run for San Diego Comic Con, and will be sold at cost through the weekend until they run out. It’ll be around 40pages long, and will include sketches and fragments from the early stages of Phonogram’s inception.

Submissions have to be in by May 18th, 2009.

To take part or for more information just drop an e-mail to
phonogramfanzine [at] googlemail.com.