Cometbus
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Cometbus was a punk zine, started in Berkeley, California in 1983 by Aaron Elliot (now Aaron Cometbus). For the past 20 years Aaron Elliot has been self-publishing his handwritten text, including band interviews, travelogues, diaries and observations on punk culture from his travels.
Aaron Cometbus's writing is said to capture a certain facet of life in Oakland and Berkeley from the late 1980s through the 1990s. This includes squatting, collective living, falling in love and other perils of the punk rock lifestyle. His writing is characterized by stories of loneliness and alienation, tempered with episodes of brightness and perennial hope in the ability of humans to connect to one another.
In 2004 Aaron quit writing "Cometbus" to pursue publishing his writing through other channels. Currently he has been self publishing a series of small books of short stories, "Chicago Stories" and "Mixed Reviews" being the first two. He has also recorded and toured with the band Pinhead Gunpowder, with members of Green Day, with whom he toured before their mainstream success.
Selections from 48 issues of Cometbus have been collected into a single volume, titled "Despite Everything - A Cometbus Omnibus" (Last Gasp of San Francisco; September 2002, ISBN 0867195614).
2 collections have been translated into French, including "En Dépit de tout" (1997).
Two other collections of thematically related Cometbus stories are also available: "Double Duce" (Last Gasp, 2003, ISBN 0-86719-586-X) and "Chicago Stories" (self published, 2004).
"Double Duce" contains stories about Cometbus' life in a house called Double Duce and collects material published in Cometbus 32, 35, 37, 38, 41, 43, and 45.
"Chicago Stories" is short pieces about Chicago, originally published in Cometbus 35, 37, 38, 41, and 45.
Cometbus' distinctive handwritten script can be seen in early Green Day album liner notes, the Jawbreaker collection 2xLP "Etc", and is emblematic of the decidedly lo-fi zine culture.