Plastic Crimewave’s frankly magnificent hand-drawn psychedelic bookazine, Galactic Zoo Dossier, first hit the racks in 1995 and is now – cheeringly – on its ninth edition. You won’t need us to remind you that we live in bleakly cynical times, so the unabashed fanboy enthusiasm and homemade community spirit engendered by Plastic and his like-minded collaborators gladdens the heart to an incalculable degree.
The Dossier’s agenda is entirely personal – and all the better for it. Psych-informed 60s-80s comic book art ranging from visionary to cluelessly opportunistic is fondly saluted, alongside breathless paeans to World Of Oz, Forever More, Egg and their esoteric ilk. Meanwhile, interviews with Rodriguez, Mark Fry, The Poppy Family and a loquacious Arthur Brown – whose 1971 album with Kingdom Come gifted this bookazine with its title – are conducted with a sense of irrepressible excitement and a wonderfully dorkish attention to detail. (Hey, us dorks regard dorkdom as a higher calling: there can be no greater praise.)
Not since the early Zigzag mags has wrist-cramp handwriting been pressed into service on behalf of musical and artistic arcana to such enchanting effect. This ninth Dossier comes with a CD, Sons Of Gutbucket Sampler, and eight sets of trading cards hymning the likes of “astral folk goddesses” and “damaged guitar gods”.
